6 - Forging the new nation, 1848–1914

Summary

Immediately after 1848, the new Switzerland seemed to pose a great threat to Metternich and other conservative statesmen. They were alarmed by Switzerland’s propensity to offer asylum, and sometimes support, to opponents of monarchy, and saw it as ‘a revolutionary turntable’ intimately linked to events elsewhere in Europe. Reality was somewhat different because, although the Radicals dominated the new Swiss state, they were less extreme and proceeded more cautiously than the continental powers expected in starting to forge a new, democratic and restrained nation. Their moderation was aided by the willingness of the internal opposition to use the newly created democratic processes, which came to define Switzerland. In the 1860s, however, a new democratic dynamic within the cantons ultimately led to a revised and more centralized constitution. This allowed the country to cope with the social and religious difficulties that emerged as it encountered economic depression. In fact, both state and the party system in Switzerland were able to develop considerably before, around the end of the century, a new conservative turn took place which helped both to consolidate and to redirect the developing national identity that had emerged in parallel with 1848’s state-building. The leaders of the new state were able to forge a new nation based on political will and the key institutions of direct democracy, federalism and neutrality.