• Switzerland, a mountainous, landlocked country, is bordered by Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein. Its cities Geneva and Zurich are known as financial centers. It is multi-lingual. It has been neutral since 1815. It has rejected membership in the European Union.

• 1. Official name: Swiss Confederation
  2. Capital: Bern
  3. Government: Direct Democracy, Parliamentary Republic
  4. Population: 7,554,661
  5. Currency: Swiss Franc (CHF)
  6. Official Language: German, French, Italian, Romansch
  7. August 1: Switzerland Day
  8. 1971: Women gained right to vote

• History

  Switzerland first came into existence in 1291, known in various sources as the Swiss Confederacy or the Swiss Confederation. It was a loose confederation of three cantons who agreed on mutual protection in the wake of troubles within the Holy Roman Empire. While the country is now known for its peaceful nature, at the time its military conquests and repeated victories over the Habsburgs gained them success. Other areas joined, and in 1499 the Swiss Confederation officially became independent. Though Switzerland was vocally neutral, Napoleon Bonaparte attacked and annexed much of the country in 1797. In 1815, it regained its independence, and in 1848 they developed the Swiss Constitution and the current form of government. In both World War I and World War II the country remained neutral.

• Diverse Demographics

  In a region known for homogeneous nations, Switzerland is unusual. Religiously it is almost evenly split between Catholic and Protestant, with a scattering of Muslims and a little over one-tenth of the nation a member of no religion. Just under 2/3 of the population speaks German, about one-fifth speak French, about one in twenty speaks Italian, and nearly 10% speak another language. The language Romansch, spoken by a small fraction of Swiss, is believed to be descended from the Latin of ancient Roman soldiers.

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