The Restoration, the time leading up to the Sonderbundskrieg, was marked with turmoil, and the rural population struggling against the yoke of the urban centres, for example in the Züriputsch of 1839.

In Paris, the Helvetian Club, founded in 1790 by several exiled Vaudois and Fribourgers, was the centre from which the ideas of the French Revolution were spread in the western part of the Confederation.

[1] In 1791, Porrentruy rebelled against the Bishop of Basel and became the Rauracian republic in November 1792 and in 1793, there was a rebellion in the French department of the Mont Terrible.

In 1797, the districts of Chiavenna, Valtellina, and Bormio, dependencies of the Three Leagues (an associate of the Confederation), revolted under the encouragement of France.

Little central authority had existed, with matters concerning the country as a whole confined mainly to the Diet, a meeting of leading representatives from the cantons.

[3] With Swiss citizenship came the absolute freedom to settle in any canton, the political communes were now composed of all residents, and not merely of the burghers.

Leading groups split into the Unitaires, who wanted a united republic, and the Federalists, who represented the old aristocracy and demanded a return to cantonal sovereignty.

The Schwyzers, under Alois von Reding, were crushed by the French on the heights of Morgarten in April and May, as were the Unterwaldners in August and September.

Because of its position at the junction of seven cross-roads, the army that held the town controlled access to most of Switzerland and points crossing the Rhine into southern Germany.

Opposite him, Michel Ney deployed his force around the heights, the so-called Ober-Winterthur, a ring of low-lying hills some 6 kilometers (4 mi) north of the city.

[6] By mid-morning, Hotze's advanced guard had encountered moderate French resistance first from the two brigades Ney had at his disposal.

[7] The Austrian advance troops quickly overran the weaker brigade and took possession of the woods surrounding the village of Islikon.

On the left wing, Hotze had 20 battalions of infantry, plus support artillery, and 27 squadrons of cavalry, in total, 19,000 men.

[13] Despite Hotze's aggressive harassment of the French retreat, Charles did not follow up on the withdrawal; Masséna established himself on the opposite bank of the Limmat without threat of pursuit from the main body of the Austrian Army, much to the annoyance of the Russian liaison officer, Alexander Ivanovich, Count Ostermann-Tolstoy.

[15] In a vice-like operation, together with the Russians, they would surround André Masséna's smaller army on the banks of the Limmat, where it had taken refuge the previous spring.

[16] Before Charles could regroup, orders arrived from the Aulic Council, the imperial body in Vienna charged with conduct of war, to countermand his plan;[17] Charles' troops were to leave Zurich in the supposedly capable hands of Korsokov, re-cross the Rhine and march north to Mainz.

Although the order to Charles to recross the Rhine and march north was eventually countermanded, by the time such instructions reached him, they were too late to reverse.

Notably, Massena out-generaled Korsakov; surrounded him, tricked him, and then took more than half his army prisoner, plus captured the baggage train and most of his cannons, and inflicted over 8,000 casualties.

These soldiers killed the Austrian sentries, overran an outpost, made much confusing noise, and signaled Soult's main force to cross in boats.

[23] Franz Petrasch assumed command but his troops were badly beaten and forced to retreat, losing 3,500 prisoners, 25 field guns, and four colors.

[24] In the Battle of Gotthard Pass from 24–26 September, Suvorov's army pushed aside Lecourbe's 8,000 troops and reached Altdorf near Lake Lucerne.

Together with local resistance, financial problems caused the Helvetic Republic to collapse, and its government took refuge in Lausanne.

[3] At that time Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul of France, summoned representatives of both sides to Paris in order to negotiate a solution.

Although the Federalist representatives formed a minority at the conciliation conference, known as the "Helvetic Consulta"; Bonaparte characterised Switzerland as federal "by nature" and considered it unwise to force the area into any other constitutional framework.

[28] The Swiss Confederation was re-established as a result of the Act of Mediation issued by Napoleon Bonaparte on 19 February 1803 in the aftermath of the Stecklikrieg.

The act abolished the previous Helvetic Republic, which had existed since the invasion of Switzerland by French troops in March 1798.

In the Diet, six cantons which had a population of more than 100,000 (Bern, Zurich, Vaud, St Gallen, Graubünden and Aargau) were given two votes, the others having but one apiece.

The Austrians, supported by the reactionary party in Switzerland, and without any real resistance on the part of the Diet, crossed the border on 21 December 1813.

The Diet remained dead-locked until 12 September when Valais, Neuchâtel and Geneva were raised to full members of the Confederation.

[1] On 20 March 1815 Bern was given the town of Biel/Bienne and much of the land that had been owned by the Bishop of Basel as compensation for territory lost during the Long Diet.