Sonderbund
|
Battle of Geltwil, 12 November 1847 |
The
Sonderbund (meaning "separate alliance", in
German), was a league created in
1845 in
Switzerland between seven
Catholic and
Conservative cantons, in order to protect their interests against a
centralization of power.
The member cantons were:
Lucerne,
Fribourg,
Valais,
Uri,
Schwyz,
Unterwalden and
Zug. Some liberal Catholic cantons such as
Ticino and
Solothurn did not participate.
This alliance was concluded after the
Radical Party had taken power in Switzerland and had, thanks to the majority of cantons, taken measures against the Catholic Church such as the closure of monasteries and convents in
Aargau in
1841. When Lucerne, in retaliation, recalled the
Jesuits the same year, groups of armed Radicals ("Freischärler") invaded the canton. This caused a revolt, mostly due to the fact that rural cantons were strongholds of ultramontanism.
The Sonderbund was in violation of the
Federal Treaty of
1815, § 6 of which expressly forbade such separate alliances, and the Radical majority in the
Tagsatzung decided to dissolve the Sonderbund on October 21, 1847. The confederate army was raised against the members of the Sonderbund. The army was composed of soldiers of all the other states except
Basel-Stadt and
Appenzell Innerrhoden (which had stayed neutral). General
Guillaume-Henri Dufour led the army and defeated the Sonderbund in a campaign that lasted only from November 3rd to November 29th, and claimed fewer than hundred victims. He ordered his troops to spare the injured, anticipating the formation of the
Red Cross in which he participated a few years later.
In
1848, a new
constitution ended the almost-complete independence of the cantons and transformed Switzerland into a federal state. The Jesuits were banished from Switzerland. This ban was lifted on
20 May 1973, when 54.9% of the population and 16.5 cantons out of 22 accepted a
referendum modifying the Constitution.
[Official results (in French) on the website of the Swiss Administration.]*
Restauration (Switzerland)*
Switzerland as a federal state
