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Swiss neutrality was a decision of the Great Powers, not the Swiss. > Switzerland has the oldest policy of military neutrality in the world; [1] it has not par
by barry-cotter 6y ago
Swiss neutrality was a decision of the Great Powers, not the Swiss.
> Switzerland has the oldest policy of military neutrality in the world; [1] it has not participated in a foreign war since its neutrality was established by the Treaty of Paris in 1815.
> Although the European powers (Austria, France, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, Spain and Sweden) agreed at the Congress of Vienna in May 1815 that Switzerland should be neutral, final ratification was delayed until after Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated so that some coalition forces could invade France via Swiss territory.
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> The dating of neutrality to 1516 is disputed by modern historians. Prior to 1895, no historian referenced the Battle of Marignano as the beginning of neutrality. The later backdating has to be seen in light of threats by several major powers in 1889 to rescind the neutrality granted to Switzerland in 1815. A publication by Paul Schweizer, titled Geschichte der schweizerischen Neutralität attempted to show that Swiss neutrality wasn't granted by other nations, but a decision they took themselves and thus couldn't be rescinded by others. The later publication of the same name by Edgar Bonjour, published between 1946 and 1975, expanded on this thesis.
https://wikimili.com/en/Swiss_neutrality https://wikimili.com/en/Swiss_neutrality