This is the last one from my fedi account, promised.
OK, so what’s the deal with Appenzell? We already heard that their history is related to St. Gallen. You need to look at the map of St. Gallen: Appenzell is completely surrounded by St. Gallen. Appenzell is mountainous. St. Gallen rules over the lands by the Bodensee to the north, the wide Rhine valley to the east, and the Thur valley to the south.
The most visible part of Appenzell are the mountains containing the Säntis.
This is what it looks like:
Rolling green hills and a massiv mountain in the back
The name Appenzell started out as “abbatis cella” – the cell of the abbot. The mountainous region belonged to the abbey. When the abbots tried to raise some old taxes again the region revolted: in 1401, they made a deal with the city (remember how the abbey and the city of St. Gallen were always in conflict) and took the castle of the reeve by force. The abbot asked for German arbitration in 1402 and got what he wanted. The city left the alliance but the people of Appenzell did not relent and made an alliance with the canton of Schwyz (up next, I guess?) – this put Appenzell on the road to eventually joining the Swiss. There was a battle in 1403 where Appenzell beat the army of the abbey and its German allies back to the city walls. The abbot then sought the help of the Austrians. As the Swiss had agreed on a 20 year peace with the Habsburg in 1394, Schwyz left the alliance. At the same time, the Swiss also refused to help the Habsburg. At this moment the city of St. Gallen decides to join Appenzell again, and 1405 they beat back the Austrian army in the Rhine valley.
Appenzell still refused not to pay the abbot’s taxes and in 1411 they joined the Swiss Confederation as an associate member (full membership in 1513).
Another attempt at arbitration failed in 1421, this time by the Swiss. The Germans then imposed imperial bans, an interdict, an army was assembled and Appenzell defeated. They were forced to repay the owed taxes but were also freed from them in the future. Thus ended their ties with the abbey of St. Gallen and thus began the move towards the Swiss Confederation.
The Swiss still are very much into low taxes, unfortunately.
But what about this half-canton stuff? Why is there an “inner” and an “outer” Appenzell?
No story of Switzerland is complete without talking about the reformation.
It started in 1525 with every church getting to vote whether to join the reformation or not. The catholic power grew, however, and in 1586 the Golden League was formed: catholic cantons promising each other to uphold the true faith. Ah, the true faith. Yikes! All but Solothurn then also entered an alliance with the Spaniards, the catholic super power. With pressure mounting but unwilling to let it come to blows, a peaceful solution was found in 1597 – the canton was split into a catholic “inner” and a reformed “outer” canton. This weakened the canton politically but prevented bloodshed.
There’s occasional talk of a reunification (which was mentioned as an option when the canton was split) but I don’t see how this would work. In the Swiss Council of States they each get a vote, which is an incredible weight per-person. It makes me angry every time I think about it! Appenzell Innerrhoden gets one councillor for its 16,000 people since it’s a half-canton and Zürich gets two councillors for its 1’600’000 people since it’s a full canton. That’s a 1:50 ratio.
#Switzerland #Cantons #History
