Canton of Baden
The canton of Baden was from 1798-1803 a canton of the Helvetic Republic , which was formed from the former county of Baden , the free offices and the cellar office . It essentially comprised the eastern areas of today's canton of Aargau .
A draft constitution from January 1798 planned to add these areas to the canton of Zug . But the French occupying power rejected this plan and on April 11, 1798 ordered the formation of the canton of Baden.
The canton was divided into the five districts of Baden (capital of the canton), Bremgarten , Muri , Sarmenstorf and Zurzach and received the usual administration in the Helvetic Republic. This consisted of the governor with the administrative chamber, an assistant governor in each of the districts and agents in the communities. In 1799 the canton had 45,982 inhabitants, but the Jewish population in Endingen and Lengnau was not included.
Since the predominantly Catholic, conservative population behaved passively or indifferently towards the new state, officials and politicians from neighboring cantons had to be "imported". The canton was internally torn and some municipalities sought to belong to other cantons. The Reformed communities in the Limmat Valley wanted to join the canton of Zurich , the Hitzkirch office to the canton of Lucerne , the upper Freiamt to the canton of Zug or even the canton of Schwyz .
Due to the lack of an economic basis, the canton was unable to develop into a viable state. In 1801 ( constitution of Malmaison ) and 1802 ( second constitution of Helvetic ) a merger with the canton of Aargau was decided, but not carried out. With the mediation act signed by Napoleon Bonaparte on February 19, 1803, the canton of Baden was dissolved and merged with the canton of Aargau and the canton of Fricktal . The office of Hitzkirch was added to the canton of Lucerne, the municipalities of Hüttikon , Oetwil an der Limmat , Dietikon and Schlieren to the canton of Zurich. In return, the Lucerne office of Merenschwand moved to the new canton.