Sonderbund War

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Sonderbund War
Confederates   Sonderbund   Neutrals
Date 3–29 November 1847 (3 weeks and 5 days) Location Switzerland Result Confederate victory Dissolution of the Sonderbund Federal constitution of 1848
Belligerents
Swiss Confederation  Aargau Appenzell AR  Basel-Landschaft  Basel-Stadt  Bern  Geneva  Glarus  Graubünden  Schaffhausen  St. Gallen  Solothurn  Thurgau  Ticino  Vaud  Zürich	Sonderbund  Fribourg  Lucerne  Nidwalden  Obwalden  Schwyz  Uri  Valais  Zug
Commanders and leaders
Guillaume Henri Dufour	Johann Ulrich von Salis-Soglio
Strength
99,000	79,000
Casualties and losses
60[1] / 78[2] dead 386[1] / 260[2] wounded	33[1] dead 124[1] wounded

The Sonderbund War (German: Sonderbundskrieg, French: Guerre du Sonderbund, Italian: Guerra del Sonderbund) of November 1847 was a civil war in Switzerland, then still a relatively loose confederacy of cantons. It ensued after seven Catholic cantons formed the Sonderbund ("separate alliance") in 1845 to protect their interests against a centralization of power. The war concluded with the defeat of the Sonderbund. It resulted in the emergence of Switzerland as a federal state, concluding the period of political "restoration and regeneration" in Switzerland.^[3]

The Sonderbund consisted of the cantons of Lucerne, Fribourg, Valais, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden and Zug,^[4] all predominantly Catholic and governed by conservative administrations. The cantons of Ticino and Solothurn, also predominantly Catholic but governed by liberal administrations, did not join the alliance.

After the Tagsatzung (Federal Diet) declared the Sonderbund unconstitutional (October 1847) and ordered it dissolved by force, General Guillaume Henri Dufour led the federal army of 100,000 and defeated the Sonderbund forces under Johann Ulrich von Salis-Soglio in a campaign that lasted only a few weeks, from November 3 to November 29, and cost about 100 lives. Dufour ordered his troops to care for the injured, anticipating the formation of the Red Cross in which he participated a few years later. Major actions were fought at Fribourg, Geltwil (12 November), Lunnern, Lucerne, and finally at Gisikon (23 November), Meierskappel, and Schüpfheim, after which Lucerne capitulated on 24 November. The rest of the Sonderbund surrendered without armed resistance in the subsequent weeks.^[5]