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checkout thanks what is Switzerland and
who are the Swiss sorry to get old meta
philosophical on you but I mean come on
just look at the place
ask anyone and you'll get a variety of
answers it's the country with the cows
and the cheese okay that's not helpful
what about the Swiss language German
right except German people can't seem to
understand it and also some Swiss people
speak French Italian and a fourth one
everyone seems to forget this is even
less helpful ah here we go the origins
of the Swiss nation-state this should
clear things up
ancient Switzerland was dominated by the
Helvetii and the racing's who flourished
in the hallstatt culture living side by
side in the valleys of the Alps before
being conquered by the Romans so far so
good
when the Romans felt the Alps became the
crossroads for Germanic tribes like the
Alemanni and the Lombards invading the
Empire so there we have our answer
the Swiss are just a weird mishmash of
Celtic Germanic and Roman people without
their own identity turns out the truth
resists simplicity look a little closer
and we can find something that United
these people over all those centuries
Alpine transhumans what the heck is
transhumance
I'm glad you asked transhumance is the
process of driving livestock to higher
pastures in the summer to low valleys in
the winter sounds almost too simple
right well it's actually far more
important to the fabric of the Swiss
identity than we think the seasons and
the mountains dictated literally
everything where you lived what kind of
house you built what you found to eat
and what trade routes you were on the
Swiss were tied together by the Alps
passing down their way of life from
culture to culture for centuries laying
down a nationalistic identity deeper
than religion monarchy or even what
language they spoke the Swiss were Swiss
long before Switzerland even existed
all right this interest gone on long
enough
[Music]
borders separate people they separate
trade culture food and language some
borders are man-made such as the ones we
have today but nothing separates humans
like natural borders rivers oceans
deserts and in this case mountains the
Swiss Alps formed the border between the
Germanic Franco and italic language
families okay that was easy
let's talk about racks fry the Holy
Roman Empire granted the state of
Reich's right to cities or areas that
were difficult to get to or largely
self-sufficient like for example the
Alps it made them self-governing with no
count Lourdes or Duke to answer to only
the Emperor three alpine Canton's
survives hurry and untie Feldon were
granted Reich's fried to govern the
trade route linking Italy to the empire
together
they will vouch statin forests Canton's
and the relationship with each other
grew over time they worked together on
matters of trade and eventually defense
in a series of treaties why the need for
treaties there
turns out these areas really loved their
Reich's FRA status ruling themselves
high up in the mountains was a pretty
sweet gig and when an Austrian royal
family started eyeing up their land they
were quick to retaliate we don't need no
hungry hapsburgs eating up our villages
and towns into a conglomeration of
hereditary states forcefully perpetuated
by selective marriage alliances
including but not limited to incest
which you know they could have just gone
with like fight the power or something
perhaps folks of course were that
infamous Austrian noble house that
practiced some pretty land-hungry
marriage policies but they actually had
their start in modern-day Switzerland
coincidentally so we all learned
something new today the forest Canton's
banded together and drove the hapsburgs
out of their land and at the Battle of
moss garden the Swiss were allegedly so
brutal that they gained a reputation as
bloodthirsty warriors the swiss of all
people I know right bet you weren't
expecting that the three became known as
the Alta I dunno sand shaft but we just
called him the old Swiss Confederacy
Swiss coming from the canton of scheisse
the three Canton's soon became eight the
cities of lucerne zurich clara span
Zook also weren't fans of the stinky
hapsburgs and like the cut of the
Confederates jib so one by one they all
became members of the Confederacy in an
eternal alliance the Hapsburgs
thoroughly unamused thought this whole
Confederacy thing had gotten way out of
hand and it was time to put an end to it
twice they attempted to retake the
Confederacy's land and twice they were
repelled mowed garden was no fluke
victory
the Swiss were just really good at
fighting suddenly everyone wanted a
piece of the Swiss action Freiburg
neuchâtel and solo turn joined his
associates of Bern Appenzell and broke
away from the abbey of st. gall agar was
conquered after its Duke was exiled for
supporting the anti Pope and yes anti
Pope is a real thing the german-speaking
half of the prince-bishopric of Seon
broke away from the dukes of Savoy and
Schaffhausen and st. Gallen became
associates the last player we'll be
looking at is the christens this
territory was divided at the time
between three alliances the Grey League
the ten jurisdictions and the League of
the house of God the area was notable
for its from manche speaking population
the often forgotten fourth stepchild of
Switzerland remnants of the old
romanized duration people from the days
of the Roman Empire okay so the map is
beginning to look a lot more like the
Switzerland we all know and love not
without some hiccups though like the old
Zurich war and the ruin affair which
would nearly collapse the whole thing
but soon enough these brothers buns
would be sealed in warfare firstly the
Confederates conquered the turgor which
really upset the Hapsburgs
in retaliation Sigismund of austria made
a deal with charles the bald of burgundy
to attack the swiss in exchange for land
however ironically the Hapsburgs and the
swiss ended up working together against
charles in the burgundy walls after he
took the land without delivering on his
part of the deal the Swiss and the
Hapsburgs defeated Charles three times
in battle in the last of which he was
killed the Swiss proverb was coined
Charles the bold lost his goods at Caen
saw his fullness at Merton and his blood
at North Sea to try and ensure this
wouldn't happen again
the hapsburgs decided to set up their
own Confederacy with blackjack and
called the Swabian League and the two
became fierce rivals maximally in the
first then tried to annex land in the
Griffons to control the
Braille pass and had passed reforms in
the diet of verbs to centralize his
power over the Empire this erupted the
Swabian war and the Hapsburgs together
with their Swabian League were swiftly
defeated the two wars had numerous
consequences along with creating a sense
of unity and had allowed the Swiss to
assert themselves as a strong military
power able to project its influence
outward west to the Jura mountains and
south to the Levantine of Valley a
traditional Lombard Italian speaking
area right let's do an overview
Switzerland is starting to look and feel
pretty Swiss but there was still the
matter of what being Swiss actually
meant these cities had banded together
in opposition to the burgundians French
and Austrians but what exactly were they
now well let's take a look at what the
Swiss had to offer the world
cows okay but not nation defining skiing
now that won't be for another few
centuries fighting hmm maybe we're onto
something here
turns out the Burgundian Wars had given
the Swiss a bit of a reputation as
incredible warriors in a time when
Europe was moving away from feudal
levies toward career soldiers Swiss
soldiers became highly prized makes
sense right the Swiss were basically
stuck in the mountains all day defending
their valleys and trade routes quietly
getting really good at fighting having a
Swiss contingent in your army could mean
the difference between victory and
defeat and just like that the Swiss
mercenary industry was born everyone
wanted them in their armies the
mercenaries were so effective that the
elite members were sought after as
bodyguards a sort of late medieval
personal detail for Royal Courts all
over Europe the top echelon of these
guards were the hundred Swiss the
bodyguards of the kings of France and
the Pontifical Swiss Guard of the Pope's
in Rome having a Swiss Guard force was
kind of a badge of honor since they were
seen as fiercely loyal capable and would
fight to the death with honor now it's
time to talk about something that
according to my comments I didn't go
into nearly enough detail about in my
Italy video the Italian Wars I'll let
you guess where they were fought the
Italian Wars were basically just
between the rising powers of the time
for influence over Europe France the
Hapsburgs Spain Venice and the papacy
and Italy was their battleground the
wars themselves were long and
complicated and ultimately fruitless
other than setting the stage for a
rivalry between the enormous Habsburg
Empire of charles v and his french and
ottoman enemies which admittedly became
quickly overshadowed by charles dealing
with a troublesome monk at home publicly
declaring that the catholic church was
corrupt and illegitimate his Protestant
ideas would ring with some of the German
leaders beginning the Shmuel called ik
war child soon realized that the whole
thing simply wasn't worth the headache
inside the Peace of Augsburg legalizing
Protestantism before abdicating and
dividing his Empire don't worry buddy
ain't no shame in quitting so why did I
bring up the seemingly unrelated war in
the first place turns out the Swiss were
instrumental to the conflict
everybody wanted Swiss mercenaries and
war is good for business
the Swiss fought on all sides and
profited greatly off of the seemingly
never-ending conflicts but let's get
back to that monk he was of course
Martin Luther the father of the
Reformation his teachings would have a
profound impact on a Swiss preacher
Ulrich Zwingli and boy do we have to
talk about swingley the humanist
preacher from st. Gallen stunned
onlookers in Zurich in an act of
defiance when he publicly called for the
people to partake in the sacrilegious
and downright blasphemous sin of eating
sausages that's right he defied the
church by claiming that the practice of
not eating meat during the time of Lent
was unscriptural and should be voluntary
not mandatory the event became known as
the affair of the sausages soon enough
the Reformation had taken a hold of
Switzerland with some of the Canton's
switching over to the Protestant faith I
wonder where this will go
now the Protestant Reformation you may
recall had a massive impact on the
European continent it kick-started the
German peasants war against serfdom the
French expulsion of the Hyuga knows the
Catholic counter-reformation and
eventually the thirty years war one of
the bloodiest conflicts in European
history now because all sides of the war
had used Swiss mercenaries Switzerland
basically stayed out of the war but soon
the
got tired of butchering each other and
sat down to negotiate peace in
Westphalia after signing the agreement
the European powers capped off the
meeting by recognizing Switzerland as
independent then tossed in the keys and
told them to lock up thanks I guess so
Switzerland is now fully independent and
Europe is at peace other than dealing
with some local things they kind of just
sat around for a while with not much to
do okay just kidding let's talk about
Swiss neutrality although their most
Nerys fought in nearly every war and the
Swiss Guard were the bodyguards of
dozens of monarchical courts the Swiss
themselves stayed out of wars in the
early modern period why turns out the
Europeans had become so dependent on
Swiss mercenaries that neither side
wanted the Swiss to land in the hands of
the other so everyone kind of just
mutually agreed that Switzerland was
neutral territory you leave it alone we
leave it alone everyone can buy
mercenaries and everybody wins
especially the Swiss who profited
greatly off of the wars after all if
you're good at something never do it for
free the situation reached its zenith
during the French Revolution the old
Confederacy became the Health etic
Republic and in the new Confederacy both
client states of France now we all know
how this story ends with Napoleon being
defeated at Waterloo because he couldn't
escape if he wanted to but as for the
Swiss the European sat down at the
Treaty of Paris and formally guaranteed
Swiss neutrality disbanding the Swiss
mercenaries and the Swiss Guard once and
for all
the ideas of the revolution being fully
put into place in 1848 after the Civil
War of the sundaland formally
federalizing Switzerland into a modern
constitutional and federal nation-state
Switzerland was Swiss and its citizens
no matter what language background or
religion were given freedoms and rights
by their government and surprisingly
enough they remained fiercely loyal to
that doctrine of armed neutrality
staying out of the first and second
world war even when compelled by others
to get involved it
allowed for the growth of the Swiss
banking industry a controversial topic
to this day as well as making it a haven
for revolutionaries some of whom history
has not been kind to something that
embodies the Swiss legacy for me has
always been the final last stand of the
Swiss Guard in revolutionary France
revolutionary stormed the palace italeri
to capture the king whom they didn't
know had already fled and the Swiss
Guard fought to the death in one last
triumphant stand to protect their king
this monument of the Swiss lion
protecting the coat of arms of the
French King wounded and dying was carved
into the stone wall at Lucerne to
remember their sacrifice the last
remnant of the Swiss Guard today are the
Pontifical Swiss Guard who served the
Pope in the Vatican City complete with
old regalia but bear in mind the actual
Swiss Guard and Duty are not on display
they're probably somewhere where you
can't see them but they can see you
Switzerland today embodies neutrality
some criticize the stance claiming that
by not standing for anything they also
don't stand up to anything such as in
the case of the Second World War when
they refused to enter the war against
the injustice 'as of the Third Reich and
the fascist regimes while still others
applauded the neutrality stance as for
me
I don't know I'm going to Switzerland on
this one but you don't have to you can
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