How and why did Switzerland become Neutral? (Short animated documentary) transcript

switzerland famous for this mountain clocks its interesting banking arrangements and of course its neutrality whereas in the past it was primarily known for its mercenary companies and their ability to wage war so what exactly changed why did switzerland go from a land of soldiers for hire to one of non-involvement and why did the countries around it which to understate things really like to fight their neighbours allowed this to happen so exactly when switzerland became neutral is debated in the 16th century it wasn't a formal nation but loose confederation of smaller states which were part of the holy roman empire there was a scuffle in italy over whether or not francis the first of france was in fact the ruler of milan and since the swiss had a claim to it themselves it was time to fight the swiss lost and as a result they pledged themselves to a perpetual peace with respect to france but you know who isn't france savoy and when france marched into northern italy 20 years later the swiss helped themselves to this land after this switzerland largely stayed out of wars barring the supply of mercenaries during the 30 years war keeping this piece wasn't out of any desire to maintain their neutrality but for two reasons the first was that the states around them were much larger and getting invaded by them sucked the second was the protestant reformation which meant instead of worrying about events in italy france or the holy roman empire they now had to worry about their neighbours who suddenly believed different things this internal conflict managed to keep the swiss occupied until 1798 when its neighbours with shiny new political ideas invaded the swiss confederacy fell apart quickly and it was replaced with the brand new helvetic republic which was stripped of this territory napoleon soon changed his mind and reformed the confederacy well most of it is a french puppet state but after he was ousted the victors all had different plans for switzerland the french plan for switzerland wasn't heard since they had just lost the war and so be quiet the prussians wanted switzerland to be forced into joining the german confederation and the austrians wanted it to become an austrian puppet state and buffer against the french in order to avoid any conflict the russians mediated and everyone agreed that the swiss confederation would be forever neutral and wouldn't send troops abroad except for the pope that is he could have some everyone accepted this until the late 19th century when it became a haven for socialist bonapartist nationalist and liberal dissidents from the great powers as such the surrounding great powers all demanded that the swiss keep tabs on these people which they begrudgingly agree to and now could actually do since the recent civil war there had made it into a much more centralized federal state so given that the european powers felt free to threaten switzerland whenever it suited them how did it stay neutral and not get itself belgium well the first real threat to swiss neutrality was the first world war the danger didn't come from germany they had other neutral nations to cross but from france as the war raged on the french wanted to flank the german army in the south and so came up with a brilliant idea of going through switzerland hearing of this the swiss mobilized more of their army and placed it on the french border and this greater resistance combined with the likely backlash from britain meant that switzerland was spared and after the war its long-standing neutrality was also part of the reason why it was chosen to be the headquarters of the league of nations and world war ii was the last time that switzerland's neutrality was threatened german leadership had wanted to expand under the pretext of german unity but they never invaded the country for several reasons first of all a neutral switzerland made for a useful diplomatic trade hub since german and allied diplomats could unofficially make contact germany could also sell gold that it had acquired to switzerland for swiss francs which it could use to purchase goods from third parties the second reason the most important one was that the costs far outweighed the benefits switzerland was a mountainous land with little in the way of natural resources populated by a fiercely independent people who were mostly armed to the teeth and given that germany had either bigger plans or much more pressing issues the opportune moment to invade never presented itself and after this switzerland was able to maintain its neutrality with no further threats of war which is why geneva was made host to a major u.n office in 1946 an organization which the swiss refused to join until 2002. i hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for watching with a special thanks to my patrons james bisonette kelly moneymaker core show wolf jordan longley adam stalter jerry lambda marcus arsenaulian hockey words about books podcast rodney martin captain cydog marvin cassel 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