The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c7.10

c7.10

What, again, is the lesson of Switzerland,¹ the oldest republic of the modern world, with regard to the inception of the republican idea? In early times the Swiss peasantry and nobility lived in forest cantons. In 1291 three districts, Schwyz, Uri and Unterwalden, formed a league to defend themselves against powerful neighbours. They defeated the Austrian invader at Morgarten in 1315, and successfully fought against the laws of the Diet of Worms (1500). Freedom from Imperial interference was thus ensured by the strength of arms. The territory of the league was gradually extended by the voluntary accession of new cantons, and the complete independence of the Confederacy was acknowledged by the treaty of Westphalia (1648). The story of the Swiss republic is thus similar to that of the American. We have here republicanism developed among peoples that had never known kingship as an actual institution of social life.