The Canton of Geneva, officially the Republic and Canton of Geneva, is one of the 26 cantons of the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of forty-five municipalities, and the seat of the government and parliament is in the city of Geneva.
Geneva is the French-speaking westernmost canton of Switzerland. It lies at the western end of Lake Geneva and on both sides of the Rhone, its main river. Within the country, the canton borders Vaud to the east, the only adjacent canton. However, most of Geneva's border is with France, specifically the region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. As is the case in several other Swiss cantons (Ticino, Neuchâtel, and Jura), Geneva is referred to as a republic within the Swiss Confederation.
One of the most populated cantons, Geneva is considered one of the most cosmopolitan regions of the country. As a center of the Calvinist Reformation, the city of Geneva has had a great influence on the canton, which essentially consists of the city and its suburbs. Notable institutions of international importance based in the canton are the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and CERN.
History
The Canton of Geneva, whose official name is the Republic and Canton of Geneva, is the successor of the Republic of Geneva.Genève (canton), in the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland
Context Compared to other urban cantons of Switzerland (Zürich, Bern, Basel before it split, Fribourg, Lucerne), Geneva's geographical size is relatively small.
Early history Geneva was controlled by the Allobroges, a rich and powerful Celtic tribe until 121 BC, when they were defeated by the Romans. The city was then attached to Gallia Narbonensis province. Its political importance in the region was low, but it soon developed an important economy owing to the city's port that facilitated trade over Lake Geneva from the routes joining from Seyssel and Annecy towards the Roman colonies of Nyon and Avenches. The city remained part of the Empire until 443 when, welcomed by the Romans, the Burgundians settled in an ill-defined region named Sapaudia and Geneva was chosen as the capital of the newly formed kingdom for its first 20 years due to the city's economic importance as well as the prestige of its Bishop. As the kingdom began expanding towards Lyon and Grenoble, Geneva lost its central geographical location of the kingdom and for a time became a secondary capital until the kingdom was divided between Godegisel and Gundobad, sons of Gondioc. Godegisel settled in Geneva from which he controlled the northern bishoprics. The nature of the political relationship between both brothers is not well known, but in the year 500 the kingdoms went to war, during which Godegisel was defeated and Geneva pillaged and destroyed.
In 532, the Burgundians were conquered by the Franks, who administratively divide the area in three parts: one centred on the city of Besançon, one around Dijon, and the last one, the Pagus Ultraioranus ("Transjurane") includes the cities of Geneva, Nyon, Sion, and Avenches. Given the peripheral location of Geneva within this region, it lost its status of capital, although it kept a certain religious prestige. In 864, Conrad II acquired the title of Duke of Transjurane and in 888 his son Rudolph I becomes king of the second kingdom of Burgundy after seizing the opportunity of death of Charles the Fat. At its maximum extent around the year 1000, the new kingdom extends from Provence to Basel and controls the main alpine passes of the region. In this context, Geneva regains its importance as the city was located in the intersection between several important roads connecting Italy to Northern Europe via the western Alps mountain passes of Mont Cenis and Great St Bernard Pass.
Counts of Geneva (11th–15th centuries) However, by the end of the 10th century the kingdom was engulfed in several conflicts between the king's power and the aristocracy. Notably for Geneva, some of the most important nobles began to offer some lands to the Church, such as in 912 when Eldegarde (probably a Countess in an area near Nyon) gave up her lands in the area of Satigny which eventually became the Mandement, or in 962 when Queen Berthe offered lands in Saint-Genis. The income of the Kingdom suffered from these transfers of lands and, in an attempt to stop the process, in 995 King Rudolph III tried to withdraw the hereditary rights away from some of his nobles. However, the King was defeated in this power struggle, and this led to a weakening of the central power. As the King weakened, some of his local officers such as the Counts rejected his authority and even opposed him. Several independent fiefdoms emerge from this time, including the County of Geneva.
In 1032, Rudolph III died without an heir. The Kingdom of Burgundy then reverted to HRE Conrad II, who tried to re-assert control of the lands by rallying the nobles who opposed Rodolph III. In exchange for his loyalty, Gerold, count of Geneva, obtained full powers over his County, becoming a direct vassal of the Emperor and so his lands became part of the Holy Roman Empire.
However, it is not clear how the power over the city proper was shared between the Prince-Bishopric of Geneva and the counts. Thus, a power struggle between both ensued in which the counts received the support from the canons of the chapter, a large majority of whom were members of vassal families of the count. The apex of the count's power took place from 1078 to 1129, when Count Aymon I managed to get his brother Guy de Faucigny appointed as bishop of Geneva. Aymon took advantage of this situation by transferring the administration of some of the lands away from the Diocese of Geneva to the priory of Saint-Victor of which he became protector at the request of the Bishop, and siphoned the resources of the priory to himself.
The successor of Guy de Faucigny, Bishop Humbert de Grammont, was outraged by this situation, and requested the restitution of the churches transferred to the administration of the Count. The outcome of the Gregorian Reform materialised in the council of Vienne of 1124 which legislated on securing the ecclesiastical rights and possessions of the church. Pope Callixtus II then pressured Aymon to return the Church's estates, going as far as excommunicating him. The Count repented, and greeted the Bishop on the border of his County in SeysselThere was at this time only one Seyssel, on both banks of the Rhône. It was split in two municipalities at the Treaty of Turin (1760), the east bank becoming part of the Kingdom of Sardinia, while the west bank remained under French rule. as the Bishop was on his way back to Geneva from Vienne, whose Bishop had been tasked by the Pope to mediate in the conflict. There, they concluded a treaty (the ), whereby the Count restored to the Bishop of Geneva some of the churches whose rights and revenues he had acquired.
Although this treaty did not fully solve the conflict, which was only fully resolved by the treaty of Saint-Sigismond in 1156 which confirmed all the provisions, it marked an important step for Geneva as the count also gave up his temporal rights over the City of Geneva to the Bishop, except for the right to execute criminal sentences. The following bishops, Arducius de Faucigny (1135-1185) and Nantelme (1185-1205) kept eroding the counts' power. The touchstone of this erosion of power was the acquisition of the Imperial immediacy by the Prince-Bishopric in 1154, which designated the Bishop of Geneva as a Prince of the Empire and, by right, the only lord of the city after the Emperor, a status employed several times by the Bishops in the defence of their independence from local rulers. As a result, some time around 1219 the Counts of Geneva completely quit the city and moved their capital to Annecy, which marked an important step for the future evolution of the canton of Geneva, as for the first time there was a complete separation of the ruling of the city of Geneva, by the Bishops, from the ruling of its hinterlands, the Counts.
At the same time, the county was in a continuous power struggle with the House of Savoy, which by the middle of the 12th century governed a vast principality centred on the control of the main mountain passes of the western Alps. By the beginning of the 13th century, the Counts of Geneva were facing an alliance of the Maison de Faucigny, de Gex, as well as the counts of Savoy. After several decades of wars of the gebenno-faucigneran conflict of 1205–1250, the counts of Geneva lost all their main lands and fortresses. In the Treaty of Paris (1355), Savoy was awarded the Faucigny and Gex, leaving the counts of Geneva as secondary regional actors. After the death of antipope count Robert in 1394, the county passed to the house of Thoire-Villars, who were related to the house of Geneva. However, some of the local nobility was displeased with the outcome and, profiting from the situation, the County of Geneva finally disappeared when it was sold to Amadeus VIII of Savoy for 45,000 gold francs on 5 August 1401.
House of Savoy (15th century – 1534) The economic rise of cities and international commerce from the 11th century onwards also affected Geneva. Medieval fairs appeared in Northern Europe, often driven by a political will to promote a city. In contrast, the origins of the trade fairs in the city, active from at least by the middle of the 13th century, remain unknown. However, these expanded greatly during the 14th century and their apogee took place in the middle of the 15th century, when the city counted seven yearly trade fairs, four of which had large international significance: the Epiphany, Easter, August, and October/November. Geneva benefited from several external factors at this time to explain this economic expansion: the crisis of trade fairs in Chalon-sur-Saône, and the Hundred Years' War, partially removed France from international routes linking Northern Europe to Mediterranean ports such as Montpellier and Marseille, which shifted eastwards, crossing Geneva and the Rhone valley; the city reaped the benefits from the pax sabauda, a long-period of peace during which it was spared from the effects of wars; and in addition, the House of Savoy spent long periods of time in the city, adding to the demand for luxury goods. The trade fairs required credit to function through letters of credit, the development of which adds to the economic expansion of the city. The fairs were also the spark that started Geneva's alliance with the cities of Fribourg and Bern, both of whom had large textile sectors that used the fairs.
This economic development and the centuries-long peace enjoyed by the city is reflected on its demographic expansion. The city grew from about 2,000 inhabitants by the end of the Black Death, to 11,000 by the middle of the 15th century, making it the largest city in the region as Chambéry and Lausanne counted 5,000 inhabitants at the time and in modern Switzerland only Basel with its 8,000-to- 10,000 came close to Geneva's size.