Swiss Timeline

Timeline of Historical Events

• 1291 Foundation of the Swiss Confederation
• 1484-1531 Swiss Reformation began in Zurich
• Early 1500’s First church records begin
• 1535 Anabaptist and Mennonite movements after 1535 began in the rural areas
• 1536 Jean Calvin came to Geneva and reformation began there
• 1545-1563 Catholic Counter Reformation
• 1618-1648 30 Years’ War, Swiss confederacy remains peaceful
• 1656, 1712 Civil Wars caused by religious strife
• 1803-1815 Civil War brings Helvetic Republic to an end and Napoleon confirms Switzerland’s borders and its perpetual neutrality
• 1815-1830 Loose confederacy reestablished with 22 cantons
• 1817 Emigration of 3000 Swiss people for North and South America
• 1838 Church records have standardized columnar entries
• 1874  Marriages, birth and death certificates are controlled by state authorities instead of the church
• 1874 Jesuit order is banned from Switzerland until 1973
• 1882-83 13,500 Swiss emigrate to US, Argentina, Canada and Brasil
• 1914-1918 World War I, Swiss neutrality
• 1918-1933 Economic crisis and inner conflicts
• 1918 Women allowed to vote
• 1933-1939 Hitler seen as a danger to Swiss independence
• 1939-1945 World War II, Swiss neutrality
• 1979 Canton Jura separates from Canton Bern