Swiss history

Since 1848, the Swiss Confederation has been a federal state of relatively autonomous cantons, some of which have a history of confederacy that goes back more than 700 years, arguably putting them among the world's oldest surviving republics. For the time before 1291, this article summarizes events taking place on the territory of modern Switzerland. From 1291, it focuses mainly on the fates of the Confederacy, at first consisting of only three cantons in what is now central Switzerland, and gradually expanding until it encompassed the present-day area of Switzerland in 1815.

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  Swiss Federal Charter of 1291 (JPG, 221kB)
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  Swiss Federal Charter of 1291 (PNG, small, some artefacts)
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  Swiss Rütlischwur, legend of the creation of Switzerland, but no historic evidence
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  1550 illustration for the 1393 Sempacherbrief
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  Stack of crests above the main gate of castle Lenzburg
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  Temple de St-Sulpice