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The 3o Years' War was followed by a social and economical revolution. The Peasant War (1653) grouped together the towns against the peasants ; for the first time since the Reformation Evangelicals and Catholics acted together to defend their economic and ad ministrative supremacy over the country people. The farmers had prospered during the period from 1618 to 1648. In this period was laid the foundation of Swiss wealth, the territories of the League having been spared the destruction suffered by their neigh bours. But the after-war reaction was felt the more heavily by the farmers ; the price of land, very high during the war, fell suddenly and a financial crisis followed. The towns persistently developed a dominating position over the land by the acquisition of former feudal rights, by simplifying the administration and by making it more efficient by levying higher taxes. Thus the country people felt a double dependence : an economic and a political one, and the Peasant VVar can be considered as a democratic reaction against the growing tendency towards oligarchy. It could not but end with defeat for the farmers and had consequently just the opposite effect to its purpose : it strengthened the towns instead of weaken ing them. This conflict between burghers and farmers was fol lowed by a contest among the victors themselves. Remembering the experience of 1653 which had united Evangelical and Catholic members of the League, Zurich launched a scheme for a reform of the constitution of the League, based on the idea of more cen tralization and the predominance of the larger cantons. This idea, however, met with refusal from the Catholics, who realized that their predominant position within the League rested on the prin ciple of the sovereignty of single members. They openly mani fested their dislike of the new idea by reconfirming their own Golden League on the advice of the papal nuncio. Zurich decided to trust again to the luck of war, but again she was beaten (at Villmergen, Aargau, 1656). For another half century the League was to be under the sway of the Catholics.
Switzerland was so nearly connected with the kingdom of France that Louis XIV.'s reign had necessarily a last ing influence on Swiss affairs. First, the traditional friendship be tween the League and France was very solemnly renewed, when the delegates of the League confirmed a new treaty of alliance at Notre Dame by solemn oath (1663). Yet the king's policy of eastward expansion advanced the frontiers of France towards Swiss territory through the acquisition of Franche Comte. This territory, belonging to Spain, had acted like a buffer between Switzerland and France. The fall of Strasbourg—this old ally of the League—and the construction of a fortress near Basel on the Rhine were further signs of Louis's wish to encroach on the terri tory of the empire. All this might not totally have estranged Swiss sympathies from the king, had he not by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (q.v.) provoked the anger of the Evangelicals. ZUrich answered by concluding in 1693 a capitulation with Hol land, though this had the unhappy result of Swiss troops fighting against each other (Malplaquet). The succession of the Bour bons to the Spanish throne, upsetting the equilibrium of European politics, was naturally felt by the League. France, hitherto the
political friend of the Evangelicals, turned to the side of the Catholics, the former allies of Spain, while the Evangelicals began to back the empire. The French ambassador, so far the main agent in promoting the pacification of the League, henceforward openly favoured the Catholics against the Evangelicals. On his instiga tion the second Villmergen war broke out on the same issue as the first, but it ended this time in favour of the great cities. The balance of power was restored in favour of the Protestant party and the provisions of the second peace of Kappel were definitely abrogated (Peace of Aarau, 1712).
In the r8th century no spectacular events occurred before the beginning of the French Revolution. The economical and intellectual development, however, was quite re markable. The wealth of the country was great ; the population in creased enormously, in many places doubling its number in the course of a century. Since 1444 there had been no real invasion. The mercenary service brought a great amount of money, 6o 70,000 men and officers being constantly engaged in foreign armies. Swiss agriculture was very prosperous. Under the influence of the Physiocratic school big model farms were formed (Hofr.vil) and a more rational type of farming was introduced. Cattle for breeding and for food, horses for military purposes, wine and cheese (al ready manufactured on an industrial base) were the chief export articles. In the cotton trade 200,000 people—mostly in the eastern part of the country—were engaged ; St. Gall had 30-40,000 em broiderers in its pay, who lived in the neighbouring districts. The centre of the silk trade was Zurich. Basle manufactured ribbons and the Jura district had already a small metallurgical industry.
All would have been well, had there not been a tendency to social stagnation. The cantons were altogether under the spell of absolutism. There were as many absolute Governments as cantons existed in the League. The character of Switzerland was therefore typically particularist as well as anti-democratic. The League was one of the most complicated political bodies of the time. It repre sented a federation of 13 quasi-independent states, to which were attached almost the same number of allied states. Each of the cantons had its own subjects and in addition groups of cantons ruled alternately in the "common bailiwicks." The cantons them selves had different types of Government. We can distinguish a group of democratic cantons, represented by Uri, Schwyz, Unter walden, Zug, Glarus, Appenzell. Officially governed by the Lands gemeinde, the government posts were actually in the hands of a few families, which lived on pensions from the foreign Powers. To another group belong the gild cantons, Zurich, Basle and Schaffhausen. Their Governments were formed by the gild-cor porations of the towns. The admission to the gilds was very strictly limited ; people newly established in the town had no chance of admission and were likewise excluded from the Govern ment. Finally the aristocratic cantons, Berne, Lucerne, Fribourg and Soleure formed a group of their own.