Switzerland is a largely mountainous, landlocked country in west central Europe, bordered on the west by France, on the north by Germany, on the east by Austria and Liechtenstein, and on the south by Italy. Its history, culture, economy, and unique character have in large part been determined by the Alpine ranges that cover three-fifths of its total area. Isolated--and protected--by its relative inaccessibility, Switzerland was able to develop without major hindrance, after its founding in 1291, from a tiny confederation of 3 cantons to a nation of 23 member states. It has maintained its independence and present boundaries intact since 1815. Yet once its Alpine passes were opened by modern engineering, Switzerland's position along the principal communication routes between northern and Mediterranean Europe proved an asset to its economic and technological development. Its majestic Alpine scenery and carefully tended cultural landscape, by attracting recreational travel, helped to lay the foundations for a tourist industry whose revenues today are second only to those from manufacturing. In spite of its small size, meager supply of primary resources, and considerable ethnic diversity, Switzerland is, politically and socially, one of the most stable nations in the world. Its stability can be attributed to its high standard of living, epitomized by a per capita income of about $16,380; to the conservative character of its people and institutions; and to Switzerland's noninvolvement in Europe's two major 20th-century wars. Although neutrality is a fundamental tenet of Swiss national policy, and Switzerland remains outside the United Nations, the country's participation in world affairs is shown by its membership in the Council of Europe, the European Economic Community (EEC), and many specialized agencies of the United Nations. The home of the League of Nations after World War I, Switzerland is now the permanent base of the UN's Economic and Social Council, the International Labor Organization, and the World Health Organization and, since 1863, the headquarters of the International Red Cross. LAND AND RESOURCES The three clearly defined natural regions of Switzerland are the \TAlps\t, the midland, and the \TJura\t. The Alpine chains, consisting of central, crystalline massifs and sedimentary formations in their northern and southern ranges, stretch from the French border south of Lake Geneva (see \TGeneva, Lake\t) diagonally across the southern half of Switzerland, reaching their highest elevations in the glaciated peaks north and south of the troughs of the upper Rhone and Rhine valleys. The Dufourspitze (4,634 m/15,203 ft) on Monte \TRosa\t is the highest point in Switzerland; next in elevation are the Dom (4,545 m/14,911 ft), the Weisshorn (4,505 m/14,780 ft), and the \TMatterhorn\t (4,478 m/14,692 ft). In this area lie the world-renowned resorts of the Bernese Oberland, Zermatt, and \TSaint Moritz\t in the \TInn River\t valley. Less than 10% of the Swiss population lives in the Alpine region. The hills, plateaus, and valleys of the midland are underlain by sandstone, shales, and conglomerates that were deposited by Alpine streams into an inland sea that filled the depression between the Alps and Jura during a period from 65 to 2 million years ago. The sand and gravel left by the glaciers form the surface layers of the midland between Lake Geneva and Lake Constance (see \TConstance, Lake\t). They are cut by the rivers \TAare\t, Thur, Toss, Limmat, Reuss, and Saane, all tributary to the \TRhine River\t, which forms most of the northern boundary of Switzerland. The great majority of the Swiss population and most of the major cities are located on the midland rivers and the Rhine. The mountains of the Jura represent the northernmost fold-belt of the Alps. The highest ranges rise more than 1,000 m (3,300 ft), immediately north of the lake chain of the Aare River valley. Along the French-Swiss border, and especially in the Jura south of Basel, the mountains take on a plateaulike character. As a whole, the Jura region is sparsely populated. \TNeuchatel\t is the principal city. The strongly differentiated relief of Switzerland is reflected in the soil pattern. Most midland soils are classified as gray brown podzolics, excellent for the development of forest cover. Less acid are the brown forest soils of the Jura. The soil cover of the Alpine slopes is shallow. Climate Three factors determine Switzerland's climate: its mid-latitude location, its intermediate position between oceanic and continental air mass regimes, and its altitudinal spread of more than 4,000 m (13,125 ft). The wettest parts of Switzerland are the Jura ranges, the central Alps north of the Rhone-Rhine depression, and the Alps of Valais. In the midland, rainfall averages 1,000 mm (40 in) per year, and in winter fog often enshrouds the area. Higher, drier, and colder regions enjoy more sun in winter. Above 3,050 m (10,000 ft) the precipitation falls as snow. In Zurich the average temperature ranges from 0.6 deg C (33 deg F) in January to 18 deg C (64 deg F) in July. Flora and Fauna Forests still occupy about 25% of the countryside. Beech and oak predominate in the deciduous forest of the midland and at lower elevations in Alpine valleys. At higher altitudes spruce and fir take over on moist sites, pine and larch in the drier southern and eastern Alpine interior. Floral elements of Mediterranean origin, among them the chestnut, occupy the southern slopes of the Alps, and they have also established themselves in the Rhone Valley. Palm trees grow along the shores of Lake \TLugano\t in the Ticino. Above the timberline wild flowers abound in an extensive zone of Alpine meadows. Wildlife in Switzerland is a remnant of an originally rich Alpine fauna. Because of the creation of a game preserve in the Lower Engadine, several rare Alpine species survive, among them the ibex, chamois, marmot, and eagle. A substantial number of wild animals still roam the midland and Jura forests, especially deer, fox, and rabbit, and, occasionally, the wild boar; the brown bear, emblem of the Bernese canton, however, is now extinct. Resources Switzerland is for all practical purposes devoid of economically exploitable mineral resources and must rely on imported industrial raw materials and mineral fuels. Water power has been the crucial factor in industrialization and still accounts for most of the electrical energy output, although the role of nuclear power has increased in recent years. PEOPLE Neolithic lake dwellers were the earliest inhabitants of Switzerland. The ethnic roots of the Swiss people as such can be traced back to settlements of \TCelts\t in the northern midland and to an early intra-Alpine population of Illyrian (Dinaric) origin in the upper Rhine and Inn valleys. As the result of invasions and tribal migrations these groups were later joined by Mediterranean and Germanic peoples. Language and Religion In spite of the conventional differentiation into a German, French, and Italian Switzerland, it is mostly language, not ethnic consciousness, that distinguishes different segments of the Swiss population. Today the majority (65%) speak a German dialect known as Schwyzertutsch, while about 18% speak French, 12% speak Italian, and 1% (mainly in the Engadine section of Graubunden canton) speak Romansch, a Romance language belonging to the Rheto-Romanic group. With the exception of a tiny Jewish community, the population is almost evenly divided between Roman Catholics (49.4%) and Protestants (47.8%). Demography The country's population is 6,600,000 (1989 est.). The natural growth rate, now 0.1% per annum, has steadily declined since the 1960s, when it averaged 1.1%. The large number of foreigners living in Switzerland (about 15%) strongly affects demographic statistics. Cities with 10,000 or more inhabitants now incorporate 75% of the population. The largest cities--\TZurich\t, \TBasel\t, \TGeneva\t, \TBern\t, and \TLausanne\t--contain a third of the Swiss population. Education and Health As required by the constitution, education is free, and compulsory for nine years (in most cantons), but most Swiss children receive at least three additional years of formal education. Two federal institutes of technology (in Zurich and Lausanne) and seven cantonal universities accommodate the portion of the population that goes on to a postsecondary education. Switzerland also has many fine private schools that attract students from other countries. Swiss health standards are among the highest in the world. Medical insurance is provided to most citizens by the Federal Insurance Law of 1911. The Swiss enjoy a life-expectancy rate that is matched in Europe only in Scandinavia and the Netherlands. The Arts Folk art reveals itself in many phases of Swiss life, from the characteristic Swiss \Tchalet\t to elaborate wood carvings and pottery motifs, religious and secular pageants, and traditional folk music based on the simple melodies of the \Tyodel\t and the \Talphorn\t. Major contributions to international culture have been made by a variety of Swiss individuals: John \TCalvin\t and Ulrich \TZwingli\t, two of the greatest leaders of the Protestant Reformation; Jean Jacques \TRousseau\t, the 18th-century political and educational theorist; Johann Heinrich \TPestalozzi\t, the educational reformer; Carl Gustav \TJung\t and Jean \TPiaget\t, giants in the development of modern psychological theory; writers such as Gottfried \TKeller\t and Jeremias \TGotthelf\t in the 19th century and the novelist Hermann \THesse\t and the playwright Friedrich \TDurrenmatt\t in the 20th century; and artists and architects such as Henry \TFuseli\t, Alberto \TGiacometti\t, Paul \TKlee\t, and \TLe Corbusier\t. ECONOMIC ACTIVITY Switzerland is a prime example of a nation overcoming a scarcity of natural resources by basing its economic development on inventiveness, frugality, and perseverance. More than one-fourth of the country's territory is nonproductive; fully one-half is either forested or nonarable grassland, and, except for potential water power, no energy or mineral resources are available for profitable exploitation. Nevertheless, Switzerland is one of the most highly industrialized countries in the world. Since the 19th century, industrial engineering has made a substantial contribution to the modernization of the Swiss economy. Even in the preindustrial era, the products of Swiss labor were known throughout Europe. Printing and graphics, smithing, machine tooling, watchmaking and clockmaking, carpentry, and masonry were all practiced in medieval Swiss cities. With the conversion of water power into electric energy in the mid-19th century, the mass production of textiles began, based on the simultaneous development of plants producing machine tools, machinery, and chemical dyes. Some of the best-known products of the Swiss food industry, such as Swiss and Gruyere cheese, condensed milk, cocoa, and chocolate, were developed during a century-long effort to process milk into a nonperishable commodity. Foreign workers, principally from Italy, constitute a significant portion of the work force. Switzerland's unemployment rate is one of the lowest in Western Europe. Most of the major industrial complexes are located in the midland, where Zurich, Oerlikon, Baden, Winterthur, and Schaffhausen form centers of machine technology, metal fabrication, and the manufacture of electrical equipment and precision instruments. Manufacturing of textiles and clothing is carried on in a large number of factories, many of them in smaller locales. The chemical dye and pharmaceutical industries are concentrated in Basel. The watch industry has its larger plants in Geneva and the Jura. Agriculture and Forestry Swiss agriculture is characterized by a highly intensive production on mostly small, owner-operated farms. About half the country's terrain is farmland, and of this area approximately half is given over to natural pasture used for livestock raising. Two-thirds of the farm population raise cattle, and the value of dairy and beef production (milk, cheese, butter, and meat) amounts to more than half of the agricultural output. More than half the crop farms specialize in bread and feed grains. Where climate permits, agricultural activities include wine production, irrigated fruit and vegetable farming, and apple, pear, and cherry growing. The forest industry supplies most of the domestic demand. Transportation Switzerland's highly efficient transportation network is epitomized by the almost completely electrified, government-owned Swiss Federal Railways. Of the four major rail lines connecting central Europe with Italy, two cross the Swiss Alps. Train travel through the Alps was made possible only by the extraordinary engineering feats represented by the building (1872-1911) of the Saint Gotthard, Arlberg, Simplon, and Lotschberg tunnels. An extensive road system is presently being expanded by the construction of an expressway network that includes several road tunnels through the Alps; the first of these, the Great Saint Bernard, connecting Switzerland and Italy, was completed in 1964; the Saint Gotthard Road Tunnel was opened in 1980. Swiss engineering prowess is also shown by the innumerable cog railways, cable cars, and chair lifts that transport people to well-known resort towns and to the summits of some of the highest Alpine peaks, such as the \TJungfrau\t near Interlaken. The Rhine River, navigable to Basel by barge traffic and the Swiss merchant fleet, provides Switzerland's only direct access to the sea. In 1986 the river was badly polluted by a spill of toxic chemicals from a warehouse near Basel. Trade Switzerland's foreign trade relies heavily on the interchange of goods with its neighbors in the EEC. Chief among its trading partners are Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Its leading exports are capital equipment, watches, and optical instruments, products that account for a large part of the value of its exports. The chemical industry (compounds, dyes, and pharmaceuticals) is also important. Imports are evenly distributed among agricultural products, industrial raw materials, machinery, and fuels. A usually negative trade balance is at least partially compensated for by the net income produced by tourism, the insurance industry, and international financial transactions of which Zurich is a world center. Switzerland's currency remains one of the world's soundest; its inflation rate is one of the world's lowest. GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS Switzerland is a federated republic consisting of 23 cantons, the last of which, Jura, was established in 1979. The federal government is divided into three branches: the Federal Council (executive); the Federal Assembly, or Parliament (legislative); and the Federal Tribunal (judicial), which sits in Lausanne. The Federal Council has 7 members, elected for 4-year terms, presiding over 7 government departments; it includes an annually elected president, who serves both as head of government and as chief of state. The Parliament has two chambers--the Council of States, whose 44 members serve for 3 to 4 years, and the National Council, whose 200 members are elected every 4 years. Government is usually by a coalition of four political parties--the Social Democratic, the Radical Democratic, and Christian Democratic, and the Swiss People's parties--which hold approximately 80% of the seats in both houses of Parliament. As the oldest continuous democracy in Europe, Switzerland has traditionally emphasized such legislative mechanisms as the \Treferendum and initiative\t. Universal suffrage was realized in 1971, when the federal legislature finally granted Swiss women the right to vote. This was followed by an equal rights amendment to the constitution (1981) and by the extension of equal marriage rights to women (1985). A national referendum approved by a wide margin on March 3, 1991, lowered the voting age to 18 from the previous 20 years of age. HISTORY Switzerland's strategic location astride vital Alpine passes made the area a target of many conquerors. After being successively invaded by Julius Caesar's Roman legions in 58 BC, then by the Germanic Alemanni, Burgundians, Ostrogoths, and Franks, the region came under the rule of the \THoly Roman Empire\t in the 10th and 11th centuries. Forced labor service and feudal payments angered the peasants and workers, however, and in 1291 the cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden declared their independence of the \LHabsburg\ls. They entered into a mutual defense alliance that was, a few years later, joined by Luzern (Lucerne), Zurich, and Bern. The Austrians, followed by the Burgundians (see \TBurgundy\t), made a number of unsuccessful attempts to check the momentum of the independence movement over the next 200 years; by the early 16th century, however, Switzerland had not only maintained its independence but was an expanding military power, now 13 cantons strong and vying with the French for control over northern Italy. The Swiss policy of neutrality was embraced after the confederation's defeat by the French at Marignano in 1515. The \TReformation\t and \TCounter-Reformation\t posed a serious threat to the political stability of Switzerland in the 16th century as the country lapsed into civil war. Switzerland was left divided by religion as well as by language. An outside threat during the \TThirty Years' War\t, however, served to unite the Swiss people in defense of their interests and led to formal recognition (1648) of the confederation's independence by the Holy Roman Empire. After a century and a half of relative peace, French Revolutionary armies entered (1798) the country from the west and established Switzerland as the \THelvetic Republic\t. At the Congress of Vienna (1815), following Napoleon's defeat, Swiss control was restored and the confederation's neutrality guaranteed by the powers of Europe. The 1848 constitution established the 22 (later 23) cantons of modern Switzerland, individual civil liberties, a bicameral legislature, and a representative form of democracy. In 1874 the federal government's powers were further expanded. During the same period, the country's economic base shifted with the advent of mass production: factories were built and urbanization began. World War I caused political turmoil between the French and German factions of the population, but Swiss neutrality met the test, and in 1920 the League of Nations made its home in Geneva. During World War II, fearing attack by Germany, Switzerland mobilized an army of nearly 500,000 to protect its frontiers. Its policy of armed neutrality is today backed up by a national militia force of 625,000; Switzerland has universal conscription for all men between the ages of 20 and 50 years. Since 1945, Switzerland has devoted its energies to maintaining this neutrality, to improving education and welfare programs, and to developing its economy into one of the richest in the world. Switzerland traditionally avoids international involvements, but nevertheless acted after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 to monitor Kuwaiti financial holdings in Switzerland to prevent their seizure by Iraq. Dieter Brunnschweiler Bibliography: Bonjour, Edgar, et al., Short History of Switzerland, 2d ed. (1955); Codding, George A., The Federal Government of Switzerland (1961); Gilliard, Charles, A History of Switzerland, trans. by D. L. B. Hartley (1955; repr. 1978); Gretler, Armin, and Mandl, P. E., Values, Trends and Alternatives in Swiss Society (1973); Ikle, Max, Switzerland: An International Banking and Finance Center (1972); Kohn, Hans, Nationalism and Liberty: The Swiss Example (1956); McPhee, John, La Place de la Concorde Suisse (1984); Martin, William, Switzerland from Roman Times to the Present, 6th ed. (1971); Schmid, Carol, Conflict and Consensus in Switzerland (1981); Sorell, Walter, The Swiss: A Cultural Panorama of Switzerland (1972); Wilson, Hugh R., Switzerland: Neutrality as Foreign Policy (1974).