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The Swiss City Canton: A POlitical Invention*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Karl W. Deutsch  and
Hermann Weilenmann
Karl W. Deutsch
Affiliation:
Yale University
Hermann Weilenmann
Affiliation:
Volkshochschule des Kantons Zürich and Yale University
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Extract

All major Swiss cities are located north of the Alps. Their development can be understood best as part of the development of the North European cities—those of Germany, Flanders and France—and as part of the communal movement as it developed in those areas. Yet the cities that eventually became Swiss are those that accepted more of the characteristic institutions of Italian city-states than did the rest, and it is this acceptance of certain Italian practices—particularly the creation of a rural territory and thus eventually of a territorial city-state—that made those cities into city Cantons, able to take part in the formation of Switzerland.

Type
States and Societies
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 7 , Issue 4 , July 1965 , pp. 393 - 408
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1965

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References

1 Cf. Salvatorelli, L., L'ltalia comunale (Milan, Mondadori, 1940), p. 315.Google ScholarButler, W.F., The Lombard Communes (New York, Scribners, 1960), pp. 80–91.Google Scholar

2 Salvatorelli, op. cit., pp. 436–438.

3 Salvemini, G., “Un comune rurale nel secolo XIII”, Studi storici (Firenze, Tipografia Galileiana, 1901), pp. 20–26;Google Scholar Cf. also Luigi Salvatorelli, op. cit., p. 174.

4 Cf. Salvatorelli, op. cit., pp. 460–464,

5 The French army at Novara in 1512 was estimated at 22,000 men, at Marignano in 1515 at 30,000. The total French force under Francis I in North Italy — “unprecedented in Italy” — was reported at 75,000, including numerous garrisons. , Nabholz, et al. , Geschichte der Schweiz (Zurich, 1432–1438), I, p. 304–307.Google Scholar The population of Lombardy was well in excess of half-a-million, and the number of men capable of bearing arms — which in Schwyz and Uri amounted to one-quarter of the population — was in Lombardy alone well above 100,000.

6 Ennen, Edith, Frühgeschichte der europäischen Stadt (Bonn, 1953), p. 256Google Scholar, and generally pp. 250–257.

7 Cf. Ennen, op. cit., p. 257; Planitz, H., Die Deutsche Stadt im Mittelalter (Cologne, 1954), p. 274.Google Scholar

8 Pirenne, Henri, Medieval Cities: Their Origins and the Revival of Trade (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1946), p. 211Google Scholar, and generally pp. 211–215; cf. also p. 215, for the indirect pressure on the peasants to produce more, which resulted from these city policies. For the hostility of the German cities against rural handicrafts, Cf. Liitge, op. cit., p. 164; for the hostility of Bruges, Ypres and Ghent against smaller cities and for the destruction of looms outside the city walls by the weavers of Ghent, see Gemperle, J.C., Belgische und schweizerische Stadteverfassungsgeschichte im Mittelalter (Louvain, Bibliothèque de l'Université, 1942), p. 321Google Scholar, with references.

1 Gemperle, op. cit., p. 313. The Flemish developments in the 14th century resembled some of the features of the ruthlessly competitive politics of Northern Italy. The collapse of the autonomy of the Flemish cities and their disastrous defeat at Roosebeke in 1382 have been ascribed to three major factors: the bitter social and industrial conflicts within the cities, the complete passivity of the rural population, and the resentment of the lesser towns at their exploitation by the three dominant cities of Ypres, Ghent and Bruges. Gemperle, op. cit., p. 317.

10 See preceding note.

11 For a summary sketch, see Cram, Paul, “The Hanseatic League”, in Langer, W.L., Encyclopedia of World History, revised ed. (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1960), pp. 307–310.Google Scholar Cf. also Schafer, D., Die deutsche Hanse (Leipzig, Velhagen and Klasing, 1903);Google ScholarMass, Konrad, Die deutsche Hanse (Jena, Diederichs, 1926);Google ScholarPagel, Karl, Die Hanse (Oldenburg, Stalling, 1942);Google ScholarGade, J.A., The Hanseatic Control of Norwegian Commerce during the Late Middle Ages (Leiden, Brill, 1951);Google ScholarHeitz, G., ed., Hansische Studien (Berlin, Akademie-Verlag, 1961).Google Scholar

12 Paul Cram, in Langer, op. cit., pp. 309–310.

13 Cf. Petit-Dutaillis, Charles, Les communes françaises: caractère et évolution des origines au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, Albin Michel, 1947), pp. 81–83,Google Scholar 102–108, 126, 149, 174–184, 220, 235–244, 363. Cf. also Cram in Langer, op. cit., pp. 229–232. An exceptional course was taken in the 13th century under English protection by Bordeaux which acted like a republic in concluding alliances with rural nobles as well as with the leaders (prud'hommes) of near-by villages. These developments did not lead, however, to a territorial state. In the course of the 14th century Bordeaux became an oligarchic city under the rule of the French monarchs. Ibid., pp. 158–161.

14 Guichonnet, Paul, Histoire de Savoie, 2nd ed., pp. 66–67.Google Scholar For many details of the development of Swiss Cities and States, see Amman, Hektor and Schib, Karl, Historischer Atlas der Schweiz (Aaru, Sauerlander, 1951),Google Scholar passim. The many writings of Hektor Amman should be considered, especially “Das schweizerische Stadtewesen des Mittelalters”, Extrait des Recueils de la Societe Jean Bodin, Tome VII, 2e partie (Bruxelles, 1956).Google Scholar

15 Ennen, op. cit., p. 257.

16 Walter, Emil, Soziale Grundlagen der Entwicklung der Naturwissenschajten in der alten Schweiz (Bern, Francke, 1958), p. 34.Google Scholar

17 Walter, op. cit., p. 35, with references.

18 Cf. Bickel, , Bevölkerungsgeschichte und Bevölkerungspolitik der Schweiz (Zurich, Gutenberg, 1926), pp. 49,Google Scholar 62–63; Gemperle, op. cit., pp. 256–257, with references.

19 Wolfgang von Wartburg, Geschichte der Schweiz, p. 79.