Territorial evolution of Switzerland
The Helvetic Republic (formed 1798) as revised in the Act of Mediation (1803) added further territories of former Associates of the Swiss Confederacy, notably those of the Abbey of St. Gall and the Three Leagues.
There was a brief and unsuccessful revival of Alemannic separatism after World War II, and in the later half of the 20th century, there were no serious political scenarios of any further enlargement of Switzerland.
In addition to the cantons, the Old Swiss Confederacy had several associated states (Zugewandte Orte), which included the Sieben Zenden (Valais), the Three Leagues (principally present-day Graubünden), and the Imperial Abbey of St. Gall.
The Congress of Vienna considered restoring the Valtellina to Grisons, and thus to Switzerland, but the strategic importance of the territory was deemed as too high by Austria, and it became part of the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia instead.
The canton of Neuchâtel joined in 1815 as a member of the confederacy but was at the same time a monarchy, its sovereign being Frederick William IV of Prussia.
In 1848, during the wars of Italian unification, Campione petitioned Switzerland for annexation, but this was rejected due to the Swiss desire to maintain neutrality.
The d'Italia suffix was added to the name of Campione in the 1930s by Prime Minister Benito Mussolini and an ornamental gate to the city was built, both in an attempt to assert the exclave's Italian-ness.
In 1860, when France annexed Savoy from the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, Napoleon III declared his intention to cede Chablais and Faucigny to Switzerland, but later reneged on the promise.
[9] The Swiss authorities were themselves ambivalent on the matter, as they feared the destabilising effect the annexation of two Catholic provinces might have on interfaith relations within the country.
The crisis subsided gradually as it became clear that Napoleon adhered to the promise of neutrality for Haute-Savoie renewed in the Treaty of Turin of 24 March 1860.
[11] In 1918 after the First World War, a referendum was held in the small exclave Büsingen am Hochrhein in Baden-Württemberg in which 96% of voters chose to become part of Switzerland.
[12][13][14][15] In a 1919 referendum, 81% of the people of Vorarlberg voted to join Switzerland, but the effort failed because of the ambivalent position of the Swiss government and the opposition of the Allied powers.
[16] Changes to the Swiss border made after 1945 include the addition of the Lago di Lei barrage to Switzerland in the 1950s,[17] and the exchange of an area of 1,578 square meters with France in 2002.
[citation needed] A poll by ORF radio in October 2008 reported that about half of the population of Vorarlberg would be in favour of joining Switzerland.
[19] In the Swiss parliament, a 2010 motion was submitted by Jurassian representative Dominique Baettig and co-signed by SVP party chairman Toni Brunner.
[22][23][24] The media went on to report a high level of apparent popular support for joining Switzerland in the territories in question (as reflected in Internet polls and comments):[25][26] In Sardinia, the Associazione no-profit Sardegna Canton Marittimo was formed in April 2014 with the aim of advocating Sardinia's secession from Italy and becoming a "maritime canton" of Switzerland.
[34] In 2018, the Swiss Head of the Department of Foreign Affairs Ignazio Cassis, answering to a parliamentary question by the national councillor Marco Romano, declared as "imaginable" the transfer of the Italian exclave Campione d'Italia to the Canton of Ticino.
