Switzerland – Battle of Dornach 1999
Proof Silver 20 Francs 32mm (19.91 grams) .835 Silver (0.5369 oz. ASW) Reference: KM #
87 20 FR HELVETICA = CONFOEDERATIO, Cross design. DORNACH 1499 1999, Sword splitting an eagle, boxed crosses around border.
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The Battle of Dornach was a battle fought on 22 July 1499 between the troops of Emperor Maximilian I and the Old Swiss Confederacy close to the Swiss village of Dornach. The battle turned into a decisive defeat for Maximilian, and concluded the Swabian War between the Swiss and the Swabian League.
On 19 July, Imperial troops marching on Dorneck Castle were sighted, and Solothurn called Bern for help. Bern sent 5000 troops, Zurich 400, and smaller contingents from Uri, Unterwalden and Zug also started to move to Dornach. On 20 July, 600 troops left Lucerne. The Austrians had about 16,000 troops. Many of these were bathing in the Birs. The first attacks on 22 July were executed by the troops of Bern, Zurich and Solothurn, but they were beaten back. Only with the arrival of the reinforcements from Lucerne and Zug, which suddenly broke out of the woods “with horns and shouting” were the Imperial troops turned to flight after several hours’ fighting.
The commander of the Imperial troops, Heinrich von Fürstenberg, was killed in the early stages of fighting. When Maximilian in Überlingen heard about the lost battle, he was reportedly devastated by the news.
The battle of Dornach was the last armed conflict between the Swiss and any member state of the Holy Roman Empire. The Treaty of Basel of 22 September was the conclusion of the war. It was a strategic victory for the Swiss Confederacy, revoking the imperial ban against the Swiss cantons, legalising the alliance of the League of the Ten Jurisdictions with the Confederates and placing the Thurgau under Swiss jurisdiction.
A relief wall was erected in 1949 in the town of Dornach commemorating the battle.
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation (Latin: Confoederatio Helvetica, hence its abbreviation CH), is a federal parliamentary republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities, the so-called Bundesstadt (“federal city”). The country is situated in Western and Central Europe, where it is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a landlocked country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2 (15,940 sq mi). While the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, the Swiss population of approximately 8 million people is concentrated mostly on the Plateau, where the largest cities are to be found. Among them are the two global cities and economic centres of Zürich and Geneva.
The establishment of the Swiss Confederation is traditionally dated to 1 August 1291, which is celebrated annually as Swiss National Day. It has a long history of armed neutrality-it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815-and did not join the United Nations until 2002. It pursues, however, an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. Switzerland is also the birthplace of the Red Cross and home to numerous international organizations, including the second largest UN office. On the European level, it is a founding member of the European Free Trade Association and is part of the Schengen Area – although it is notably not a member of the European Union, nor the European Economic Area. Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions: German, French, Italian and the Romansh-speaking valleys. Therefore, the Swiss, although predominantly German-speaking, do not form a nation in the sense of a common ethnic or linguistic identity; rather, the strong sense of identity and community is founded on a common historical background, shared values such as federalism and direct democracy, and Alpine symbolism.
Switzerland has the highest nominal wealth per adult (financial and non-financial assets) in the world according to Credit Suisse and eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product on the IMF list. However, Switzerland is also the most expensive country in the world to live in, as measured by the price level index.
Swiss citizens have the second-highest life expectancy in the world on the UN DESA list. Switzerland is tied with the Netherlands for the top rank on the Bribe Payers Index indicating very low levels of business corruption. Moreover, for the last five years the country has been ranked first in economic and tourist competitiveness according to the Global Competitiveness Report and the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report respectively, both developed by the World Economic Forum. Zürich and Geneva have each been ranked among the top cities with the highest quality of life in the world, with the former coming second globally according to Mercer. However, Mercer also rates those two cities as the fifth- and sixth- most expensive cities in the world to live in.
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