Switzerland, also known as the Swiss Confederation, is a mountainous, landlocked country in Western Europe bordered by France, Italy, and the German Empire.
The Swiss Confederation began as a defensive alliance between three mountain cantons in 1291 directed against the growing power of the Habsburg dukes of Austria. Victory against an invading Habsburg army in 1315 led to the formation of the Confederation, as five nearby cities joined the original three cantons. The Schwyz canton was the most energetic and expansionist member of the Confederation, and soon lent its name to the whole. Victory against the Habsburgs in the Swabian War of 1499 secured the de facto independence of the Confederation, and increased the membership to thirteen cantons and cities.
The coming of the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century divided the Confederation as the more urban members adopted Protestantism while the rural cantons remained Catholic. This division caused the Confederation to remain neutral during the Thirty Years' War, sparing it the bloodshed and chaos that devastated the rest of the Holy Roman Empire. In the Treaty of Westphalia that ended the war, Swiss independence from the Empire was confirmed. The Swiss Civil War of 1712 resulted in Protestantism gaining parity with Catholicism in the Confederation.
During the chaos of the Bloody Eighties, unsettled conditions throughout Europe led to an influx of refugees within the Confederation which continued until its borders were closed in 1885. Sobel makes no further mention of Switzerland, and the country does not appear in his index.