<text><span class="style42"></span><span class="style12">SWITZERLAND</span><span class="style14"></span><span class="style42">Official names:</span><span class="style13"> Confederaziun Helvetica (Romansch), Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft (German), Confédération suisse (French) and Confederazione Svizzera (Italian) (Swiss Confederation)</span><span class="style42">Member of: </span><span class="style13">OECD, OSCE</span><span class="style42">Area: </span><span class="style13">41293 km2 (15943 sq mi)</span><span class="style42">Population: </span><span class="style13">6996000 (1993 est)</span><span class="style42">Capital: </span><span class="style13">Berne (Bern) 299000 (city 134000; 1990 est) </span><span class="style42">Other major cities: </span><span class="style13">Zürich 839000 (city 343000), Geneva (Genève) 389000 (city 165000), Basel 359000 (city 170000), Lausanne 263000 (city 123000), Luzern 161000 (city 59000), St Gallen 126000 (city 73000) (1990 est)</span><span class="style42">Languages: </span><span class="style13">German (65% as a first language), French 18% (first language), Italian (10% first language), Romansch (under 1%) – all official</span><span class="style42">Religions: </span><span class="style13">Roman Catholic (47%), various Reformed Protestant Churches (43%)</span><span class="style42">GOVERNMENT</span><span class="style13">Switzerland is a federal republic in which each of the 20 cantons and 6 half-cantons has its own government with very considerable powers. Federal matters are entrusted to the Federal Assembly comprising the 46-member Council of States and the 200-member National Council. The Council of States is directly elected for three or four years with two members from each canton and one from each half-canton. The National Council is elected for four years by universal adult suffrage under a system of proportional representation. The Federal Assembly elects a seven-member Federal Council – the equivalent of a Cabinet – for four years. The Federal Council appoints one of its members to be President for one year. All federal and cantonal constitutional amendments must be approved by a referendum.</span><span class="style42">GEOGRAPHY</span><span class="style13">The parallel ridges of the Jura Mountains lie in the northwest on the French border. The south of the country is occupied by the Alps, which rise to Dufourspitze (Monte Rosa) at 4634 m (15203 ft). Between the two mountain ranges is a central plateau that contains the greater part of Switzerland’s population, agriculture and industry. </span><span class="style42">Principal rivers: </span><span class="style13">Rhine (Rhein) 1320 km (820 mi), Rhône 812 km (505 mi). </span><span class="style42">Climate: </span><span class="style13">Altitude and aspect modify Switzerland’s temperate climate. Considerable differences in temperature and rainfall are experienced over relatively short distances; for instance, the cold Alpine climate around the St Gotthard Pass is only 50 km (just over 30 miles) from the Mediterranean climate of Lugano.</span><span class="style42">ECONOMY</span><span class="style13">Nearly two centuries of neutrality have allowed Switzerland to build a reputation as a secure financial center. Zürich is one of the world’s leading banking and commercial cities. The country enjoys one of the highest standards of living in the world. Industry – in part based upon cheap hydroelectric power – includes engineering (from turbines to watches), textiles, food processing (including cheese and chocolate), pharmaceuticals and chemicals. Dairying, grapes (for wine) and fodder crops are important in agriculture, and there is a significant timber industry. Tourism and the international organizations based in Switzerland are major foreign-currency earners. Foreign workers – in particular Italians – help alleviate the country’s labor shortage. </span><span class="style42">Currency: </span><span class="style13">Swiss franc.</span><span class="style42">HISTORY</span><span class="style13">Switzerland occupies a strategic position, but the Swiss have used their remarkable position to withdraw from, rather than participate in, European power politics. In the 11th century, what is now Switzerland became part of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1291, three local territorial units – the ‘Forest Cantons’ of Schwyz (which gave its name to the country), Unterwalden and Uri – joined together in a League against the (Austrian) Habsburg Emperors. Other similar cantons joined the infant League throughout the later Middle Ages, and by 1513 the League included 13 cantons and a variety of dependent territories. Intense religious rivalries in the 16th century – with Zürich, Basel, Berne and Schaffhausen becoming Protestant – resulted in a civil war that tested but did not destroy the League. At the end of the Thirty Years War (1648), Switzerland’s independence was finally recognized.The French Revolutionary Wars saw the creation of a Helvetian Republic in 1798, but in 1803 Napoleon dismantled this unitary state and returned the country to a confederation. At the Congress of Vienna (1815) Swiss neutrality was recognized and the country gained its present boundaries. Continuing tensions in the early 19th century saw attempts by some cantons to secede and set up a new federation, but the compromises of a new constitution in 1848 – which is still the basis of Swiss government – balanced cantonal and central power. As a neutral country Switzerland proved the ideal base for the Red Cross (1863), the League of Nations (1920) and other world organizations, but Switzerland has avoided membership of any body it considers might compromise its neutrality. In national referenda the Swiss have voted against membership of the UN and of the EEA (the trade agreement that links EC countries and those West European countries that have not joined the Common Market).</span></text>
