Revolutions of 1848

Swiss Constitution of 1848

For those who don't know, Switzerland is a country in Central Europe comprised of three main ethnic groups, two major religious groups and four official languages (Although only three at this time). The three ethnic groups are the French, Italians, both forming a minority in the country and most being along the borders of their respective nations, and then the Germans which populated most of the country. The languages corresponded with these groups (With there also being a minority language added to the official languages of Switzerland in 1939, the language being Romansch). The Religion of Switzerland became a major dilemma, however. Prior to the Protestant Reformation, Switzerland was a Catholic Nation, but following the Reformation, Protestantism began to establish itself in the country. There was a lot of infighting between the Catholics and Protestants, and this fighting wouldn't end until 1848. By 1848, Protestantism had become the majority religion in Switzerland, but the Catholics still remained a powerful force to be reckoned with in the country. In general, the Protestant majority cantons (Provinces, basically) tended to be more liberal while the Catholic majority ones tended to be more conservative. 

Switzerland was also a very loosely centralized country, with the Cantons holding most of the power instead of the federal government. Many in the government wanted to change this by 1848 in order to make Switzerland a stronger, more centralized state. 

In response to the growing liberal policies of the Swiss government, Catholic Cantons in the south of the country formed an alliance called the Sonderbund, which was formed as a way to stop the growth of liberal power. The Federal Treaty of 1815 in Switzerland forbade such alliances between the cantons, and in 1847, the federal government decided to do something about it. The Tagsatzung, the Swiss parliament pretty much, overwhelming voted to disband the Sonderbund by force in 1847, and an army was formed to take them out. Two cantons remained neutral during the war, funny enough. The Swiss Confederate Army was able to defeat the Sonderbund in less than a month, and it was defeated by late November. 

In 1848, following the defeat of the Sonderbund, a new liberal constitution was drafted. The constitution was based off of the ideals of the French Revolution, the American Constitution, and the British form of government. The Federal Assembly was split into two houses, the Council of States, where cantons would elect two members to represent their canton (almost exactly similar to the U.S Senate) and then the National Council, where representatives were elected based on population and elected every three years (Very similar to the U.S Congress). The Federal Council, acting as the executive branch, was composed of seven members appointed by members of the Federal Assembly (Somewhat similar to Parliamentary Democracy, where the Parliament/Assembly chooses the executive). Each of the seven members were head of different executive departments, and the chairman of the Council was the Head of State for one year. The Judicial Branch was composed of 11 members elected for three years by the Federal Assembly (also similar to the U.S Supreme Court).

Following the drafting of the Constitution, the Swiss Government began to implement programs which would help centralize the government. They banned the use of local Canton currencies and implemented their own national currency, the Metric System had to be used by all Cantons, and a postal service was introduced in order to help centralize the nation. The Constitution also guaranteed freedom of religion for just Christians initially, but these rights were extended to Swiss of all religions in 1866. This helped end the infighting between Catholic and Protestant Swiss. The Swiss Constitution also recognized the three languages of French, German and Italian as official languages and would be used on federal documents and such. This helped end conflict between the localized populations who spoke different languages. In 1939, Romansch was also added as an official language in Switzerland in order to differentiate themselves of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. 

So why was the Swiss Revolution important? Well, it was one of the only 1848 revolutions to be successful. Unlike many others which we will look at, the liberals won the battle against conservatism. Switzerland became one of the few European countries to become a democracy at the time. Switzerland also became an example of nationalism and liberalism coinciding with one another. The Swiss Constitution both centralized Switzerland and made the country a democracy. This would be very different than the other nationalist movements which would occur later, as countries like Japan and Germany would centralize their nations through Blood and Iron or through direct Imperial rule. Switzerland, through this revolution, became one of the only countries to form a national identity, centralize their nation, and become a liberal government. That is why it is important.