Switzerland

The Place

The popular image of Switzerland is so riddled with myth that books which propose to set the record straight hardly know where to begin. The home of William Tell has no natural frontiers, no common language, no culture and no official religion.

The picture of bankers and milkmaids, chocolate and watches, ski resorts and yodelling is hard to reconcile even with the origins of Switzerland's name. It was the invention of the Habsburgs, who gave their motley collection of southern neighbours the title of their most pugnacious members, the Schwyz. This played on the German word for "sweat", implying a people not too fussy about hygiene.

The "peace-loving" Swiss were, up to about 150 years ago, almost constantly at war with themselves or others, their men the foremost mercenaries of the age. It suited Switzerland's powerful neighbours to have an adjacent neutral state, but the domestic squabbles threatening this haven included civil war, peasant uprisings and religious disputes.

Somehow, the Swiss managed to pull themselves back from the brink of disaster. The things which did not happen in Switzerland were instrumental in making the country what it is. Nationalists of the 19th century advocated language ties as a prime criterion in setting the frontiers of modern Europe. The Swiss ignored this, as they did the idea that centralised government was desirable or that a monarch or a professional army was necessary. "The Swiss believe", says one of them, "that they are rational and realistic. They are not. They will take pains to define a principle, immediately think of a dozen exceptions to the rule, then say it's better to use common sense. In other words, they believe in the principle of no principles."