Communications:
Telephones: main lines in use: 4.82 million (1998); mobile
cellular: 1.967 million (1999). Radio broadcast stations: AM 4,
FM 113 (plus many low power stations), shortwave 2 (1998). Radios:
7.1 million (1997). Television broadcast stations: 115
(plus 1,919 repeaters) (1995). Televisions: 3.31 million
(1997). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 44 (Switzerland and
Liechtenstein) (2000). Internet users: 3.85 million
(2002).
Transportation: Railways:
total: 4,511 km (2002). Highways: total: 71,011 km; paved:
71,011 km (including 1,638 km of expressways); unpaved: 0 km (2000).
Waterways: 65 km; Rhine (Basel to Rheinfelden, Schaffhausen to
Bodensee); 12 navigable lakes. Ports and harbors: Basel.
Airports: 66 (2002).
Switzerland, in central Europe, is the land of the Alps. Its tallest
peak is the Dufourspitze at 15,203 ft (4,634 m) on the Swiss side of the
Italian border, one of 10 summits of the Monte Rosa massif. The tallest
peak in all of the Alps, Mont Blanc (15,771 ft; 4,807 m), is actually in
France. Most of Switzerland is composed of a mountainous plateau bordered
by the great bulk of the Alps on the south and by the Jura Mountains on
the northwest. The country's largest lakes—Geneva, Constance
(Bodensee), and Maggiore—straddle the French, German-Austrian, and
Italian borders, respectively. The Rhine, navigable from Basel to the
North Sea, is the principal inland waterway.
Government
Federal republic.
History
Called Helvetia in ancient times, Switzerland in 1291 was a league of
cantons in the Holy Roman Empire. Fashioned around the nucleus of three
German forest districts of Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden, the Swiss
Confederation slowly added new cantons. In 1648 the Treaty of Westphalia
gave Switzerland its independence from the Holy Roman Empire.
French revolutionary troops occupied the country in 1798 and named it
the Helvetic Republic, but Napoléon in 1803 restored its federal
government. By 1815, the French- and Italian-speaking peoples of
Switzerland had been granted political equality.
In 1815, the Congress of Vienna guaranteed the neutrality and
recognized the independence of Switzerland. In the revolutionary period of
1847, the Catholic cantons seceded and organized a separate union called
the Sonderbund, but they were defeated and rejoined the
federation.
In 1848, the new Swiss constitution established a union modeled on that
of the U.S. The federal constitution of 1874 established a strong central
government while giving large powers of control to each canton. National
unity and political conservatism grew as the country prospered from its
neutrality. Its banking system became the world's leading repository for
international accounts.
Strict neutrality was its policy in both world wars. Geneva was the
seat of the League of Nations (later the European headquarters of the
United Nations) and of a number of international organizations.
Allegations in the 1990s concerning secret assets of Jewish Holocaust
victims deposited in Swiss banks led to international criticism and the
establishment of a fund to reimburse the victims and their families.
Surprisingly, women were not given the right to vote or to hold office
until 1971. Switzerland's first woman president—as well as the first
Jew to assume the position—was Ruth Dreifuss in 1999.
In Sept. 2000, the Swiss voted against a plan to cut the number of
foreigners in the country to 18% of the population (in 2000 foreigners
made up 19.3%). Since 1970, four similar anti-immigration plans have
failed.
On Sept 10, 2002, the Swiss abandoned their long-held neutrality to
become the 190th member of the UN.
In Oct. 2003, Switzerland took a turn to the right when the far-right
Swiss People's Party (SVP) had the strongest showing in parliamentary
elections, garnering 28% of the vote. Its virulently anti-immigration,
anti-EU leader, Christopher Blocher, was given a cabinet position. The SVP
fared well again in October 2007 elections, winning 29% of the vote and
gaining seven seats in Parliament. The party took the most votes in
general election history. Immigration dominated the election, and the SVP
was accused of running a racist campaign. In December, the coalition that
has run Switzerland since 1959 fell apart when the SVP withdrew from the
government to protest Parliament's ouster of Blocher as justice minister.
The move shifted the government to the center-left. Also in December,
Parliament elected Pascal Couchepin as president.
