AHC/WI: No Switzerland/Swiss Republic/Confederation

Don't take this for granted. There's a reason besides the lack of outside intervention in the war that ensured the very short duration of the conflict. Switzerland was not quite as simple as Catholic=Conservative and Protestant=Liberal. Indeed, one of the biggest issues in the Sonderbund War was that there was lots of unrest within the Catholic cantons over political reform, to the point that the liberal, federalized government was often able to undercut their enemies simply by promising better democratic assemblies within those cantons. Ticino in particular had a lot of anti-clerical Catholics who were strongly opposed to the war, IIRC.
The war occurred pretty late in the year so had they managed to postpone surrender about a month, the Sonderbund could buy time to reorganize during winter and canvas foreign aid. Depends on whether it snows enough to make the federal troops break off the campaign for a season.

My suggestion is you need a more violent civil war internally. Maybe Fribourg is sacked after it is occupied by the liberals, and the rest of the Sonderbund decides surrendering would not be in their best interests. Its sort of amazing that the casualties were as low as they were all things considered. More war crimes would provide postwar enmity that makes being a single state awkward.

Intervention of foreign troops seems more likely to backfire than help the Sonderbunds however.
 
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The simplest solution is to ensure the longer presence of the Zahringen family, who dominated the regions around what would become the cantons of Bern and Zurich, the true beating heart of the Swiss Confederation, despite the fact that they were not among the original founding members, but also Uri, which was. Without Uri, which would become one of the three cantons that formed the Everlasting League that was the initial core of the future Confederation, you are left with merely Schwyz and Unterwalden, both of which are rural and poor in both wealth and manpower. Personally, I think the more likely result is that this poverty and isolation means that they persist as less monarchic territories within the HRE, but without any of the three territories that the Zahringers held, they lack the manpower and wealth to ever become anything more than historical oddities, and the continuance of the Zahringen monarchy ensures that there is none of the chaos that allowed the farmer and peasant republics to really get started in opposition to the Hapsburg and Kyburg expansion.

So Berthold V of Zahringen's son (also named Berthold) should survive. Although the English wiki mentions him, while the German one records that the marriage of Berthold VI was childless. Medlands says this about Berthold Jnr:
BERTHOLD (1 May 121:cool:. The Chronicon Colmariense records the birth of "autem de progenie ducis Zeringie…kal mai" in 1218, recording the death of his father later in the same sentence[279]. The primary source which confirms his name has not yet been identified.
Unless, can Berthold V somehow pass his Swiss lands successfully to a sister/nephew? Or, perhaps Friedrich I of Baden (who was also apparently a Zahringen, although wiki lists Berthold V as the last of the line - so not sure how that works) manages to claim the lands successfully - perhaps stronger imperial authority under the Hohenstaufens (although that would probably need less trouble-making popes near the end of Friedrich II's reign to start the cycle of emperors and anti-kings).
 
In my early Waldensian Reformation timeline, they become part of Savoy because the Point of Departure is a Waldensian praying for the Dukes sick daughter who survives instead of a Catholic priest doing so. This causes him to become a protector of them after a while and since there were quite a few in the Alps, I forget how but I naturally have the cantons going to Savoy.
 
So Berthold V of Zahringen's son (also named Berthold) should survive. Although the English wiki mentions him, while the German one records that the marriage of Berthold VI was childless. Medlands says this about Berthold Jnr:

Unless, can Berthold V somehow pass his Swiss lands successfully to a sister/nephew? Or, perhaps Friedrich I of Baden (who was also apparently a Zahringen, although wiki lists Berthold V as the last of the line - so not sure how that works) manages to claim the lands successfully - perhaps stronger imperial authority under the Hohenstaufens (although that would probably need less trouble-making popes near the end of Friedrich II's reign to start the cycle of emperors and anti-kings).
I didn't bother to look up his name, but yes, if he's able to have a child or somehow pass on his titles and claims to a branch of the family that is able to capitalize upon them, you have a good chance of strangling the League in its cradle. Schwyz and Unterwalden would eventually be brought into the orbit of some larger, more populous polity willingly or otherwise given their size.

In my early Waldensian Reformation timeline, they become part of Savoy because the Point of Departure is a Waldensian praying for the Dukes sick daughter who survives instead of a Catholic priest doing so. This causes him to become a protector of them after a while and since there were quite a few in the Alps, I forget how but I naturally have the cantons going to Savoy.
I would have to read your timeline in more detail but that seems immensely unlikely. Perhaps parts of Switzerland in what would be the French-speaking portions, but unless we're talking radical and earth-shaking demographic changes, the Swiss German cantons would be highly unlikely to actually join Savoy. Perhaps they would be allies or buffer states, but the imposition of Savoyard culture early enough that the Waldensians are still a thing would far more likely be seen as a foreign invasion and strengthen adherence to a Catholic and German identity.
 
I believe it was mostly just the french-speaking ones, but truthfully I wrote it so long ago I don't recall for sure. However, it does satisfy the requirement of the Swiss cantons breaking apart and not being a confederation.
 
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