Swiss National Day

In European history, there is one family name that will come up and that is Habsburg who were the royal family in Austria for many years until the last century. It was the very existence of the Habsburgs that led to the creation of Switzerland. The landlocked country that has been neutral for 200 years and known for a certain triangular chocolate treat, came about when the cantons of Schwyz, Uri and Unterwald didn't want the Habsburgs conquering thei villages and thus decided to align together and drove the Habsburgs (who actually got their start in what is now Switzerland) out of the Cantons and signed a pact in early August 1291 called the Federal Charter of 1291, the founding documents of Switzerland. Switzerland got its name from the canton of Schweitz (pronounced SCHWYZ). They were later joined by 8 other cantons and fought for the confederacy's existence while influencing European trade through mercenaries before moving towards neutrality. The national day's date of 1 August came about when the Federal Department of Home Affairs proposed that the 700th anniversary foundation of Bern and the then upcoming 600th of the Swiss Confederacy should be combined into one big celebration and in 1899, the date 1st August was first suggested. The date only was made the national holiday in 1994. The Swiss flag is a white cross on
a red background because a similar symbol was used in the old Swiss Confederation and is easily mixed up with the Red Cross symbol which is a red plus on a white background. Interestingly, the founder of the Red Cross was Swiss native Henry Dunant.