History of the Canton of Ticino

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Federal Conquests

Map of the Ennetbirgischen Bailiwicks of the Old Confederation

In the Middle Ages , the area of ​​today's Canton of Ticino was ruled by the dukes of Milan (→ History of Milan ). The confederates achieved their predominance in the southern Alpine valleys during the so-called Ennetbirgischen campaigns between 1403 and 1515.

Between 1403 and 1422, some parts of the canton were already under the rule of Uri , but later had to be ceded again. The Leventina brought Uri under his control in 1440. In a second conquest, Uri, Schwyz and Nidwalden won the city of Bellinzona and the Riviera in 1500 . The third advance southward was made by the troops of all cantons.

Locarno , like the Maggia valley , Lugano and Mendrisio , were incorporated in 1512. The Leventina from St. Gotthard to Biasca was then under the exclusive rule of Uri . The Blenio valley, the Riviera and Bellinzona were jointly ruled by the three cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Nidwalden. The later conquests, the Maggia Valley, Locarno, Lugano and Mendrisio were common lords of the entire Old Confederation (except Appenzell).

Short-lived Reformation

The Reformation was only from 1530 in Locarno really gain a foothold in the other cities only individuals or families turned to the Protestant faith and were then forced to emigrate. From 1539 the priest and teacher of the Latin school in the monastery of San Francesco Giovanni Beccaria , the doctor Taddeo Duno and the lawyer Martino Muralto were the leading figures of the growing Reformation movement in Locarno. From 1542 to 1544 the Protestant bailiff of Glarus, Joachim Bäldi, supported the Reformation forces. It was not until 1547 that there was a final break with the Catholic Church, and an independent Protestant community emerged in Locarno. A religious talk in 1549 chaired by the Catholic bailiff Nikolaus Wirz did not lead to an agreement, but to the break-off of the conversation, to the brief imprisonment and expulsion of Beccaria, who fled to Roveredo and Mesocco. In 1555 the Reformed Locarnos had to give up their new Protestant faith or leave the city. 170 people, about half of the Protestant population, decided to leave the country and moved through the Bündnerland to Zurich , where they were accepted. After initial difficulties with integration, they were subsequently active in textile trade and production and contributed to the city's economic boom.

Helvetic

With the entry of French revolutionary troops in 1798 into the territory of the Confederation, the subject status of Ticino ended. The uniform constitution of the Helvetic Republic , valid until 1802, established the new cantons of Bellinzona and Lugano , which, however, were only administrative districts without autonomy. From Napoleon Bonaparte faced with the choice to Lombardy to belong or to "Helvetic Republic", the Ticino created the slogan "liberi e svizzeri".

Liberal constitutional revision

Landing of the insurgents in Lugano on December 6, 1839
Franco from 1815

Ticino was upgraded to a full Swiss canton in 1803. The representative constitution of 1803 was modified in 1814 in an aristocratic sense. In Ticino, before the July Revolution in France, the liberal movement prevailed with the constitutional revision of June 30, 1830, under the leadership of the later Federal Councilor Stefano Franscini . The internal history of the canton, however, always remained passionately turbulent as a result of the opposition between the clericals, who in the Sopraceneri, and the liberals, who had the decisive majority in the Sottoceneri. On December 6, 1839, the Liberals violently overthrew an ultramontane government threatening them with persecution, while a similar attempt by the ultramontane in 1841 ended with the execution of their leader Nessi.

The capital question

After the liberals had used their preponderance in the Grand Council and the Council of State in 1858 to abolish the monasteries or at least to restrict the acceptance of novices, to exclude the clergy from the school and to dissolve the ecclesiastical association with the dioceses of Como and Milan on the part of the state, a fire flared up In 1870, over the question of whether Bellinzona or Lugano should be the sole capital of the canton, another passionate party fight between the Sopra and Sottocenerians. The contrast intensified when in 1875 the ultramontanes received a majority in the Grand Council ( see: Kulturkampf in Switzerland ). This now came into conflict with the liberal State Council over a new electoral law. The excitement grew so high that on October 22, 1876, a bloody clash between clericals and liberals broke out in Stabio. However, with the mediation of a federal commissioner, a settlement was reached and new elections for the Grand Council were scheduled for January 21, 1877, in which the clericals were definitely victorious. By a constitutional law of March 10, 1878, the previous change of seat of government between Locarno, Lugano and Bellinzona was repealed and the latter was declared the sole capital.

Kulturkampf

Loan for 500 francs from the Canton of Ticino dated March 28, 1898

The government, now made up exclusively of clericals, provided new material to inflame the party passions by ruthlessly removing all liberal teachers and officials, repopulating the monasteries, etc .; but by attempting to use the process of the events in Stabio to eliminate Colonel Mola, a leader of the Liberals, although his innocence was clearly evident, she upset all of Switzerland. This only subsided when the mostly clerical court ended the trial on May 14, 1880 with a full acquittal.

In 1883 the referendum was introduced through a constitutional revision and in 1886 the church law was changed in an ultramontane sense, whereas the Pope consented to the formal affiliation of Ticino to the diocese of Basel through contracts with the Confederation (1884 and 1888) , on condition that one of the Curia, in agreement with the bishop, apostolic administrator to be appointed from the Ticino clergy in Lugano, exercise episcopal power in the canton.

Ticino putsch

On the occasion of the new elections for the Grand Council on March 3, 1889, there was a violent dispute between the Conservatives and the Liberals. The latter accused the Conservatives of illegally removing liberals from the electoral lists. The escalation of the dispute was prevented for the time being by a federal intervention under the direction of commissioner Eugène Borel sent by the Federal Council . But on September 11, 1890, there was the Ticino putsch ( Rivoluzione del 1890 ), a coup d'état by Ticino liberals against the conservative government. The coup triggered another federal intervention, this time under the direction of Commissioner Arnold Künzli . Only the introduction of proportional representation for government and parliament through a constitutional reform in 1892 brought about relaxation. In the end, 75 conservatives and 37 liberals were elected.

20th century

In the context of the Irredenta , the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini raised the demand in 1938 that Ticino be annexed to Italy, since the population was Italian.

This intention found its concrete form in a plan of attack that was worked out on July 7, 1940 in Rome. Subject to a coordinated approach with Hitler's Germany, the roughly following approach was planned:

  • The "Tridentina" division was supposed to advance against Airolo / Gotthard
  • The "Trieste" division on Bellinzona
  • The “Marche” division on Biasca

Apparently General Badoglio in particular favored an attack on Greece.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Giuseppe Chiesi: Visconti (dukes). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  2. ^ Mark Taplin: The Italian Reformers and the Zurich Church, c. 1540-1620. St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History, Routledge, 2017, ISBN 978-1-35188-729-8 .
  3. ^ Rudolf Pfister : Die Reformationsgemeinde Locarno, 1540–1555. In: Zwingliana. 10, 1955, pp. 161-181.
  4. ^ F. Schaffer: Outline of Swiss History , 1976
  5. Marco Marcacci: Ticino putsch. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . February 10, 2012 .
  6. Handbook of Swiss History, Volume 2, 1977
  7. Article by Pierfranco Mastalli ( Lecco ) from 2007, on files.splinder.com. Further information on this can be found in K. Urner: Switzerland must still be swallowed, 1989