French Third Republic
The French Third Republic was the system of government adopted in France from 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War, until 10 July 1940 after France's defeat by Nazi Germany in World War II led to the formation of the Vichy government in France. The early days of the Third Republic were dominated by political disruptions caused by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, which the Republic continued to wage after the fall of Emperor Napoleon III in 1870. Harsh reparations exacted by the Prussians after the war resulted in the loss of the French regions of Alsace and Lorraine, social upheaval, the establishment of the Paris Commune; the early governments of the Third Republic considered re-establishing the monarchy, but confusion as to the nature of that monarchy and who should be awarded the throne caused those talks to stall. Thus, the Third Republic, intended as a provisional government, instead became the permanent government of France; the French Constitutional Laws of 1875 defined the composition of the Third Republic.
It consisted of a Chamber of Deputies and a Senate to form the legislative branch of government and a president to serve as head of state. Issues over the re-establishment of the monarchy dominated the tenures of the first two presidents, Adolphe Thiers and Patrice de MacMahon, but the growing support for the republican form of government in the French population and a series of republican presidents during the 1880s quashed all plans for a monarchical restoration; the Third Republic established many French colonial possessions, including French Indochina, French Madagascar, French Polynesia, large territories in West Africa during the Scramble for Africa, all of them acquired during the last two decades of the 19th century. The early years of the 20th century were dominated by the Democratic Republican Alliance, conceived as a centre-left political alliance, but over time became the main centre-right party; the period from the start of World War I to the late 1930s featured polarized politics, between the Democratic Republican Alliance and the more Radicals.
The government fell during the early years of World War II as the Germans occupied France and was replaced by the rival governments of Charles de Gaulle's Free France and Philippe Pétain's Vichy France. Adolphe Thiers called republicanism in the 1870s "the form of government that divides France least". On the left stood Reformist France, heir to the French Revolution. On the right stood conservative France, rooted in the peasantry, the Roman Catholic Church and the army. In spite of France's divided electorate and persistent attempts to overthrow it, the Third Republic endured for seventy years, which as of 2018 makes it the longest lasting system of government in France since the collapse of the Ancien Régime in 1789; the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 resulted in the defeat of France and the overthrow of Emperor Napoleon III and his Second French Empire. After Napoleon's capture by the Prussians at the Battle of Sedan, Parisian deputies led by Léon Gambetta established the Government of National Defence as a provisional government on 4 September 1870.
The deputies selected General Louis-Jules Trochu to serve as its president. This first government of the Third Republic ruled during the Siege of Paris; as Paris was cut off from the rest of unoccupied France, the Minister of War, Léon Gambetta, who succeeded in leaving Paris in a hot air balloon, established the headquarters of the provisional republican government in the city of Tours on the Loire river. After the French surrender in January 1871, the provisional Government of National Defence disbanded, national elections were called with the aim of creating a new French government. French territories occupied by Prussia at this time; the resulting conservative National Assembly elected Adolphe Thiers as head of a provisional government, nominally. Due to the revolutionary and left-wing political climate that prevailed in the Parisian population, the right-wing government chose the royal palace of Versailles as its headquarters; the new government negotiated a peace settlement with the newly proclaimed German Empire: the Treaty of Frankfurt signed on 10 May 1871.
To prompt the Prussians to leave France, the government passed a variety of financial laws, such as the controversial Law of Maturities, to pay reparations. In Paris, resentment against the government built and from late March – May 1871, Paris workers and National Guards revolted and established the Paris Commune, which maintained a radical left-wing regime for two months until its bloody suppression by the Thiers government in May 1871; the following repression of the communards would have disastrous consequences for the labor movement. The French legislative election of 1871, held in the aftermath of the collapse of the regime of Napoleon III, resulted in a monarchist majority in the French National Assembly, favourable to making a peace agreement with Prussia; the "Legitimists" in the National Assembly supported the candidacy of a descendant of King Charles X, the last monarch from the senior line of the Bourbon Dynasty, to assume the French throne: his grandson Henri, Comte de Chambord, alias "Henry V."
The Orléanists supported a descendant of King Louis Philippe I, the cousin of Charles X who replaced him as the French monarch i
Turkish National Movement
The Turkish National Movement encompasses the political and military activities of the Turkish revolutionaries that resulted in the creation and shaping of the modern Republic of Turkey, as a consequence of the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I and the subsequent occupation of Constantinople and partitioning of the Ottoman Empire by the Allies under the terms of the Armistice of Mudros. The Ottomans saw the movement as part of an international conspiracy against them; the Turkish revolutionaries rebelled against this partitioning and against the Treaty of Sèvres, signed in 1920 by the Ottoman government, which partitioned portions of Anatolia itself. This establishment of an alliance of Turkish revolutionaries during the partitioning resulted in the Turkish War of Independence, the abolition of the Ottoman sultanate on 1 November 1922 and the declaration of the Republic of Turkey on 29 October 1923; the movement declared that the only source of governance for the Turkish people would be the democratic Grand National Assembly of Turkey.
The movement was created in 1919 through a series of agreements and conferences throughout Anatolia and Thrace. The process was aimed to unite independent movements around the country to build a common voice and is attributed to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, as he was the primary spokesperson, public figure, military leader of the movement; the Amasya Agreement was important in many respects. It was the first call to the national movement against the occupying powers, it consisted of talks based on provinces, not race. In this declaration we saw the roots of what constitutes the "Turk" as a political term, there was no distinction or reference to race or religion; the message read as follows: The unity of the motherland and national independence are in danger. The Istanbul government is unable to carry out its responsibilities, it is only through the nation's determination that national independence will be won. It is necessary to establish a national committee, free from all external influences and control, that will review the national situation and make known to the world the peoples desires for justice.
It has been decided to hold a National Congress in Sivas, the most secure place in Anatolia. Three representatives from each province should be sent to the Sivas Congress. To be prepared for every eventuality, this subject should be kept a national secret. There will be a congress for the Eastern Provinces on July 10; the delegation from the Erzurum Congress will depart to join to the general meeting in Sivas. This agreement was signed by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Rauf Orbay, Ali Fuat Cebesoy, Refet Bele and Kâzım Karabekir in Erzurum. On American Mandate: On 1 August 1919, the King-Crane Commission tried to contact a large groups of interested parties in Constantinople, to obtain their positions with a view toward reporting them to the Paris Peace Conference. Kazım Karabekir learned that a memorandum was adopted by an amalgamation of political groups in Constantinople and the Erzurum Congress, in session since 23 July sent a memorandum to American President Woodrow Wilson on the same day, it was also meant to remind all other parties of Wilson's 14 Points and the fact that the Nationalists were aware of them.
Among the objectives of the Nationalists was, it appears, to signal the resolve of the Nationalists to the interested parties, display their intent not to tolerate indiscriminate political pressure. What began as a suggestion to the Nationalists to accept the American Mandate at the time of the Erzurum Congress, became a major campaign afterwards. By the time Sivas Congress was convened, no less than three channels were working on the Nationalist leadership to persuade them at least to "consider" the American Mandate, if not outright adopt a resolution in favor of it at the Sivas Congress; the Sivas Congress was the first time the fourteen leaders of the movement united under a single roof. These people formed a plan between 29 October, they agreed that the parliament should meet in Constantinople if it were obvious that this parliament could not function under the occupation. It was a great chance to build the legitimacy, they decided on formalizing a "Representative Committee" that would handle the distribution and implementation, which could be turned into a new government if allies decided to disband the whole Ottoman Governing structure.
Mustafa Kemal established two concepts into this program: integrity. Mustafa Kemal was setting the stage for conditions which would legitimize this organization and illegitimate the Ottoman parliament; these conditions were mentioned in the Wilsonian rules. Mustafa Kemal opened the National Congress at Sivas, with delegates from the entire nation taking part; the Erzurum resolutions were transformed into a national appeal, the name of the organization changed to the Society to Defend the Rights and Interests of the Provinces of Anatolia and Rumeli. The Erzurum resolutions were reaffirmed with minor additions, these included new clauses such as article 3 which states that the formation of an independent Greece on the Aydın, Balıkesir fronts was unacceptable; the Sivas Congress reinforced the stance taken at the Erzurum Congress. All these were performed. Plans were made to organize a new government and parliament in Ankara, the sultan asked to accept its authority. A flood of supporters moved to Ankara just ahead of the Allied dragnets.
Included among them were Halide Edip, her husband, Adnan Adıvar, İsmet İnönü, Kemal’s most important allies in the Ministry of W
Turkish War of Independence
The Turkish War of Independence was fought between the Turkish National Movement and the proxies of the Allies – namely Greece on the Western Front, Armenia on the Eastern, France on the Southern and with them, the United Kingdom and Italy in Constantinople – after parts of the Ottoman Empire were occupied and partitioned following the Ottomans' defeat in World War I. Few of the occupying British and Italian troops had been deployed or engaged in combat; the Turkish National Movement in Anatolia culminated in the formation of a new Grand National Assembly by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his colleagues. After the end of the Turkish–Armenian, Franco-Turkish, Greco-Turkish fronts, the Treaty of Sèvres was abandoned and the Treaties of Kars and Lausanne were signed; the Allies left Anatolia and Eastern Thrace, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey decided on the establishment of a Republic in Turkey, declared on 29 October 1923. With the establishment of the Turkish National Movement, the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, the abolition of the sultanate, the Ottoman era and the Empire came to an end, with Atatürk's reforms, the Turks created the modern, secular nation-state of Turkey on the political front.
On 3 March 1924, the Ottoman caliphate was abolished and the last Caliph was exiled. On 30 October 1918, the Armistice of Mudros was signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies of World War I, bringing hostilities in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I to a close; the treaty granted the Allies the right to occupy forts controlling the Straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosporus. Somerset Arthur Gough-Calthorpe—the British signatory of the Mudros Armistice—stated the Triple Entente′s public position that they had no intention to dismantle the government of the Ottoman Empire or place it under military occupation by "occupying Constantinople". However, dismantling the Ottoman government and partitioning the Ottoman Empire among the Allied nations had been an objective of the Entente since the start of the war. On 13 November 1918, a French brigade entered the city to begin the Occupation of Constantinople and its immediate dependencies, followed by a fleet consisting of British, French and Greek ships deploying soldiers on the ground the next day.
A wave of seizures took place in the following months by the Allies. On 14 November, joint Franco-Greek troops occupied the town of Uzunköprü in Eastern Thrace as well as the railway axis till the train station of Hadımköy near Çatalca on the outskirts of Constantinople. On 1 December, British troops based in Syria occupied Kilis. Beginning in December, French troops began successive seizures of Ottoman territory, including the towns of Antakya, Tarsus, Adana and Islahiye; the first bullet was fired by Mehmet Çavuş in Dörtyol against the French on 19 December 1918. On 19 January 1919, the Paris Peace Conference opened, a meeting of Allied nations that set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers, including the Ottoman Empire; as a special body of the Paris Conference, "The Inter-Allied Commission on Mandates in Turkey" was established to pursue the secret treaties they had signed between 1915 and 1917. Among the objectives was a new Hellenic Empire based on the Megali Idea; this was promised by British Prime Minister David Lloyd George to Greece.
Italy sought control over the southern part of Anatolia under the Agreement of St.-Jean-de-Maurienne. France expected to exercise control over Hatay and Syria, wanted control over a portion of southeastern Anatolia based on the Sykes-Picot Agreement. France signed the Franco-Armenian Agreement and promised the realization of an Armenian state in the Mediterranean region in exchange to the French Armenian Legion. Meanwhile, Allied countries continued to lay claim to portions of the crumbling Ottoman Empire. British forces based in Syria occupied Maraş, Urfa and Birecik, while French forces embarked by gunboats and sent troops to the Black Sea ports of Zonguldak and Karadeniz Ereğli commanding Turkey's coal mining region. At the Paris Peace Conference, competing claims of Western Anatolia by Greek and Italian delegations led Greece to land the flagship of the Greek Navy at Smyrna, resulting in the Italian delegation walking out of the peace talks. On 30 April, Italy responded to the possible idea of Greek incorporation of Western Anatolia by sending a warship to Smyrna as a show of force against the Greek campaign.
A large Italian force landed in Antalya. With the Italian delegation absent from the Paris Peace talks, Britain was able to sway France in favour of Greece and the Conference authorized the landing of Greek troops on Anatolian territory; the Greek campaign of Western Anatolia began on 15 May 1919, as Greek troops began landing in Smyrna. For the city′s Muslim population, the day is marked by the "first bullet" fired by Hasan Tahsin at the Greek standard bearer at the head of the troops, the murder by bayonet coups of Miralay Fethi Bey for refusing to shout "Zito Venizelos" and the killing and wounding of unarmed Turkish soldiers in the city's principal casern, as well as of 300-400 civilians. Greek troops moved from Smyrna outwards, to towns on the Karaburun peninsula, Selçuk, situated a hundred kilometers south of Smyrna at a key location that commands the fertile Menderes River valley and Menemen and Sel
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs referred to as the Foreign Secretary, is a senior, high-ranking official within the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The Foreign Secretary is a member of the Cabinet, the post is considered one of the Great Offices of State, it is considered a position similar to that of Foreign Minister in other countries. The Foreign Secretary reports directly to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; the Foreign Secretary's remit includes: relations with foreign countries, matters pertaining to the Commonwealth of Nations and the Overseas Territories in addition to the promotion of British interests abroad. The Foreign Secretary has ministerial oversight for the Secret Intelligence Service and the Government Communications Headquarters; the Foreign Secretary works out of the Foreign Office in Whitehall, the post's official residences are 1 Carlton Gardens in London and Chevening in Kent.
Margaret Beckett, appointed in 2006 by Tony Blair, is the only woman to have held the post. The current Foreign Secretary is Jeremy Hunt, following Boris Johnson's resignation on 9 July 2018; the position of Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs was created in the British governmental reorganisation of 1782, in which the Northern and Southern Departments became the Home and Foreign Offices, respectively. The position of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs came into existence in 1968 with the merger of the functions of Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs into a single Department of State; the India Office was a constituent predecessor department of the Foreign Office, as were the Colonial Office and the Dominions Office. Post created through the merger of the Commonwealth Office. Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations Secretary of State for the Colonies Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs Foreign minister Great Offices of State FCO website
İsmet İnönü
Mustafa İsmet İnönü was a Turkish general and statesman, who served as the second President of Turkey from 10 November 1938 to 27 May 1950, when his Republican People's Party was defeated in Turkey's second free elections. He served as the first Chief of the General Staff from 1922 to 1924, as the first Prime Minister after the declaration of the Republic, serving three terms: from 1923 to 1924, 1925 to 1937, 1961 to 1965; as President, he was granted the official title of "Millî Şef". When the 1934 Surname Law was adopted, Mustafa Kemal gave him a surname taken from İnönü, where he commanded the forces of Army of Grand National Assembly as the Minister of the Chief of the General Staff during the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922. Afterwards these battles became to be known as the First Battle of İnönü and Second Battle of İnönü. İsmet İnönü was born in İzmir, Aidin Vilayet to Hacı Reşit and Cevriye, was of Turkicized Kurdish descent on his father's side and of Turkish descent through his mother.
Hacı Reşit was retired from the First Examinant Department of Legal Affairs Bureau of the War Ministry, born in Malatya and a member of Kümüroğulları family of Bitlis. Cevriye was a daughter of Müderris Hasan Efendi who belonged to the ulema and was a member of a Turkish family of Razgrad. Due to his father's assignments, the family moved from one city to another. Thus, Ismet completed his primary education in Sivas and graduated Sivas Military Junior High School in 1894, and he studied at Sivas School for Civil Servants for a year. Ismet graduated from the Imperial School of Military Engineering in 1903 as gunnery officer, received his first military assignment in the Ottoman Army, he joined the Committee of Progress. He won his first military victories by suppressing two major revolts against the struggling Ottoman Empire, first in Rumelia and in Yemen, whose leader was Yahya Muhammad Hamid ed-Din, he served as a military officer during the Balkan Wars on the Ottoman-Bulgarian front. During World War I, he served with the Ottoman military rank of Miralay and worked under Mustafa Kemal Pasha during his assignments at the Caucasus and Palestine fronts.
During the war, on 13 April 1916, Ismet married Mevhibe, a daughter of an Ashraf of Ziştovi Zühtü Efendi. They had three children: Erdal and Özden. After losing the Battle of Megiddo against General Edmund Allenby during the last days of World War I, he went to Constantinople and was assigned Undersecretary of the Ministry of War and General Secretary of the Documentation in the Military Council. After the military occupation of Constantinople on 16 March 1920, he decided to pass to Anatolia to join the Turkish National Movement, he and his chief of staff Major Saffet wore soldier uniform and left Maltepe in the evening of 19 March 1920 and arrived at Ankara on 9 April 1920. He was appointed the commander of the Western Front of the Army of the Grand National Assembly, a position in which he remained during the Turkish War of Independence, he was promoted to the rank of Mirliva after winning the First Battle of İnönü which took place between 9 and 11 January 1921. He won the subsequent Second Battle of İnönü, fought between 26 and 31 March 1921.
During the Turkish War of Independence he was a member of the GNA in Ankara. İnönü was replaced by Mustafa Fevzi Pasha, the Prime Minister and Minister of Defense at the time, as the Chief of Staff of the Army of the GNA after the Turkish forces lost major battles against the advancing Greek Army in July 1921, as a result of which the cities Afyonkarahisar, Kütahya and Eskişehir were temporarily lost. He participated as a staff officer to the battles, until the final Turkish victory in September 1922. After the War of Independence was won, İsmet Pasha was appointed as the chief negotiator of the Turkish delegation, both for the Armistice of Mudanya and for the Treaty of Lausanne; the Lausanne conference convened in late 1922 to settle the terms of a new treaty that would take the place of the Treaty of Sèvres. Inönü became famous for his stubborn resolve in determining Ankara's position as the legitimate, sovereign government of Turkey. After delivering his position, Inönü turned off his hearing aid during the speeches of British foreign secretary Lord Curzon.
When Curzon had finished, Inönü reiterated his position. İnönü served as the Prime Minister of Turkey for several terms, maintaining the system that Mustafa Kemal had put in place. He acted after every major crisis to restore peace in the country, he tried to manage the economy with heavy-handed government intervention after the 1929 economic crisis, by implementing an economic plan inspired by the Five Year Plan of the Soviet Union. In doing so, he took much private property under government control. Due to his efforts, to this day, more than 70% of land in Turkey is still owned by the state. Desiring a more liberal economic system, Atatürk dissolved the government of İnönü and appointed Celâl Bayar, the fo
Kemalism
Kemalism known as Atatürkism, or the Six Arrows, is the founding ideology of the Republic of Turkey. Kemalism, as it was implemented by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, was defined by sweeping political, social and religious reforms designed to separate the new Turkish state from its Ottoman predecessor and embrace a Westernized way of living, including the establishment of democracy, state support of the sciences and free education, many of which were first introduced to Turkey during Atatürk's presidency in his reforms. Many of the root ideas of Kemalism began during the late Ottoman Empire under various reforms to avoid the imminent collapse of the Empire, beginning chiefly in the early 19th-century Tanzimat reforms; the mid-century Young Ottomans attempted to create the ideology of Ottoman nationalism, or Ottomanism, to quell the rising ethnic nationalism in the Empire and introduce limited democracy for the first time while maintaining Islamist influences. In the early 20th century, Young Turks abandoned Ottoman nationalism in favor of early Turkish nationalism, while adopting a secular political outlook.
After the demise of the Ottoman Empire, Atatürk, influenced by both the Young Ottomans and the Young Turks, as well as by their successes and failures, led the declaration of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, borrowing from the earlier movements' ideas of secularism and Turkish nationalism, while bringing about, for the first time, free education and other reforms that have been enshrined by leaders into guidelines for governing Turkey. Kemalism is a modernization philosophy which guided the transition between the multi-religious, multi-ethnic Ottoman Empire to the secular, unitary Republic of Turkey. Kemalism sets the boundaries of the social process in the Turkish Reformation. Atatürk is the founder of Kemalism, his doctrine was implemented as state ideology after his death. Kemalism has sometimes been called "Socialism peculiar to Turkey" or "Turkish socialism". There are six fundamental pillars of the ideology: Republicanism, Nationalism, Laicism and Reformism; the principles came to be recognized as sacrosanct.
Republicanism in the Kemalist framework replaced the absolute monarchy of the Ottoman dynasty with the rule of law, popular sovereignty and civic virtue, including an emphasis on liberty practiced by citizens. Kemalist republicanism defines a type of constitutional republic, in which representatives of the people are elected, must govern in accordance with existing constitutional law limiting governmental power over citizens; the head of state and other officials are chosen by election rather than inheriting their positions, their decisions are subject to judicial review. In defending the change from the Ottoman State, Kemalism asserts that all laws of the Republic of Turkey should be inspired by actual needs here on Earth as a basic tenet of national life. Kemalism advocates a republican system as the best representative of the wishes of the people. Among the many types of republic, the Kemalist republic is a representative democracy with a Parliament chosen in general elections, a President as head of state elected by Parliament and serving for a limited term, a Prime Minister appointed by the President, other Ministers appointed by Parliament.
The Kemalist President does not have direct executive powers, but has limited veto powers, the right to contest with referendum. The day-to-day operation of government is the responsibility of the Council of Ministers formed by the Prime Minister and the other Ministers. There is a separation of powers between the executive, the legislative and the judiciary, in which no one branch of government has authority over another–although parliament is charged with the supervision of the Council of Ministers, which can be compelled to resign by a vote of no-confidence; the Kemalist republic is a unitary state in which three organs of state govern the nation as a single unit, with one constitutionally created legislature. On some issues, the political power of government is transferred to lower levels, to local elected assemblies represented by mayors, but the central government retains the principal governing role. Populism is defined as a social revolution aimed to transfer the political power to citizenship.
Kemalist populism not only to establish popular sovereignty but the transfer of the social-economic transformation to realize a true populist state. However, Kemalist believe national unity is above all else. To Kemalist populism envision a sociality that emphasizes work and national unity. Populism in Turkey is to create a unifying force that brings a sense of the Turkish state and the power of the people to bring in that new unity. Kemalist populism is an extension of the Kemalist modernization movement, aiming to make Islam compatible with the modern nation-state; this included state supervision of religious organizations. Mustafa Kemal himself said “everyone needs a place to learn religion and faith that place is a Mektep not a Madrasa"; this was intended to combat the “corruption” of Islam by the Ulema. Kemal believed that during the Ottoman period, the Ulema had come to exploit the power of thir office and manipulate religious practices to their own gain, it was feared that were education not brought under state control, unsupervised Madrasas could exacerbate the rising problem of Tarikat insularity that threatened to undermine the unity of the Turkish state.
Kemalist soci
Switzerland
Switzerland the Swiss Confederation, is a country situated in western and southern Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities; the sovereign state is a federal republic bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a landlocked country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning a total area of 41,285 km2. While the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, the Swiss population of 8.5 million people is concentrated on the plateau, where the largest cities are to be found: among them are the two global cities and economic centres Zürich and Geneva. The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the late medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria and Burgundy. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648; the country has a history of armed neutrality going back to the Reformation.
It pursues an active foreign policy and is involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to numerous international organisations, including the second largest UN office. On the European level, it is a founding member of the European Free Trade Association, but notably not part of the European Union, the European Economic Area or the Eurozone. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties. Spanning the intersection of Germanic and Romance Europe, Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions: German, French and Romansh. Although the majority of the population are German-speaking, Swiss national identity is rooted in a common historical background, shared values such as federalism and direct democracy, Alpine symbolism. Due to its linguistic diversity, Switzerland is known by a variety of native names: Schweiz. On coins and stamps, the Latin name – shortened to "Helvetia" – is used instead of the four national languages.
Switzerland is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product according to the IMF. Switzerland ranks at or near the top globally in several metrics of national performance, including government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic competitiveness and human development. Zürich and Basel have all three been ranked among the top ten cities in the world in terms of quality of life, with the first ranked second globally, according to Mercer in 2018; the English name Switzerland is a compound containing Switzer, an obsolete term for the Swiss, in use during the 16th to 19th centuries. The English adjective Swiss is a loan from French Suisse in use since the 16th century; the name Switzer is from the Alemannic Schwiizer, in origin an inhabitant of Schwyz and its associated territory, one of the Waldstätten cantons which formed the nucleus of the Old Swiss Confederacy. The Swiss began to adopt the name for themselves after the Swabian War of 1499, used alongside the term for "Confederates", used since the 14th century.
The data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica. The toponym Schwyz itself was first attested in 972, as Old High German Suittes perhaps related to swedan ‘to burn’, referring to the area of forest, burned and cleared to build; the name was extended to the area dominated by the canton, after the Swabian War of 1499 came to be used for the entire Confederation. The Swiss German name of the country, Schwiiz, is homophonous to that of the canton and the settlement, but distinguished by the use of the definite article; the Latin name Confoederatio Helvetica was neologized and introduced after the formation of the federal state in 1848, harking back to the Napoleonic Helvetic Republic, appearing on coins from 1879, inscribed on the Federal Palace in 1902 and after 1948 used in the official seal.. Helvetica is derived from the Helvetii, a Gaulish tribe living on the Swiss plateau before the Roman era. Helvetia appears as a national personification of the Swiss confederacy in the 17th century with a 1672 play by Johann Caspar Weissenbach.
Switzerland has existed as a state in its present form since the adoption of the Swiss Federal Constitution in 1848. The precursors of Switzerland established a protective alliance at the end of the 13th century, forming a loose confederation of states which persisted for centuries; the oldest traces of hominid existence in Switzerland date back about 150,000 years. The oldest known farming settlements in Switzerland, which were found at Gächlingen, have been dated to around 5300 BC; the earliest known cultural tribes of the area were members of the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures, named after the archaeological site of La Tène on the north side of Lake Neuchâtel. La Tène culture developed and flourished during the late Iron Age from around 450 BC under some influence from the Gree
Treaty of Lausanne at Wikisource
