BBCSwitzerland started out as a country of mercenaries.
Why Switzerland never takes sides
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.
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,” said Laurent Goetschel, professor of political science at University of Basel and director of the research institute Swisspeace. “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.”
And the Swiss were reliable winners, so mercenary service continued to be a good source of income – until they lost. The reckoning came at the Battle of Marignano in 1515 when the French and Venetians arrived with artillery and armoured cavalry, and the Swiss brought pikes and spears. Sadly, technology had passed them by.
“After that defeat, they realised they were good soldiers in their way but halberds are not much good against artillery,” Church said. “They then stepped back from getting involved in Europe’s major political things.” Instead, the Swiss rented themselves out almost exclusively to France, which kept them in the black and also solved the inconvenience of occasionally finding themselves on two sides of the same battle. “It didn’t happen all the time but when it did happen, it was extraordinarily worrying and encouraged moves to neutrality,” Church said.
Even the way the country is set up seems like the epitome of peaceful coexistence. Politically it’s a direct democracy; culturally it recognises four language groups; and as you crisscross the cantons, you feel like you’re visiting four countries: Italy (in Ticino), Germany (in Zurich), France (in Geneva) and a unique descendant of the Roman Empire (in Grisons).
But with the next delicious forkful halfway to my mouth, one of my dining companions said something that shook me out of my cocoon: Switzerland – the world’s bastion of neutrality and peacekeeping – started out as a country of mercenaries.
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/2017 ... ose-a-side
