page_title: Old Swiss Confederacy
section_title: Cantons
hierarchical_section_title: Old Swiss Confederacy / List of territories / Cantons
caption_attribution_description: Political diagram of the structure of the Old Swiss Confederacy during the 18th century.
context_page_description: The Old Swiss Confederacy was a loose confederation of independent small states within the Holy Roman Empire. It is the precursor of the modern state of Switzerland.
  It formed during the 14th century, from a nucleus in what is now Central Switzerland, expanding to include the cities of Zürich and Berne by the middle of the century. This formed a rare union of rural and urban communes, all of which enjoyed imperial immediacy in the Holy Roman Empire.
  This confederation of eight cantons was politically and militarily successful for more than a century, culminating in the Burgundy Wars of the 1470s which established it as a power in the complicated political landscape dominated by France and the Habsburgs. Its success resulted in the addition of more confederates, increasing the number of cantons to thirteen by 1513. The confederacy pledged neutrality in 1647, although many Swiss served privately as mercenaries in the Italian Wars and during the Early Modern period.
context_section_description: The confederation expanded in several stages: first to the Eight Cantons (Acht Orte), then in 1481 to ten, in 1501 to twelve, and finally to thirteen cantons (Dreizehn Orte).
  Founding cantons (Urkantone):
   Uri, founding canton named in the Federal Charter of 1291
   Schwyz, founding canton named in the Federal Charter of 1291
   Unterwalden, founding canton  named in the Federal Charter of 1291
  14th century: expansion to the Achtörtige Eidgenossenschaft following the battles of Morgarten and Laupen:
   Lucerne, city canton, since 1332
   Zürich, city canton, since 1351
   Glarus, rural canton, since 1352
   Zug, city canton, since 1352
   Berne, city canton, since 1353; associate since 1323
  15th century: expansion to the Zehnörtige Eidgenossenschaft following the Burgundian Wars:
   Fribourg, city canton, since 1481; associate since 1454
   Solothurn, city canton, since 1481; associate since 1353
  16th century: expansion to the Dreizehnörtige Eidgenossenschaft  following the Swabian War:
   Basel, city canton, since 1501
   Schaffhausen, city canton, since 1501; associate since 1454
   Appenzell, rural canton, since 1513; associate since 1411
caption: Structure of the Confederacy during the 18th century
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