Наполеон дәуірінде Швейцарияның рөлі

Overview of the role of Switzerland during the Napoleonic era
During the French Revolutionary Wars, the revolutionary armies marched eastward, enveloping Switzerland in their battles against Austria. In 1798, Switzerland was completely overrun by the French and was renamed the Helvetic Republic. The Helvetic Republic encountered severe economic and political problems. In 1798 the country became a battlefield of the Revolutionary Wars, culminating in the Battles of Zürich in 1799. In 1803 Napoleon's Act of Mediation reestablished a Swiss Confederation that partially restored the sovereignty of the cantons, and the former tributary and allied territories of Aargau, Thurgau, Graubünden, St. Gallen, Vaud and Ticino became cantons with equal rights. The Congress of Vienna of 1815 fully re established Swiss independence and the European powers agreed to permanently recognise Swiss neutrality. At this time, the territory of Switzerland was increased for the last time, by the new cantons of Valais, Neuchâtel and Geneva. The Restoration, the time leading up to the Sonderbundskrieg, was marked with turmoil, and the rural population struggling against the yoke of the urban centres, for example in the Züriputsch of 1839.

During the last years of the Ancien Régime, the growing conflicts throughout the Confederation (aristocratic cities against peasant farmers, Protestant against Catholic, and canton against canton) had weakened and distracted the Diet. In Paris, the Helvetian Club, founded in 1790 by several exiled Vaudois and Fribourgers, was the centre from which the ideas of the French Revolution were spread in the western part of the Confederation. During the next eight years, revolts sprang up across the Confederation and, unlike earlier ones, many were successful. In 1790 the Lower Valais rose against the upper districts to which it was subject. On 9 December 1797, Frédéric César de La Harpe, a member of the Helvetian Club from Vaud, asked France to invade Bern to protect Vaud. Seeing a chance to remove a feudal neighbor and gain Bern's wealth, France agreed. The constitution of the Helvetic Republic came mainly from the design of Peter Ochs, a magistrate from Basel. It established a central two chamber legislature which included the Grand Council (with 8 members per canton) and the Senate (4 members per canton). The executive, known as the Directory, comprised 5 members. The Constitution also established actual Swiss citizenship, as opposed to just citizenship of one's canton of birth. No general agreement existed about the future of Switzerland. Leading groups split into the Unitaires, who wanted a united republic, and the Federalists, who represented the old aristocracy and demanded a return to cantonal sovereignty. Coup attempts became frequent, and the new régime had to rely on the French to survive. Furthermore, the occupying forces plundered many towns and villages. This made it difficult to establish a new working state. Many Swiss citizens resisted these "progressive" ideas, particularly in the central areas of the country. Some of the more controversial aspects of the new regime limited freedom of worship, which outraged many of the more devout citizens. Several uprisings took place, with the three Forest Cantons (Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden) rebelling in early 1798. The Schwyzers, under Alois von Reding, were crushed by the French on the heights of Morgarten in April and May, as were the Unterwaldners in August and September. Due to the destruction and plundering, the Swiss soon turned against the French. On the morning of 27 May, Hotze assembled his force into three columns and marched toward Winterthur. Opposite him, Michel Ney deployed his force around the heights, the so called Ober Winterthur, a ring of low lying hills some north of the city. The overall commander of the forward line, Jean Victor Tharreau, had informed Ney that he would send Jean de Dieu Soult's division to support him; Ney understood this to mean he was to make a stand along the entire outpost line, and that he would not be isolated. He expected his small force would receive reinforcements from Soult's division. Consequently, Ney directed the weakest brigade, under the command of Théodore Maxime Gazan, to move up a long valley toward Frauenfeld, and another brigade, under the command of Dominique Mansuy Roget, to take the right, preventing any Austrian flanking maneuver. By mid morning, Hotze's advanced guard had encountered moderate French resistance first from the two brigades Ney had at his disposal. The Austrian advance troops quickly overran the weaker brigade and took possession of the woods surrounding the village of Islikon. After securing the villages of Gundeschwil, Schottikon, Wiesendangen, and Stogen, further west of Islikon, Hotze deployed two of his columns facing the French front, while a third angled to the French right, A day later, Hotze's force united with the main Austrian force of Archduke Charles.

In the First Battle of Zürich, on 4–7 June 1799, approximately 45,000 French and 53,000 Austrians clashed on the plains around the city. On the left wing, Hotze had 20 battalions of infantry, plus support artillery, and 27 squadrons of cavalry, in total, 19,000 men. On the right wing, General Friedrich Joseph, Count of Nauendorf commanded another 18,000. The battle cost both sides dearly; General of Brigade Cherin was killed, on the French side, and on the Austrian side, Feldzeugmeister (General of Infantry) Olivier, Count of Wallis, was killed. On the French side, 500 died, 800 were wounded and 300 captured; on the Austrian side, 730 killed, 1,470 wounded, and 2,200 captured. When the Austrians took the French positions in the city, they also captured over 150 guns. Ultimately, French general André Masséna yielded the city to the Austrians, under Archduke Charles. Massena retreated beyond the river Limmat, where he managed to fortify his positions. Hotze's force harassed their retreat, and secured the river shoreline. Despite Hotze's aggressive harassment of the French retreat, Charles did not follow up on the withdrawal; Masséna established himself on the opposite bank of the Limmat without threat of pursuit from the main body of the Austrian Army, much to the annoyance of the Russian liaison officer, Alexander Ivanovich, Count Ostermann Tolstoy. On 14 August 1799, a Russian force of 6,000 cavalry, 20,000 infantry, and 1,600 Cossacks, under Alexander Korsakov, joined Archduke Charles' force in Schaffhausen. In a vice like operation, together with the Russians, they would surround André Masséna's smaller army on the banks of the Limmat, where it had taken refuge the previous spring. To divert this attack, General Claude Lecourbe, attacked the pontoon bridges over which the Austrians crossed the Rhine, destroying most of them, and making the rest unusable. Before Charles could regroup, orders arrived from the Aulic Council, the imperial body in Vienna charged with conduct of war, to countermand his plan; Charles' troops were to leave Zurich in the supposedly capable hands of Korsokov, re cross the Rhine and march north to Mainz. Charles stalled this operation as long as he could, but eventually he had to concede to Vienna's orders. Consequently, the Russian troops under a novice general replaced the Austrian troops and their seasoned commander. Charles withdrew his force to the north of the Rhine. Although the order to Charles to recross the Rhine and march north was eventually countermanded, by the time such instructions reached him, they were too late to reverse. In the Second Battle of Zürich, the French regained control of the city, along with the rest of Switzerland. Notably, Massena out generaled Korsakov; surrounded him, tricked him, and then took more than half his army prisoner, plus captured the baggage train and most of his cannons, and inflicted over 8,000 casualties. Most of the fighting took place on both banks of the Limmat up to the gates of Zürich, and part within the city itself. Zürich had declared itself neutral, and was spared general destruction. General Nicolas Oudinot commanded the French forces on the right bank and General Édouard Mortier, those on the left. On the same day, Jean de Dieu Soult and about 10,000 troops faced Hotze and 8,000 Allies in the Battle of Linth River. Soult sent 150 volunteers to swim the river in the middle of the night. Most carried a saber in their teeth and a pistol and cartridges tied to their heads; others carried drums or bugles. These soldiers killed the Austrian sentries, overran an outpost, made much confusing noise, and signaled Soult's main force to cross in boats. Hotze was killed during this maneuver when Soult's men surprised him on an early morning reconnaissance. Franz Petrasch assumed command but his troops were badly beaten and forced to retreat, losing 3,500 prisoners, 25 field guns, and four colors. While Masséna and Soult were drubbing the Allies, Alexander Suvorov's 21,285 Russians arrived in Switzerland from Italy. In the Battle of Gotthard Pass from 24–26 September, Suvorov's army pushed aside Lecourbe's 8,000 troops and reached Altdorf near Lake Lucerne. From there, Suvorov led his army across the Kinzig Pass hoping to make a junction with the other Allied forces. At Muotathal, Suvorov finally learned that disaster had overtaken the Allied forces and that his army was marooned. The Russians broke out of the trap and were at St. Gallen in early October. Suvorov was forced to lead his men over the Alps to the Vorarlberg, resulting in additional losses.