Scribd
Upload
66 views1 page

Switzerland: Modernity Meets Tradition

Switzerland is a small country located in central Europe with Bern as its administrative capital and Lausanne as its judicial center. Though small in size and population, it has significant international influence. While traditionally thought of as a prosperous but unexciting society, Switzerland has become more modern and connected to the global world. As a neutral country with a long history of stability, Switzerland - especially Geneva - has become home to many international organizations like the United Nations. Switzerland has four national languages and regional cultural differences but has found a way to balance individual and community interests to create a peaceful society.

Uploaded by

Ionut Vrinceanu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
66 views1 page

Switzerland: Modernity Meets Tradition

Switzerland is a small country located in central Europe with Bern as its administrative capital and Lausanne as its judicial center. Though small in size and population, it has significant international influence. While traditionally thought of as a prosperous but unexciting society, Switzerland has become more modern and connected to the global world. As a neutral country with a long history of stability, Switzerland - especially Geneva - has become home to many international organizations like the United Nations. Switzerland has four national languages and regional cultural differences but has found a way to balance individual and community interests to create a peaceful society.

Uploaded by

Ionut Vrinceanu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Switzerland

Switzerland, federated country of central Europe. Switzerland’s administrative capital


is Bern, while Lausanne serves as its judicial centre. Switzerland’s small size—its total area is
about half that of Scotland—and its modest population give little indication of its international
significance.
For many outsiders, Switzerland also evokes a prosperous if rather staid and unexciting
society, an image that is now dated. Switzerland remains wealthy and orderly, but its
mountain-walled valleys are far more likely to echo the music of a local rock band than
a yodel or an alphorn. Most Swiss live in towns and cities, not in the idyllic rural landscapes
that captivated the world through Johanna Spyri’s Heidi (1880–81), the country’s best-known
literary work. Switzerland’s cities have emerged as international centres of industry and
commerce connected to the larger world, a very different tenor from Switzerland’s isolated,
more inward-looking past. As a consequence of its remarkably long-lived stability and
carefully guarded neutrality, Switzerland—Geneva, in particular—has been selected as
headquarters for a wide array of governmental and nongovernmental organizations, including
many associated with the United Nations (UN)—an organization the Swiss resisted joining
until the early 21st century.
Switzerland’s rugged topography and multicultural milieu have tended to emphasize
difference. People living in close proximity may speak markedly distinct, sometimes nearly
mutually unintelligible dialects of their first language, if not a different language altogether.
German, French, Italian, and Romansh all enjoy national status, and English is spoken widely.
Invisible lines separate historically Protestant from historically Roman Catholic districts,
while the tall mountains of the Saint Gotthard Pass separate northern from southern Europe
and their diverse sensibilities and habits. Yet, Switzerland has forged strength from all these
differences, creating a peaceful society in which individual rights are carefully balanced
against community and national interests.

You might also like