Why Landlocked Switzerland Never Takes Sides
Billie Cohen
BBC Features correspondent
What most people don’t know is that the Swiss had to choose a policy of neutrality, because for centuries, they'd been a country of mercenaries.
Switzerland – the world’s bastion of neutrality and peacekeeping – started out as a country of mercenaries. Back in the Middle Ages, the Swiss were very good at winning wars. So good that they turned it into a thriving business. Basically mercenary service was due to economic reasons.
The old Swiss confederacy was a very poor country – it was not suitable for large-scale farming and it had no access to colonial resources and no sea access, so being mercenaries was just a source of income. So mercenary service continued to be a good source of income – until they lost.
The reckoning came at the Battle of Marignano when the French and Venetians arrived with artillery and armoured cavalry, and the Swiss brought pikes and spears. Sadly, technology had passed them by. They then stepped back from getting involved in Europe’s major political things. Since then, Switzerland has basically been the non-partisan state we’ve all come to know.
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/2017 ... ose-a-side