sWiTzErLaNd

Switzerland (German: Die SchweizFrench: Suisse, Italian: Svizzera, Romansh: Svizra, officially the Helvetic Confederation) is a landlocked alpine country of roughly 7.7 million people (2009) in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km². Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called cantons. Berne is the seat of the federal authorities, while the country's economic centres are its three global cities, Geneva, Basel and especially Zürich. Switzerland is one of the richest countries in the world by per capita gross domestic product. Zürich and Geneva have respectively been ranked as having the first and second highest quality of life in the world.

Napoleonic era
The Act of Mediation was Napoleon's attempt at a compromise between the Ancien Régime and a Republic.
In 1798 the armies of the French Revolution conquered Switzerland and imposed a new unified constitution. This centralised the government of the country and effectively abolished the cantons. The new regime, known as the Helvetic Republic, was highly unpopular. It had been imposed by a foreign invading army and destroyed centuries of tradition, making Switzerland nothing more than a French satellite state. The fierce French suppression of the Nidwalden Revolt in September of 1798 was an example of the oppressive presence of the French army and the local population's resistance to the occupation.
When war broke out between France and its rivals, Russian and Austrian forces invaded Switzerland. The Swiss refused to fight alongside the French in the name of the Helvetic Republic. In 1803 Napoleon organised a meeting of the leading Swiss politicians from both sides in Paris. The result was the Act of Mediation which largely restored Swiss autonomy and introduced a Confederation of 19 cantons. Henceforth much of Swiss politics would concern balancing the cantons' tradition of self-rule with the need for a central government.
In 1815 the Congress of Vienna fully re-established Swiss independence and the European powers agreed to permanently recognise Swiss neutrality. Swiss troops still served foreign governments until 1860 when they fought in the Siege of Gaeta. The treaty also allowed Switzerland to increase its territory, with the admission of the cantons of Valais, Neuchâtel and Geneva. Switzerland's borders have not changed since.

International institutions in Switzerland
The seat of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne.
An unusual number of international institutions have their seats in Switzerland, in part because of its policy of neutrality. The Red Cross was founded there in 1863 and still has its institutional centre in the country. European Broadcasting Union has the official headquarters in Geneva. Switzerland is not a member of the European Union; the Swiss people rejected membership in a referendum in the early 1990s. Switzerland is one of the most recent countries to have joined the United Nations, in 2002, even though Geneva is the second biggest centre for the United Nations after New York, and Switzerland was a founding member of the League of Nations. Apart from the United Nations headquarter, Geneva is host to many UN agencies, like the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and many others.

Nestlé HQ on the shores of Lac Léman

Greater Zürich area, home to 1.5 million employees and 150,000 companies, has taken top position in some life quality surveys.
If adjusted for purchasing power parity it ranks 15th. The World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report currently ranks Switzerland's economy as the second most competitive in the world. For much of the 20th century, Switzerland was the wealthiest country in Europe by a considerable margin. In 2005 the median household income in Switzerland was an estimated 95,000 CHF, the equivalent of roughly 81,000 USD (as of Nov. 2008) in purchasing power parity, which is similar to wealthy American states like California.

Engadin valley, tourism constitutes an important revenue for the alpine regions
Switzerland is home to several large multinational corporations. The largest Swiss companies by revenue are Glencore, Nestlé, Novartis, Hoffmann-La Roche, ABB and Adecco.[36] Also notable are UBS AG, Zurich Financial Services, Credit Suisse, Swiss Re, and The Swatch Group. Switzerland is ranked as having one of the most powerful economies in the world.
Chemicals, health and pharmaceutical, measuring instruments, musical instruments, real estate, banking and insurance, tourism, and international organizations are important industries in Switzerland.

Science, technology, and education
Education in Switzerland is very diverse because the constitution of Switzerland delegates the authority for the school system to the cantons. There are both public and private schools, including many private international schools. The minimum age for primary school is about six years in all cantons. Typically children choose their school depending on whether they want to speak French, German or Italian. Primary school continues until grade four or five, depending on the school.

The "Zentrum" campus of the ETH Zürich, the most prestigious[41] university in Switzerland, where Albert Einstein studied.
There are 12 Universities in Switzerland, ten of which are maintained at cantonal level and usually offer a range of non-technical subjects. The first university in Switzerland was founded in 1460 in Basel (with a faculty of medicine) and has a tradition of chemical and medical research in Switzerland. The biggest university in Switzerland is the University of Zurich with nearly 25,000 students. The two institutes sponsored by the federal government are the ETHZ in Zürich (founded 1855) and the EPFL in Lausanne (founded 1969 as such, formerly an institute associated with the University of Lausanne) which both have an excellent international reputation.

The still active NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers are powered by Swiss-built motors.
Geneva host the world's largest laboratory, the CERN,[47] dedicated to particle physics research. Another important research center is the Paul Scherrer Institute. Notable inventions include the Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), the Scanning tunneling microscope (Nobel prize) or the very popular Velcro. Some technologies enabled the exploration of new worlds such as the pressurized balloon of Auguste Piccard and the Bathyscaphe which permitted Jacques Piccard to reach the deepest point of the world's oceans.

CERN, world's largest laboratory, Geneva
Switzerland Space Agency, the Swiss Space Office, has been involved in various space technologies and programs. In addition it was one of the 10 founders of the European Space Agency in 1975 and is the seventh largest contributor to the ESA budget. In the private sector, several companies are implicated in the space industry such as Oerlikon Space[48] or Maxon Motors[49] who provide spacecraft structures.

Sports
Ski area over the glaciers of Lötschental
Skiing and mountaineering are much practiced by Swiss people and foreigners, the highest summits attract mountaineers from around the world. The Haute Route trekking or the Patrouille des Glaciers race have international reputation.
Like many other Europeans, many Swiss are fans of football (soccer) and the national team or 'Nati' is widely supported. Switzerland's most well known football clubs include Grasshoppers Zurich, Servette FC and FC Basel.

Roger Federer is one of the best tennisman alive and the current number two ATP tennis player
Many Swiss also follow ice hockey and support one of the 12 clubs in the League A. Switzerland will host the 2009 IIHF World Championships for the 10th time.[75] The Swiss team's latest achievement in ice hockey is the 1953 bronze medal. Switzerland is also the home of the sailing team Alinghi which won the America's Cup in 2003 and defended the title in 2007. Curling has been a very popular winter sport for more than 30 years. The Swiss teams have won 3 World Men's Curling Championships and 2 Women's titles. The Swiss men's team skipped by Dominic Andres won a gold medal at 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics. Golf is a growing sport with more than 35 courses available.
Over the last few years several Swiss tennis players, like Roger Federer and Martina Hingis, have been multiple Grand Slam singles champions. One of the world's best current ice skaters is Swiss Stéphane Lambiel. André Bossert is successful Swiss professional golfer.

Spengler Cup in Davos
Other sports where the Swiss have been successful include fencing (Marcel Fischer), cycling (Fabian Cancellara), whitewater slalom (Ronnie Dürrenmatt – canoe, Mathias Röthenmund – kayak), ice hockey (Swiss National League), beach volleyball (Sascha Heyer, Markus Egger, Paul and Martin Laciga), and skiing, (Bernhard Russi, Pirmin Zurbriggen, Didier Cuche).
Motorsport racecourses and events were banned in Switzerland following the 1955 Le Mans disaster with exception to events such as Hillclimbing. However, this ban was overturned in June 2007.[76] Even though racing has been banned in Switzerland, the country has produced successful racing drivers such as Clay

Local
Traditional wrestling
Swiss wrestling or "Schwingen" is an old tradition from the rural central cantons and considered the national sport by some.
Hornussen is another indigenous Swiss sport, which is like a cross between baseball and golf.