Structure of the Swiss Confederacy in the 18th century

During the 18th century, the Old Swiss Confederacy bore no resemblance to a state in modern terms. In fact, it was made up of a network of small sovereign states which had formed a loose confederation of states. However, not all Swiss regions were equally integrated in this federation. The Thirteen Old Cantons, which were either urban or rural locations, formed the core. Zurich, Bern, Lucerne, Fribourg, Solothurn, Schaffhausen and Basel were urban cantons or city-states, whereas the “rural” cantons included Uri, Schwyz, Glarus, Zug, Obwalden and Nidwalden, as well as both Appenzell Innerrhoden and Appenzell Ausserrhoden. In addition to this, there were subject territories that were under the administration of the entitled cantons and this is where a considerable portion of the population lived. These territories were either directly controlled by one of the 13 Old Cantons, or they were condominiums governed by several cantons. Apart from the Appenzell cantons, all the entitled cantons had these subject territories, and the most important of these largely belonged to the city-states. This meant that Bern and Zurich alone had command of approximately two fifths of the Swiss population. In addition to these thirteen cantons and their subject territories, there were also associates (towns, principalities, and the republics of Grisons and Valais) which had an informal relationship with the core cantons. The Diet, where the entitled cantons could each delegate two representatives and the associated cantons could each delegate one representative, was the only common institution acting for the confederation as a whole. Its most important tasks comprised the administration of the condominiums, foreign policy and defence. However, it had very limited powers and decision-making by means of voting, which required unanimity, was rather infrequent on the part of the representatives instructed by the cantons. As demonstrated at a later stage, the Diet proved to be incapable of putting up any serious military resistance even when the French invaded.

During the 18th century, the tendency towards authoritarian rule provoked a number of uprisings in the subject territories concerned. However, these uprisings were all crushed with the utmost severity until 1798