BASEL, or BASLE (Fr. Rile), a city and canton of Switzerland. The canton was divided in 1833 into two sovereign half-cantons, called Basel-city (Basel-stadt; in French, Basle-ville) and (Basel-landschaft; in French, Basle-campagne). The half canton of Basel-city consists only of the city, with its precincts, and three villages on the right bank of the Rhine; the remainder of the canton forms the half-canton of Basel country. The canton of B. is bounded by France and Baden, and by the cantons of Aargau, Soleure, and Berne, and has, according to different estimates, an extent of from 170 to about 200 sq. miles. Lying on the northern slope of the Jura, it is a country of hills and valleys. The mountain attain an elevation of from 2000 to 3000 feet. The chief rivers of B. are the Rhine (aic', flows through the n. part of the canton) and its tributaries, the Birz, and Ergloz. The soil is fertile and well cultivated. The climate, except in elevated situations, .is very mild. The inhabitants are chiefly employed in agriculture, the cultivation of fruit-trees and of the vine, cattle-husbandry, fishing, salt works, the manufacture of ribbons (which are manufactured to the value of £400,000 sterling annually), paper, woolens, linens, and leather. The transit trade is very con siderable.
The city of B. arose out of the Roman fortified post of Basilia or Basiliana, near Augusta Ratiracorum, of which once more important place the little village of Angst, near B., exhibits a few ruins. On the division of the Frank empire, the district of B. fell to Louis or Ludwig the German. The emperor Henry I., iu the earlier part of the 10th c., rebuilt the town, which had been destroyed. It then became a place of importance, and belonged for a time to Burgundy, but after 1032 formed part of the Germau empire. It became at an early period the seat of a bishop, who, from the 11th c., shared in the supreme power with the imperial governor, a number of noble families, and the bur gesses. Amidst many internal and external disturbances, the power of the nobility was gradually broken, that of the bishop restricted, and the authority of the burgesses extended. Surrounding towns were also destroyed, or conquered, and purchased, along with their territories, so that the city extended its dominion over a country district which until very recently was kept in a state of dependence and subjection. Involved in many feuds with the house of Hapsburg, B. closely allied itself to the Swiss confed eracy; and after the peace between the emperor Maximilian I. and the confederacy, B. formally joined it in 1501. From 1519 onwards, the writings of Luther were printed in B.; and at the end of twenty years from that time, the reformed doctrine had become generally prevalent, the chapter of the cathedral had left the city, and the convents had been suppressed. After the union with Switzerland, the triumph of the burgess party became also more complete, part of the nobility emigrated, and those who remained were placed upon the same level with the freemen of the municipal corporation. Orderly industry, economy. and an external severity of manners, became the characteristics of the citizens; but the peace of the city was not unfrequently disturbed by strifes conse quent upon the assertion of what was deemed undue authority by the magistrates. The government of the city, to which the whole canton was subject, was intrusted to a great and a little council, under the presidency of alternate burgomasters and chief wardens of the guilds; but the little council, uniting legislative and judicial functions with the highest executive authority, became gradually more and more preponderant. All par
ties in the city, however, remained always well combined against the country district; mid persons belonging to the city were appointed to all offices, civil and ecclesiastical, whilst the depression of the country district was completed by the neglect of a proper provision for education. This state of things caused great dissatisfaction, which repeat edly broke out in fruitless rebellion. Under the impulse communicated by the French revolution, equality of rights was conceded in 1798; but in 1814, although the equality of rights remained apparently intact, the new constitution of the canton was so framed, and the representation so distributed, as virtually to make the city again supreme. The discontent of the country district became so great that, after unsuccessful attempts to obtain redress of grievances by petition, civil war broke out in 1831, which did not cease till the troops of the Swiss confederation took possession of the canton, and the diet recognized the separation of the city and the country district, as sovereign half cantons, in 1833. The constitutions of the two half-cantons are in most respects similar, and are framed on the basis of the old constitution, modified in accordance with the principle of universal suffrage. According to the census of 1870, the half-canton of Basel-city contained 47,760 inhabitants, of whom 34,457 were Protestants; and Basel country, 54,127, of whom 10,245 were Roman Catholics. By the federal constitution. proclaimed May 29, 1874. the half-canton of Basel-city sends two, and the half-canton of Basel-country three, members to the national council. The capital of Basel-country is Liestal. Since its separation from the city, more ample provision has been made for education, and there has been a rapid increase of material prosperity. Both Roman Catholic and Protestant clergy are paid by the state, and the parishes, of the reformed church have received the right of choosing their own pastors.
The city of B. was much more populous in the middle ages than it is now. Its population in 18;0 was 44.834. In the 14th c., the number of its inhabitants was greatly It:duce(' by the plague, or " black death" (q.v.). which raged in it with terrible severity, and sometimes mentioned as the "death of Basel." It is well budt and clean, its appearance does not proclaim it the wealthiest city in Switzerland, which, however, it is. Amongst its buildings are a cathedral, founded in the beginning of the 11th c., by the emperor Henry II., and bridge over the Rhine, built in 1•26. The Rhine divides the city into two parts—great B., on the s. side, and little B., on the north. B. is connected by railway with Strasburg on the one hand, and Berne, Lucerne, Zurich, etc.. on the other. It has many benevolent and educational institutions, among which are an orphan asylum, and an institution for deaf mutes; a university, founded in 1459, which has a library of 120,000 volumes, and a very valuable collection of manuscripts, a numismatological collection, a botanic garden, and a museum of natural history; the new museum, in which there are several pictures of the younger Ilo'beim who was long resident in B. (some VOCOUIIIS say lie was born here); a public library of 70,000 volumes. During the reforma tion. the university was a central point of spiritual life, and it has numbered among its professors men of great eminence in learning and science, including Erasmus, who (lied here in 1336, and the mathematicians Euler and Bernouilli, who were natives of B. ; but it is now little frequented. Ti.e pop. of the whole canton in 1876 was 107.063.