fwo_485932 - SWITZERLAND - HELVETIC REPUBLIC 4 Franken 1801 Berne

SWITZERLAND - HELVETIC REPUBLIC

(1798-1803)

At a time when the Revolution was triumphing, French intervention in Switzerland was requested, in 1798, by certain citizens of this country to see the abolition of an ancestral system where the cities oppressed the countryside (Basel) and where a canton could subjugate a region ( Bern with regard to the Pays de Vaud). The Helvetic Republic, modeled on the French model, with a strong central power and cantons transformed into simple administrative units, is moving in this direction. The French presence is perceived by the formerly subject cantons as the birth of freedom.