Why is Ticino part of Switzerland?

On the morning of February 15, 1798, a group of armed men stormed Lugano’s town hall. In a coup, they deposed the federal rulers of Lugano, took Nidwalden governor Jost Remigi Traxler hostage and demanded that Lugano be incorporated into the Cisalpine Republic. What is going on? Who is this governor and why should he make way for this republic?

In 1798, the current Ticino consisted exclusively of federal disciplines. In 1521, the Confederates conquered the area from the Gotthard Pass to Chiasso from the Duchy of Milan. But this does not mean that there is a canton of Ticino. Uri alone rules the Leventina and, together with Schwyz and Nidwalden, establishes the bailiwicks of Blenio, Riviera and Bellinzona.

The other bailiwicks of Locarno, Vallemaggia, Lugano and Mendrisio jointly control the twelve federal cities. A federal bailiff administers each bailiwick. The subjects of the foreign federal rulers must pay military service and taxes such as tithes.

Not until Napoleon Bonaparte in the summer of 1797, after his successful Italian campaign in northern Italy, did Cisalpine Republic built, the federal system of rule begins to falter. It was based on the French model Cisalpine Republic built on the revolutionary ideals of freedom, equality and fraternity. Napoleon therefore frees the subjects in his republic and begins to extend freedom and equality to the subjects in the area.

In this way he also integrated the Valtellina field, which was previously part of Graubünden, into the Cisalpine Republic. Inspired by these events, resistance against the foreign bailiffs also began to arise in Ticino. On February 15, 1798, the supporters of the Cisalpine Republic the opportunity and put an end to federal foreign domination. The way in Cisalpine Republic seems free.

But this doesn’t happen. A volunteer corps formed from the population of Lugano chased the coup plotters out of the city on the same day. The volunteers want to prevent integration into Napoleon’s revolutionary republic. But for them there is no question of restoring the federal foreign rule that has just been overthrown. Governor Traxler is released, but he must leave the city and leave the government to the Luganesi themselves.

That same evening they erected a freedom tree in the Piazza Grande, modeled after the French Revolution. But instead of a Jacobin hat, they crown the tree with a Counting Hat and the slogan spreads through the city “Free and Swiss”: We want to be free Swiss!

Within a short time the remaining bailiwicks followed Lugano’s example. The subjects free themselves, but at the same time demonstrate their membership in the Confederacy. This begs the question: why don’t the former subjects turn away from their former rulers? What does the Old Confederacy do compared to the revolutionary one? Cisalpine Republic so attractive?

In this moment of unrest, the preservation of their local autonomy is crucial for the former nationals. During federal foreign rule, each municipality could largely govern itself. The so-called Vicinanza (Neighborhood) had common goods such as forests and commons. These managed the vicini jointly and autonomously. The necessary organization of the use of collective goods and the lack of interference from federal authorities created autonomous political, legal and economic systems at local level.

They want 1798 Environment retain their previous structures and the autonomy they have acquired. Their form of local self-government corresponds to that of companies and cooperatives in the federal municipalities. In the Cisalpine Republic On the other hand, individual municipalities were relegated to pure administrative units without political autonomy. The federal structures thus provide tangible benefits to former subjects: they remain with the federal government to preserve their material, political, and cultural assets.

In 1798 there was still no canton of Ticino. Each bailiwick has declared itself individually independent. There are few similarities between the new small states. They differed in politics, culture and economics. The regional contrasts also exist in the Helvetic Republic continued. As a result of a French military intervention in the summer of 1798, the Old Confederation became a centralized unitary state based on the French model.

The French generals want to merge the former southern Alpine areas into one canton. But they fail. Due to the large local differences and the high self-image of autonomy, two cantons had to be founded: Lugano and Bellinzona.

But the Helvetic Republic disappears almost as quickly as it appeared. As early as 1803, Napoleon dissolved it with the Act of Mediation and revived the Confederation, now conceived as a federal confederation of states. With this reorganization, the Canton of Ticino is now created as a sovereign small state encompassing all eight former bailiwicks.

But this united canton of Ticino is soon in danger of falling apart again. In 1815 there was an attack on the territorial integrity of Ticino: from Switzerland. After the end of Napoleon and the restoration of Europe at the Congress of Vienna, some cantons turned their attention to their old fields. Uri also wants to annex Leventina again. The Ticino government can only with difficulty avert the demand for the restoration of the subject relations of before 1798. The canton survived and eventually became part of the Swiss state in 1848.

But Ticino still doesn’t calm down. From 1848, the Italian unification movement led by the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont and Giuseppe Garibaldi had a strong impact on Ticino. Ticino’s ties with Switzerland are being questioned from various quarters.

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During the Italian Wars of Independence in 1848 and 1859, several thousand fighters seeking to liberate Lombardy from Austrian rule found refuge in Ticino. Many Ticino people also take part in these fights. When Milan was liberated from Austrian rule after the Battle of Solferino in 1859, calls for national unification arose in Northern Italy.

This should also include Italian-speaking Ticino. Unsettled by these demands and by the strong sympathy of the people of Ticino for Italian unification, the Ticino Federal Council asks the question of loyalty: are you really still Swiss?

The Ticino government is furious and in a sharp letter strongly rejects all Berne’s concerns about a lack of loyalty to the state. To demonstrate its ties with Switzerland, the Ticino government reminds the Federal Council of a historic event: February 15, 1798.

The Ticino Government Council declares this date as the fateful day for their canton. With the telling hat on the freedom tree, the slogan “Free and Swiss” and the rejection of the Cisalpine Republic the will to belong to Switzerland had been proven once and for all.

However, this constructed a narrative that does not correspond to historical facts. The actual development of Ticino from field to canton was anything but goal-oriented and not self-evident. But with the stylization of February 15, 1798 as Ticino’s fateful day, the disruptive moments in history were quickly swept under the rug.