"exhibition was re-arranged. In the meantime, the institution changed its name to ""Bundesbriefmuseum"" (Museum of the Swiss Charters of Confederation). Federal Charter of 1291 The Federal Charter or Letter of Alliance () documents the Eternal Alliance or League of the Three Forest Cantons (), the union of three cantons in what is now central Switzerland. It is dated in early August 1291 and initiates the current 1 August Swiss National Day. This agreement, in Latin, cites a previous (lost or most likely not existent in written form) similar pact. It is currently exhibited at the Museum of the Swiss Charters"
"started in 1291 when Rudolph bought all the rights over the town of Lucerne and the abbey estates in Unterwalden from Murbach Abbey in Alsace. The ""Waldstätten"" saw their trade route over Lake Lucerne cut off and feared losing their independence. When Rudolph died on July 15, 1291 the Communities prepared to defend themselves. On August 1, 1291 an Everlasting League was made between the Forest Communities for mutual defense against a common enemy. Uri and Schwyz got their status reconfirmed by Adolf of Nassau in 1297, but to no avail, for Albert finally won the power struggle and became"
"border. The people of the Alps speak German, French, Italian, Slovene and Romansh. The German spoken in the German speaking part of Switzerland is a range of Swiss dialects. Early Alpine tribes included the Helvetii and Alemanni. The Swiss Confederacy was an alliance among the valley communities of the central Alps founded by three cantons in 1291, later expanding to form the nucleus of modern Switzerland. Disciplined Swiss mercenaries armed with pikes gained a formidable reputation during the perennial European wars of the Middle Ages. In the Swiss peasant war of 1653 the people rose up against the nobles and"
"concluded between the people of the alpine areas of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden (). The participants are referred to as ""conspirati"" and (synonymously) ""coniurati"", traditionally translated in German as ""Eidgenossen"" (and in English as ""Confederates""). The charter was set up as a canon for judicature and defence purposes (only two of seven paragraphs address foreign dangers), probably prompted by the death of Rudolf I of Habsburg on 15 July 1291 to ensure legal certainty. The authenticity of the letter used to be disputed as a supposed modern forgery but modern historians now agree that it is certainly a product of"
"of the medieval period was a time of power struggles between competing dynasties such as the House of Savoy, the Visconti in northern Italy and the House of Habsburg in Austria and Slovenia. In 1291 to protect themselves from incursions by the Habsburgs, four cantons in the middle of Switzerland drew up a charter that is considered to be a declaration of independence from neighbouring kingdoms. After a series of battles fought in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, more cantons joined the confederacy and by the 16th century Switzerland was well-established as a separate state. During the Napoleonic Wars"
"1991 with the signing of the Alpine Convention between all Alpine countries and the European Union. This process was strengthened by the appearance of a new set of cultural values for the Alps. In the nineteenth century, there had been a tension between the romantic advocates of the “sacredness” of the Alpine peaks (such as John Ruskin), and modern mountain climbers (such as Leslie Stephen), who promoted the notion of the Alps as the “playground of Europe.” In the twentieth century, the mountains acquired a clearly positive, iconic, status as places unsullied by undesirable urban influences such as pollution, noise"
"the creation of Switzerland. On April 16, 1291 Rudolf I bought all the rights over the town of Lucerne and the abbey estates in Unterwalden from Murbach Abbey. The ""Waldstätte"" or Forest Communities (Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden) saw their trade route over Lake Lucerne cut off and feared losing their independence. When Rudolph died on July 15, 1291 the Communities prepared to defend themselves. On August 1, 1291 an Everlasting League was made between the Forest Communities for mutual defense against a common enemy. This league formed the nucleus around which the modern country of Switzerland grew. From the 14th"
"Alpine Convention The Alpine Convention is an international territorial treaty for the sustainable development of the Alps. The objective of the treaty is to protect the natural environment of the Alps while promoting its development. This Framework Convention involves the European Union and eight states (Austria, Germany, France, Italy, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Slovenia, and Switzerland). Opened to signature in 1991 and consisting of a Framework Convention, various implementation protocols and declarations, it entered into force in 1995, contributing to reinforce the recognition of special qualities and specific characteristics of the Alps, going beyond national boundaries and seeking international action. The geographic"
"to finance wars and further territorial acquisitions. As king, he finally had also become the direct liege lord of the Forest Communities, which thus saw their previous independence curtailed. On the April 16, 1291 Rudolph bought all the rights over the town of Lucerne and the abbey estates in Unterwalden from Murbach Abbey in Alsace. The Forest Communities saw their trade route over Lake Lucerne cut off and feared losing their independence. When Rudolph died on July 15, 1291 the Communities prepared to defend themselves. On August 1, 1291 a Everlasting League was made between the Forest Communities for mutual"
"the neighboring cities and monasteries. Conflicts over grazing rights and ownership of the alpine meadows led to several wars within what is now Switzerland, including the pivotal Battle of Morgarten (1315), which started due to a long-simmering feud between Schwyz and Einsiedeln Abbey. In 2011, the UNESCO declared Alpine transhumance in the Bregenz Forest as intangible cultural heritage. In the valleys along the edge of the Alps, cattle production with associated transhumance was generally the rule. However, in the inner alpine valleys the climate was drier which allowed farming even at higher elevations. These areas tended to be mixed between"
"them extending their territory to the eastern Swiss plateau. The Old Swiss Confederacy was an alliance among the valley communities of the central Alps. The Confederacy, governed by nobles and patricians of various cantons, facilitated management of common interests and ensured peace on the important mountain trade routes. The Federal Charter of 1291 agreed between the rural communes of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden is considered the confederacy's founding document, even though similar alliances are likely to have existed decades earlier. By 1353, the three original cantons had joined with the cantons of Glarus and Zug and the Lucerne, Zürich and"
"Austrian–Italian border in 1991. By the 6th century BC, the Celtic La Tène culture was well established. Hannibal famously crossed the Alps with a herd of elephants, and the Romans had settlements in the region. In 1800, Napoleon crossed one of the mountain passes with an army of 40,000. The 18th and 19th centuries saw an influx of naturalists, writers, and artists, in particular, the Romantics, followed by the golden age of alpinism as mountaineers began to ascend the peaks. The Alpine region has a strong cultural identity. The traditional culture of farming, cheesemaking, and woodworking still exists in Alpine"
"central Alps, and retains nowadays the name of Confederacy for reasons of historical tradition. The confederacy facilitated management of common interests (e.g. freedom from external domination, especially by the Austrian Habsburgs, development of republican institutions in a Europe composed of monarchies, free trade, etc.) and ensured peace between the different cultural entities in the central alpine area. After the Sonderbund War of 1847, when some of the Catholic cantons of Switzerland tried to set up a separate union ("""" in German) against the Protestant majority, the resulting political system established by the victorious Protestant cantons acquired all the characteristics of"
"of the Alpine part of the border had already been the outer border of the Three Leagues since the 15th century (with the exception of the Vinschgau, which was acquired by Austria only in 1499 and remained disputed territory into the 18th century). By contrast, the Alpine Rhine Valley has a complicated feudal history (being partly acquired by the Counts of Toggenburg during the 14th and 15th centuries), but the territories on its left bank had become subject territories of the Swiss Confederacy by the 17th century. The current border is a product of the creation of the Helvetic Republic"
"population to find shelter near Roman fortresses, like the Castrum Rauracense near Augusta Raurica. The Empire built another line of defence at the north border (the so-called Donau-Iller-Rhine-Limes), but at the end of the fourth century the increased Germanic pressure forced the Romans to abandon the linear defence concept, and the Swiss plateau was finally open to the settlement of Germanic tribes. In the Early Middle Ages, from the end of the 4th century, the western extent of modern-day Switzerland was part of the territory of the Kings of the Burgundians. The Alemanni settled the Swiss plateau in the 5th"
"the mountain passes. The Roman expansion brought the defeat of the Allobrogi in 121 BC and during the Gallic Wars in 58 BC Julius Caesar overcame the Helvetii. The Rhaetians continued to resist but were eventually conquered when the Romans turned northward to the Danube valley in Austria and defeated the Brigantes. The Romans built settlements in the Alps; towns such as Aosta (named for Augustus) in Italy, Martigny and Lausanne in Switzerland, and Partenkirchen in Bavaria show remains of Roman baths, villas, arenas and temples. Much of the Alpine region was gradually settled by Germanic tribes, (Lombards, Alemanni, Bavarii,"
"cantons of Schwyz, Uri and Unterwalden entered into an Eternal Alliance that would eventually become the Swiss Confederation. The Federal Charter of 1291 was probably prompted by the death of Rudolf I of Habsburg on 15 July 1291 and created a defensive alliance. The ""Rütlischwur"" (Oath of the Rütli) was another alliance between the Forest Cantons in or around 1308 and brought the cantons closer together. The canton of Schwyz took the leadership in the confederation early on. As early as 1320 the name of the canton was applied to the whole of the confederation. It was only in 1803,"
"of the Eastern Alps. After the Slavic principality of Carantania was conquered by Frankish forces in 788, the area came under Bavarian influence. German King Henry II ceded ownership of the area in 1004 to Albuin, Bishop of Brixen as a sign of gratitude for the assistance the Church was giving to the king in his attempt to strengthen imperial rule in that part of northern Italy. In 1011, Henry II signed another deed of donation that added the castle and an area of land the size of thirty king's farms. That area, between the Sava Bohinjka and the Sava"
"today many fields, including tourism, traffic, infrastructure, social services and environmental issues in the sensitive central Alps area. In 2001, the joint ""Alpendeklaration"" (Alpine declaration), a charter for sustainable development, called for a reconciliation of economic pressures with the wish of the local population to preserve its living environment. A common liaison office was set up in Brussels to foster relations with the EU. Following a historic meeting between the parliaments of Austrian Tyrol and South Tyrol in 1971, the first in fifty-seven years, the joint meetings were extended twenty years later to include the Trentino. In the 1990s the"
"regions of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden (the ""Waldstätten"" or ""forest communities"") gained imperial immediacy under the Hohenstaufen emperors still in the first half of the 13th century. An important aspect of the early confederacy, expressed in the ""Pfaffenbrief"" of 1370, was the guarantee of peace along the road from Zürich to the Gotthard Pass. The Swiss also had an interest in extending their influence south of the Alps to secure the trade route across the pass to Milan. Beginning in 1331, they initially exerted their influence through peaceful trade agreements, but in the 15th century, their involvement turned military. 1403"
"so many invasions and annexations in its history. By 58 BC, the Romans had invaded and established Alsace as a center of viticulture. To protect this highly valued industry, the Romans built fortifications and military camps that evolved into various communities which have been inhabited continuously to the present day. While part of the Roman Empire, Alsace was part of Germania Superior. With the decline of the Roman Empire, Alsace became the territory of the Germanic Alemanni. The Alemanni were agricultural people, and their Germanic language formed the basis of modern-day dialects spoken along the Upper Rhine (Alsatian, Alemannian, Swabian,"
"for the time being, and in the subsequent years (970–980) the Holy Roman Empire was secured through the establishment of a wide belt of border marches against south-eastern threats. These included the March of Austria (contemporarily ' in Latin or ' in Old High German), the ' (the Carantanian march, later the March of Styria), the , the ' (which at that time extended far to the south over the Sava river and encompassed the Windic March), and the Marches of Carniola and Istria. The marches of Verona and Friuli had already been integrated into what would become the northern"
"least 1291. To stage a European-wide crusade, it was essential to prevent conflict between the greater princes on the continent. A major obstacle to this was represented by the conflict between the French House of Anjou ruling southern Italy, and the kingdom of Aragon in Spain. In 1282, the citizens of Palermo rose up against Charles of Anjou and turned for help to Peter of Aragon, in what has become known as the Sicilian Vespers. In the war that followed, Charles of Anjou's son, Charles of Salerno, was taken prisoner by the Aragonese. The French began planning an attack on"
"in the late 18th century and early 19th century, Napoleon annexed territory formerly controlled by the Habsburgs and Savoys. In 1798 he established the Helvetic Republic in Switzerland; two years later he led an army across the St. Bernard pass and conquered almost all of the Alpine regions. After the fall of Napoléon, many alpine countries developed heavy protections to prevent any new invasion. Thus, Savoy built a series of fortifications in the Maurienne valley in order to protect the major alpine passes, such as the col du Mont-Cenis that was even crossed by Charlemagne and his father to defeat"
"Alpine area at the end of the 6th century. Coming from two directions, North (via today's East Austria and Czech Republic), settling in the area of today's Carinthia and west Styria, and South (via today's Slavonia), settling in the area of today's central Slovenia. This Slavic tribe, also known as the Alpine Slavs, was submitted to Avar rule before joining the Slavic King Samo's tribal union in 623 AD. After Samo's death, the Slavs of Carniola (in present-day Slovenia) again fell to Avar rule, while the Slavs north of the Karavanke range (in present-day Austrian regions of Carinthia, Styria and"
"defense against a common enemy. In the Valais, increasing tensions between the bishops of Sion and the Counts of Savoy led to a war beginning in 1260. The war ended after the Battle at the ""Scheuchzermatte"" near Leuk in 1296, where the Savoy forces were crushed by the bishop's army, supported by forces from Bern. After the peace of 1301, Savoy kept only the lower part of the Valais, while the bishop controlled the upper Valais. With the opening of the Gotthard Pass in the 13th century, the territory of Central Switzerland, primarily the valley of Uri, had gained great"
"rule and raised the taxes to finance wars and further territorial acquisitions. When he died in 1291, his son Albert I got involved in a power struggle with Adolf of Nassau for the German throne, and the Habsburg rule over the alpine territories weakened temporarily. Anti-Habsburg insurgences sprung up in Swabia and Austria, but were quashed quickly by Albert in 1292. Zürich had participated in this uprising. Albert besieged the city, which had to accept him as its patron. This time of turmoil prompted the ""Waldstätten"" to cooperate more closely, trying to preserve or regain their ""Reichsfreiheit"". The first alliance"
"trees, stone pines, Mediterranean Cypress, palms, and even some banana species. The lower hilly regions are known for their extended chestnut forests, sometimes referred to as ""German Tuscany"" in tourist advertising. Formerly a Celtic region, this area was conquered by the Roman Empire under Emperor Augustus in about 12 BCE, whereafter it was part of the Germania Superior province. During the decay of the Empire, Alamanni tribes settled here; their territory was conquered by Francia under King Clovis I about 496. From 511 onwards the area belonged to the eastern part of Frankish Austrasia, that—as Rhenish Franconia—became part of East"
"along the main Alpine ridge into a northern (""Noricum ripense"") and a southern (""Noricum mediterraneum""). Across the Ziller in the west, corresponding to the present provinces of Vorarlberg and Tyrol lay the province of Raetia incorporating the earlier territory of Vindelicia. In the east lay Pannonia, today's Burgenland. To the south was Region 10, ""Venetia et Histria"". The Danube river formed the Danubian ""limes"" (""limes Danubii fluminis""), a defensive line separating Upper and Lower Austria from the Germanic tribes of the Marcomanni and Quadi. The Romans built many cities that survive today. They include Vindobona (Vienna), Juvavum (Salzburg), Valdidena (Innsbruck),"
"with Switzerland and 420 km with Austria) and ""Vallo Alpino Orientale"" (220 km with Jugoslavia). Alpine Wall The Alpine Wall (""Vallo Alpino"") was an Italian system of fortifications along the 1851 km of Italy's northern frontier. Built in the years leading up to World War II at the direction of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, the defensive line faced France, Switzerland, Austria and Yugoslavia. It was defended by the ""Guardia alla Frontiera"" (GaF), Italian special troops. The Alpine line was similar in concept to other fortifications of the same era, including the Maginot Line of France, the Siegfried Line of Germany,"
"History of the Alps The valleys of the Alps have been inhabited since prehistoric times. The Alpine culture, which developed there, centers on transhumance. Currently the Alps are divided among eight states: France, Monaco, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany and Slovenia. In 1991 the Alpine Convention was established to regulate this transnational area, whose area measures about . The Wildkirchli caves in the Appenzell Alps show traces of Neanderthal habitation. During the last glacial maximum, the entire Alps were covered in ice. Anatomically modern humans reach the Alpine region by c. 30,000 years ago. MtDNA Haplogroup K is a genetic"
"freed from the constant threat of aggression from their neighbours that had existed in the anarchic centuries prior to the imposition of the ""pax Romana"". In addition, the Roman alliance protected the Italian peninsula from external invasion, such as the periodic and devastating incursions of Gauls from the Po Valley. Although no longer in control of war and foreign policy, each ""socius"" remained otherwise fully autonomous, with its own laws, system of government, coinage and language. Moreover, the military burden was only half that shouldered by Roman citizens, as the latter numbered only about half the population of the ""socii"","
"three-year campaign on the Alps against Austro-Hungarian Kaiserjäger and the German Alpenkorps in what has since become known as the ""War in snow and ice"". During World War II, the Alpini fought alongside the Axis forces, mainly across the Eastern Front and in the Balkans Campaigns. After the end of the Cold War, the Italian Army was reorganised in the 1990s. Three out of five ""Alpini"" brigades and many support units were disbanded. Currently, the Alpini are deployed in Afghanistan. To honour the Alpini a park in the northern Illawarra suburb of Tarrawanna in Wollongong ,New South Wales ,Australia was"