Old Swiss Confederacy

The **Old Swiss Confederacy**, also known as **Switzerland** or the **Swiss Confederacy**, was a loose confederation of independent small states (, German  or ) that were in the Holy Roman Empire. The area is now centralSwitzerland.

The confederacy formed in the late 13th century and eventually included Zürich and Bern by the mid-14th century. It was one of the few times thsa rural and urban communes were combined. All of those communes had imperial immediacy in the Holy Roman Empire, meaning that they had no higher ruler other than the Emperor.

The confederacy had eight cantons () and was very successful in politics and military for over a century. It became very important in the Burgundy Wars in the 1470s. The confederacy was very powerful in a very confusing Europe.

By 1513, the confederacy had 13 cantons. ()  It became neutral in 1647 (after the threat of the Thirty Years' War). However, many Swiss people mecame private mercenaries in the Italian Wars and the early modern period.

After the Swabian War of 1499, the confederacy became an independent country *de facto* throughout the early modern period. The confederacy was still part of the Holy Roman Empire until 1648, when the Treaty of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years' War. The Swiss Reformation split the confederates into Protestant and Catholic parties. Eventually, there was much conflict in the confederacy until the 1700s. In 1798, the French Revolutionary Army took over the confederacy, which then became the Helvetic Republic.

## List of cantons 
The confederation grew many times. It started with 8 cantons (*Acht Orte*). In 1481, it had 10 cantons. In 1501, it had 12 cantons. At the end, it had 13 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, later split into  Obwalden and  Nidwalden
*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
**  Bern, 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; later split into  Appenzell Innerrhoden and  Appenzell Ausserrhoden

## References 
## Further reading 
* Aubert, J.-F.: *Petite histoire constitutionnelle de la Suisse*, 2nd ed.; Francke Editions, Bern, 1974. 
* Marabello, Thomas Quinn (2023). "The Origins of Democracy in Switzerland," S*wiss American Historical Society Review*, Vol. 59: No. 1. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/sahs_review/vol59/iss1/4
* Peyer, H. C.: *Verfassungsgeschichte der alten Schweiz*, Schulthess Polygraphischer Verlag, Zürich, 1978. . 

## Other websites 
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