Alternatively, was there ever any threat of Switzerland dissolving along religious lines during the Civil War in the 1850s?
HOw likely would it be to have intervention and partition during the Sonderbund War?
More likely the Swiss just fall apart amongst themselves without any outside influence.
Exactly this is the biggest danger for the Swiss Confederation all the time.
As a matter of fact, the structure was at the verge of dissolution almost all the time from the (de-facto) independence from the HRE at the end of the 15th century until the Peace of Westphalia one and a half century later. I consider it almost as a miracle that it survived:
Reformation which some of the confederates followed, while others even were episcopal states, threatened to split the union. As in Germany, things became more complicated when Calvinism spread. However, the Swiss states clung together because they saw more advantage in their solidarity than in preventing regimes of the other creed.
The Thirty Years War revived this menace: The Swiss states of each creed had to consider the alternatives, either join the war on one side and violate their obligations towards their confederates, or balking at taking sides and running the risk of being overrun and marauded by any of the parties.
The Swiss states stood by each other, maintained their union keeping out of the war and thus preventing the misery that fell on the contested territories. However, this came at the price of selling their young men as mercenaries to both parties.
Again, that the Confederation survived until mid-17th century still seems a lot less likely than the opposite from a 1550 perspective!
Have some kind of 19th century war involving France, Germany, and Italy. For example, the Italians back the French in the Franco-Prussian War. Germany Ignores Swiss neutrality and invades. The French, pushing back, and the Italians pushing north also cross into Switzerland, and after the war, The Germans, French, and Italians, all of whom have nationalistic claims to the country, devide it amongst themselves.
If it were to fall apart that early, wouldn't the Hapsburgs then stand a good chance of picking up the pieces that they lost earlier.....
So wait? no one's ever thought about invading Switzerland through the Plateau? bypassing both Mountain Ranges all together?
The plateau is locked by two big lakes (Lake Constance and Lake Geneva) on both sides.
Couldn't they simply go up the Aare Valley?The plateau is locked by two big lakes (Lake Constance and Lake Geneva) on both sides.
Exactly this is the biggest danger for the Swiss Confederation all the time.
As a matter of fact, the structure was at the verge of dissolution almost all the time from the (de-facto) independence from the HRE at the end of the 15th century until the Peace of Westphalia one and a half century later. I consider it almost as a miracle that it survived:
Reformation which some of the confederates followed, while others even were episcopal states, threatened to split the union. As in Germany, things became more complicated when Calvinism spread. However, the Swiss states clung together because they saw more advantage in their solidarity than in preventing regimes of the other creed.
The Thirty Years War revived this menace: The Swiss states of each creed had to consider the alternatives, either join the war on one side and violate their obligations towards their confederates, or balking at taking sides and running the risk of being overrun and marauded by any of the parties.
The Swiss states stood by each other, maintained their union keeping out of the war and thus preventing the misery that fell on the contested territories. However, this came at the price of selling their young men as mercenaries to both parties.
Again, that the Confederation survived until mid-17th century still seems a lot less likely than the opposite from a 1550 perspective!
Not really. Still too long ago.Also, the Habsburgs were, well, busy otherwise in the respective times.
Once the confederated states lose their uniting band, some might be absorbed by neighboring entities, which includes Further Austia and Spanish Milan.
But some states may either stay tiny but independent, or tacitly fall back into the HRE though as independent states. Especially the clerical states will be either independent or secularized, there is hardly a third choice.