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 530 SWITZERLAND first unchanged; but the war of Austria for reestablishing its rule in the emancipated can- tons, which lasted with many interruptions for about 200 years, ended with severing also the ties which bound Switzerland to Germa- ny. The Hapsburgs also lost their possessions lying between the Alps and the Rhine, and their old family castles of Hapsburg and Ky- burg. The league of the three old cantons, which had first been formed in 1291 and re- newed in 1308, was again established as a perpetual confederacy in 1315, after the great victory over the Austrians at Morgarten on the confines of Schwytz and Zug. In 1332 Lucerne joined the confederacy, which re- ceived the name of the Four Forest Cantons ( Vierwaldstatte). Zurich came in in 1351, Gla- rus and Zug in 1352, and Bern in 1353, when the eight united cantons erected the "perpet- ual league of the eight old places of the con- federacy," so called because no new members were added to the confederacy till 1481, and these eight enjoyed many privileges till 1798. Other victories over Austria were gained at Sempach (Lucerne), July 9, 1386, and at Na- fels (Glarus), April 9, 1388; after which the Swiss became aggressive, and at length, not- withstanding their defeats at Arbedo (Ticino) in 1422 and at St. Jacob (Basel) in .1444, an- nexed a considerable portion of Austrian ter- ritory. These protracted conflicts awakened such a fondness for warfare that many Swiss soldiers entered foreign armies, where until a very recent period they earned the ques- tionable reputation of being the most loyal defenders of the cause which they espoused, even if it were that of despotism. Foreign enlistment without permission was forbidden by the federal government in 1860. There were occasional internal dissensions, and Zu- rich from 1440 to 1450 seceded from the con- federacy. As at this time Schwytz had a pre- dominant influence in the councils of the con- federacy, its cantc/nal colors (white and red) were adopted as the confederate ensign, and the party name Swiss (Schwytz) became the designation of the entire people. In 1475 the cantons joined France, Austria, and some of the Alsatian free towns in the league against Burgundy. The Swiss gained a great victory over Charles, duke of Burgundy, at Granson, in March, 1476; the confederates annihilated his army at Morat in June; and the war terminated with the defeat and death of the duke at Nancy in January, 1477. (See CHARLES THE BOLD.) The admission of Solothurn and Fribourg into the confederacy in 1481 threatened a civil war, which was averted by the exhortations of the hermit Nicholas von der Flue. Other internal dissensions were ter- minated by a war against the German emperor (1498), which was concluded by the peace of Basel in 1499, and Basel and Schaffhausen, for faithful assistance, were admitted as members of the confederacy, to which Appenzell was added in 1513. The number of cantons thus rose to 13, and remained so till 1798. The Swiss conquered Lombardy for Duke Maximil- ian Sforza in 1512, and routed the French at Novara in 1513, but in 1515 lost the great battle at Marignano. They found France will- ing to conclude with them an advantageous peace in 1516, which was kept till 1798. The reformation of the 16th century led to open war between the Reformed and Catholic can- tons, but soon after the battle at Cappel (Zurich) in 1531 peace was concluded, and every canton left at liberty to introduce or to oppose the reformation. (See REFORMATION, vol. xiv., pp. 246-'7.) Geneva freed itself, with the aid of Bern, from Savoy, and in 1536 became a Protestant republic, but without being admit- ted into the confederacy. Yaud was conquered by Bern from Savoy in 1536 and reformed; but on the other hand, the Catholic cantons of Lucerne, Uri, Schwytz, Unterwalden, Solo- thurn, and Fribourg formed in 1586, by the ad- vice of Archbishop Charles Borromeo of Milan, the " golden league " for the common defence of the Catholic religion. The religious split long continued a prolific source of dissension between the cantons. In 1597 the canton of Appenzell, in order to prevent a religious war, was separated into two independent half can- tons, the Catholic part being called Inner Rhodes, and the Reformed Outer Rhodes. In 1602 the Reformed were expelled from Valais, and in 1620 Protestantism was forcibly sup- pressed in the Valtellina. In Grisons a bloody civil war was kindled, in which other cantons also took part, and which made the country one of the chief seats of the war between France, Spain, and Austria. As the federal courts of Germany still made claims on Switz- erland as belonging to the German empire, the Swiss sent the burgomaster Weltstein of Basel as their representative to the peace congress of Minister, which at the peace of Westphalia (1648) pronounced Switzerland entirely inde- pendent of Germany. From this time until the outbreak of the French revolution in 1789, the history of Switzerland presents few events of general importance. It had no foreign war, and the occasional religious contests at home were generally of short duration. The most important of them was the second war of Toggenburg in 1712, when 150,000 Swiss were in arms against each other. Other internal commotions arose out of the oligarchic form of government which was gradually established in the cantons of Bern, Fribourg, Solothurn, and Lucerne, and out of the oppressed condition of the subjected territories whose inhabitants were excluded from all political rights. In 1798 two French armies marched, without any respectable pretext, into Swiss territory, cap- tured on March 5 the city of Bern, plundered its armory and treasury, and on April 12 proclaimed at Aarau the one and indivisible Helvetic republic, divided into 18 cantons, with Aarau as the federal capital. By the new constitution Bern was divided into four