Swiss Timeline

Timeline of Historical Events


 * 1291 Foundation of the Swiss Confederation
 * 1484-1531 Swiss Reformation began in Zurich
 * Early 1500’s First church records begin
 * 1535 Anabaptist and Mennonite movements after 1535 began in the rural areas
 * 1536 Jean Calvin came to Geneva and reformation began there
 * 1545-1563 Catholic Counter Reformation
 * 1618-1648 30 Years’ War, Swiss confederacy remains peaceful
 * 1656, 1712 Civil Wars caused by religious strife
 * 1803-1815 Civil War brings Helvetic Republic to an end and Napoleon confirms Switzerland’s borders and its perpetual neutrality
 * 1815-1830 Loose confederacy reestablished with 22 cantons
 * 1817 Emigration of 3000 Swiss people for North and South America
 * 1838 Church records have standardized columnar entries
 * 1874 Marriages, birth and death certificates are controlled by state authorities instead of the church
 * 1874 Jesuit order is banned from Switzerland until 1973
 * 1882-83 13,500 Swiss emigrate to US, Argentina, Canada and Brasil
 * 1914-1918 World War I, Swiss neutrality
 * 1918-1933 Economic crisis and inner conflicts
 * 1918 Women allowed to vote
 * 1933-1939 Hitler seen as a danger to Swiss independence
 * 1939-1945 World War II, Swiss neutrality
 * 1979 Canton Jura separates from Canton Bern