In 1919, Vorarlberg voted to join Switzerland, but Swiss protestants feared a new catholic canton
In 1815, Valtellina was expected to join Switzerland as part of Graubünden or new Canton. Again, Swiss protestants were against it because the region was catholic
Also in 1815, the Land of Gex was expected to join the Canton of Geneva, but Geneva protestants didn’t want a new catholic region
In 1860, the Savoy regions of Chablais and Faucigny wanted to join Switzerland, but again Swiss protestants didn’t want a new catholic region
Switzerland could have Canton Vorarlberg, Canton Valtellina and Canton Savoy, but due to RELIGION, it doesn’t. And I find this very sad
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial\_evolution\_of\_Switzerland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_evolution_of_Switzerland)
18 comments
Canton Savoy is a tad more complex: there is a linguistic aspect to it too.
i really don’t get the problem here. literally who cares wether switzerland is larger?
It’s a shame how much humanity has lost bc of religion
Several of these also included cultural and linguistic balance, as well as just sheer political disputes with other countries (as I recall, Italy made it clear that if Vorarlberg was accepted, they would demand Ticino – and I’d frankly much rather have Ticino than Vorarlberg)- and most at a time when we were less stable as a country than we are now – so not entirely religion.
But moreover, I don’t think less territory necessarily means we lost. It’s not an inherent positive to have more potential cantons.
thicc Switzerland 😳
For every case you mentioned were several factors at work, that prevented them from joining switzerland. Religion is only a small part. I cant imagine that the young state of switzerland would have risked confrontation with its neighbours over those territorys, especially not after the devastating french occupation had just ended.
Oh no the really important thing, the Size of Switzerland.
Size is everything, right? In earnest, we avoided another mountainous region which would cost us an enormous amount of money…
So size does matter?
So you mean: it’s a shame how much we lost because of protestants :p
Funny how non-believers always find a way to blame religion
probably not bc of the problem of having conflict with neighbors , the cost of more territories , integrating more people etc , nah its just religion
Interesting but good this way
And how/why exactly would Switzerland be better with these regions beeing part of it?
Religion is not why these ‘new cantons’ did not join Switzerland. Regions cannot simply detach from a country and annex themselves to another one. It’s not constitutional / legal for most countries, and surely it is not for either of Switzerland’s neighbours.
And all this happened in the late 19th / early 20th century, when nationalism was at all time high and the world was literally on the cusp of 2 world wars.
France, Italy and Germany would have never allowed for one of their regions to simply detach and be annexed to a neighbouring state. And Switzerland would have never risked its newly embarked neutrality strategy to annex regions that effectively were poor, mountainous, unpopulated areas.
Religion is very important and has a large influence on culture. Switzerland wouldn’t be the same today with a different ratio of catholic vs protestant cantons and population.
Putin might be able to help, no?
Ironically, I’d wager half of them would willingly join Switzerland if given a choice xD
I’m pretty sure religion wasn’t the biggest factor in this, but considering that there was a Catholic Sonderbund triggered civil war during that time period, I could easily understand why protestants might have been cautious about adding more Catholic regions to the equation.