Switzerland

The historical designation (name) of Switzerland is Confederation Helvetia.

History:

In 1291 the 3 states Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden - the so called "Ur-Kantone" united against the surrounding aggressors. This was the beggining of existence of swiss confederation. This confederration was then joined by the other states, which nowadays form the country named Switzerland.

Location and basic information:

Switzerland is a republic, which lies in the middle of Europe. It borders with France, Italy, Austria and Germany.
It´s not a very big country (the area of Switzerland is only 41 293 km2 ) and about 60% of it´s landscape is formed by the Alps. Swiss climate is very different in each part of the land.
Switzerland has four national lenguages - people there speak german, french, italian and Rhaeto- romanic and a lot of swiss people can speak English too.

Swiss main city is Bern but it isn´t the most important city there. The most important and the biggist is Curych – there live about 400 000 people. Another well – known city ist Geneve – the city of diplomatic meetings and internetional conferences.

Swiss flag:

The white cross on the red back has a religious background. The cross represents the cross, Jesus was put on, the red color represents his blood. Each arm of the cross has to be of the same size and must be 1/6 longer than wide.

Economic situation

The swiss curency is called swiss francs. Less than 10% of the population is employed in the agriculture, also considered the primary sector. This sector is strongly supported by the government. About 40% of the population are employed in the industry, trade and handicraft, also considered the secondary sector. This sector includes the machine and metal industry, watch industry and the textile industry. All of them export much of their products to foreign countries and suffer a lot because of the expensive Swiss Franc. The fact that Switzerland does not belong to the European Union additionally slows down the Swiss exports.More than 50% of the population are employed in the services, also considered the tertiary sector. This sector includes banking, assurances, tourism and so on. Banking is one of the most important businesses in Switzerland.

Geography and the landscape:

Switzerland hosts about 20% of the Alps. The highest point is Monte Rosa. The other well – known swiss mountains are for example Matterhorn, Jungfrau, Eiger and Dom.

In Switzerland there is a lot of lakes too. The most important of them are Lago Maggiore, Bodensee, Lake Geneva – Lac Léman, Zürichsee and for example Walensee.

The rivers which stream there are: Rhein, Aare, Rhone, Inn, Thur, Ticino and so on.
They lead to 3 different seas: Rhone and Ticino to the Mediterranean Sea, Rhein, Aare and Thur to the North Sea and Inn to the Black Sea.