Schwyz and Glarus, Lost Semicantons of Swiss History

Until the Sonderbund War, the separation between conservatives and liberals in Canton Schwyz and between Protestants and Catholics in Canton Glarus endured

The history of Basel (City and Countryside), Unterwalden (today Nidwalden and Obwalden) and Appenzell (Outer and Inner), which have come down to us in the form of cantons divided into two parts and with half the representation at the federal level, does not exclude the fact that a similar dichotomy could not affect other states in Switzerland and that it could not continue to the present day.

Three states divided in half, but with the same dignity as the others

In fact, secessions were also implemented elsewhere, always in the German-speaking area and once again in the most rural and perhaps remote part of the country: this is the case of Schwyz and Glarus, among the oldest Swiss cantons, which adopted singular forms of separation.

This hypothesis occurred in the distant past, locally and on the eve of the Sonderbund War, which in November 1847 pitted the interests of seven Catholic and conservative cantons against the plans for the centralization of power implemented by the Swiss Confederation and the radical and liberal states.

In Schwyz liberals and conservatives opposed

In Canton Schwyz, whose name is probably the basis for the term “Switzerland”, there was a real territorial division between reactionary (“Innerschwyz”) and liberal (“Ausserschwyz”) districts.

The split failed as it was soon opposed by the Federal Diet, especially since the division into the semicantons of Outer and Inner Schwyz lasted in fact only in the period between 1831 and 1833.

Catholics and Protestants “against” each other in Glarus

In the canton of Glarus a dissociation between Catholics and Protestants took place, but without territorial division and without the formal establishment of semicantons, all from 1682 to 1836.

It took place between the citizens of Protestantism-Glarus and Katholisch-Glarus, who were governed by separate political and administrative bodies, such as the Landsgemeinde.