The French invasion of Switzerland in 1798 brought about a swift end of the Ancien Régime.

Following the declaration of the Republic, the Cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Nidwalden rejected it and raised an army to fight the French.

General Reding besieged French controlled Lucerne and marched across the Brünig pass into the Berner Oberland to support the armies of Berne.

At the same time, the French General Balthazar Alexis Henri Schauenburg marched out of occupied Zürich to attack Zug, Lucerne and the Sattel pass.

Of the rest of the land, 4.2% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (3.1%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).

Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks German (89.8%), with Serbo-Croatian being second most common ( 2.6%) and Albanian being third ( 2.5%).

[4] From the 2000 census[update], 1,664 or 79.7% are Roman Catholic, while 140 or 6.7% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church.