Do keep in mind that the Old Confederation was essentially an alliance of German-speaking city-states and rural statelets that emerged as a formidable military force in the 15th century, enabling the Confederation to recruit allied members such as the Graubunden, Geneva and Mulhouse and to control additional territories that later became part of the New Confereration such as Ticino and Vaud (and some areas lost such as Val Teline and D'ossola). Even after withdrawing from competeting as part of the balance-of-power system after 1525, it remained in the interest of the Confederates and associated members to stick together as confederates in order to control their dependent territories and to retain their individual independence. There was also no compelling reason for other countries to invade given the military reputation of the Swiss, obvious geography, and relative poverty of much as the area. Given all the internal divisions that the Old Confederation endured until its abolition by Napoleon, there is no compelling reason to consider any additional factors that might have caused an internal breakup. Napoleon was indeed the major historical threat to both Swiss independence and integrity, but his defeat and the establishment of the New Confereration after Vienna pretty much sealed the survival of Switzerland. Even the Sonnerbund was a struggle over the direction of the Confederation, not a seccessionist movement.
AHC: Partition of Switzerland!
- Thread starter Alternate History Geek
- Start date
Alex Richards
Donor
Forget linguistic differentiation, think historical borders and feudal claims, as an example:
The Three Leagues: Basically split as it was during the Habsburg occupation of the Thirty Years War. Milan regains the Vallentina. Austria directly annexes the majority of the League of the Ten Juridstrictions (Eight of them to be precise), Munsterthal and the Unterengadin, and probably revokes the feudal obligations of the Barony of Rhäzuns. The rest becomes an Austrian protectorate, or possibly two with the Bishop of Chur being reinstated as direct ruler over the, now reduced, League of God's House (assuming he accepts the new border).
You need a massive shipping capability that you cannot bring in from elsewhere - you have to build it in the lake under the prying eyes of the neighbours. You can get around the lake but the flat strips of land between the lakes and the hills means that a small force can stop a much larger force there.
If you go through the Aare valley the same applies - you have a narrow valley between not very high but steep forested hills which forces your army on a very predetermined course. Or you send your army in single file over the forest trails where the defending force has even more of an advantage
Both lakes are glacier tongue tip sort of lakes, not just some marshland. They are 200-300 meters deep. Next suggestion?
wolf_brother
Banned
Except to the sonderbunders their direction was de-facto secessionist. To the Sonderbund the confederation was a very loose alliance, more like a UN-of-Switzerland (with all that implies), than it was a federal state that we know today.
Perhaps the Savoy, Visconti and Habsburgs ally to get back their de jure lands perhaps that is possible.
Basically what I did with my TL, Reverse Cold War, the French, Austrians and Italians bombed Switzerland into submission, then used the destruction of the bombings to get through the narrow passes between the Lakes, breakign through into the Plateau and conquering the Plateau within 2 months (the Jura and the Alps, however, remained in Resistence control)
Absolutely! That's one of the things that makes DoD so dystopian: THEY CONQUERED SWITZERLAND!!!
In Zach's Napoleonic TL, Nappy's French Empire eventually forced Switzerland to allow the annexation of its francophone cantons directly into France.
In one of my TLs (POD's in the Middle Ages), Switzerland gets screwed over when the Habsburgs reconquer Austria proper and Switzerland by the late 17th century, then merge them into one monarchy, and, while leaving the cantons as administrative units, they completely abolish the confederation. Ironic twist, ey ?
Truth be told, these ATL Habsburgs are a largely marginalized, paranoid and reactionary royal family, with barely a third of the influence, territory and power they had in OTL. They are in many ways quite different from our early modern and modern Habsburgs. (Meanwhile, the Luxembourg family recovered some of its failing branches during the 15th century and gradually supplanted most of the Habsburg and Hohenzollern power bases in the HRE and most of western and central Europe in general.)
In one of my TLs (POD's in the Middle Ages), Switzerland gets screwed over when the Habsburgs reconquer Austria proper and Switzerland by the late 17th century, then merge them into one monarchy, and, while leaving the cantons as administrative units, they completely abolish the confederation. Ironic twist, ey ?
Truth be told, these ATL Habsburgs are a largely marginalized, paranoid and reactionary royal family, with barely a third of the influence, territory and power they had in OTL. They are in many ways quite different from our early modern and modern Habsburgs. (Meanwhile, the Luxembourg family recovered some of its failing branches during the 15th century and gradually supplanted most of the Habsburg and Hohenzollern power bases in the HRE and most of western and central Europe in general.)
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Hey all, Switzerland as we know it OTL was based on a voluntary set of alliances cemented by a strong defensive military force. Yes, in any number of ATL European worlds what we now call Switzerland could break apart or be subjugated in any number of ways, along with whatever other butterflies may be released, but within our OTL it is very difficult to find any alternative that could lead to a partition or disintegration of the Swiss Confederation other than an ultimately successful Napoleon. Nappy triumphant would have no use for a traditional Swiss Old Confederation and most likely would have ended up making suisse romande into French departments, adding the Ticino into a Kingdom of Italy, and ignoring the remaining Schwitzer Deutscher cantons so that they either became dependences of the Confederation of the Rhine or tied to Andreas Hofer's Tyrol. Otherwise the question is not whether Switzerland sunders or disappears but why didn't Switzerland expand. There were others who sought to become Swiss, notably the Voralbergers post WW I.
Partially true. But Basel was always a wealthy city on important trade routes.
Moreover, starting from halfway into the TYW, Switzerland must have been like a paradise compared to the adjacent German territories.
