What's the deal with Swiss neutrality?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.

**Josh Clark** (0:16)
This is Stuff You Should Know, everybody.

**Chuck Bryant** (0:20)
We're talking about one of the two things Switzerland is known for. It's not the cheese.

**Josh Clark** (0:27)
Okay. Then chocolate?

**Chuck Bryant** (0:29)
That's true. Three things.

**Josh Clark** (0:31)
Okay. Cuckoo clocks?

**Chuck Bryant** (0:33)
Four things.

**Josh Clark** (0:35)
Beautiful mountains?

**Chuck Bryant** (0:37)
Five things. Beautiful people.

**Josh Clark** (0:40)
Roasties?

**Chuck Bryant** (0:40)
Six things, seven things. All right. Let's just cut to the chase then. There's a lot to Switzerland, everybody. And this is just one of myriad things we could talk about. And that is Swiss neutrality. And I think this came to mind because of the recent talks between the United States and Iran.
And I knew Switzerland had a role to play there. And I'm like, what the heck is up with that country?

**Josh Clark** (1:07)
Did you say that out loud?

**Chuck Bryant** (1:08)
I think I did. And Ruby was like, what country, Dad?

**Josh Clark** (1:11)
It's a good idea, Chuck. I had no idea about this, and I'm not sure if I ever would have thought of doing one on this, but it's actually pretty interesting. Yeah.

**Chuck Bryant** (1:19)
And thanks to Libya, I now understand it.

**Josh Clark** (1:22)
Yeah. And we should say that right before we started recording, Jerry announced that she is the Switzerland of Stuff You Should Know.

**Chuck Bryant** (1:31)
Jerry likes to think she is.

**Josh Clark** (1:33)
Well, then who would be the Switzerland?

**Chuck Bryant** (1:36)
We have no Switzerland.

**Josh Clark** (1:37)
Okay. Who are you?

**Chuck Bryant** (1:41)
I don't know.

**Josh Clark** (1:42)
I'm a mix of Turkmenistan and Denmark. Okay.

**Chuck Bryant** (1:47)
All right.

**Josh Clark** (1:47)
Great.
And that's just where we're going to leave this, because let's get back to talking about Switzerland, which is, like you said, known for many things. And this neutrality thing, I had no idea, but it is in stark contrast to how Switzerland used to be during the Middle Ages or Medieval times, if you're one of those people who goes to Medieval times. Yeah.

**Chuck Bryant** (2:10)
And we should point out too, Switzerland is not the only neutral country. I think Livia found 20 to 25 basically neutral countries around the world. But Switzerland, it's a real like, when you think of neutral countries, I think most people would say Switzerland because they've taken not just neutrality as a stance, but like a really active neutrality. And like, hey, come and settle your warring disputes here in our friendly confines, or your financial disputes in our friendly confines.

**Josh Clark** (2:39)
Yeah. As a matter of fact, Switzerland is the only country that comes to mind when I think of neutrality. I had honestly no idea that other countries were officially neutral.

**Chuck Bryant** (2:48)
Yeah.

**Josh Clark** (2:49)
Like Ireland is. Did you know that?

**Chuck Bryant** (2:52)
No, but I believe it.

**Josh Clark** (2:53)
Okay. Well, at any rate, yes, they are the standard, the gold standard, the Nazi gold standard of neutral countries. What a tease.
So, like I said, the whole thing kind of, I think it was officially neutral as of like the 1810s, right? Yeah.

**Chuck Bryant** (3:14)
And then 1851, I think, when they formerly became a country. But yeah, but you promised talk of the Middle Ages, and it is interesting that we can go back to the 13th century to kind of see the beginnings of this.

**Josh Clark** (3:27)
Yeah. Apparently, this is where William Tell comes from too. Did you know that?

**Chuck Bryant** (3:33)
No.

**Josh Clark** (3:34)
I know shamefully little about William Tell. I was reading, I think it's swissinfo.ch.
They're like the English speaking outlet for Switzerland. And this article, this guy was writing, he's like, we all know the story of William Tell, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, actually, I don't know anything that you just mentioned.

**Chuck Bryant** (3:53)
Yeah, agreed. He has a heck of an overture. That's all I know.

**Josh Clark** (3:56)
Yeah. Apparently, so here in the United States, everybody, we're taught that William Tell shot the apple off of his kid's head to show off his skills. Apparently, he was forced to do that by some evil Austrian overlords who had taken over Switzerland. And William Tell is actually a resistance fighter who helped Switzerland overthrow those Austrian overlords.

**Chuck Bryant** (4:19)
Fantastic.

**Josh Clark** (4:20)
But he comes out of this time. Switzerland, like you said, until the 1850s or 60s, was a confederation. It's still known as the Swiss Confederation of cantons, which would be like states, provinces, maybe counties, but they're independent little municipalities that all together form Switzerland or the Swiss Confederation. And that's where the whole thing starts. Back in 1291, there was an alliance between three of these cantons. Now there's like 25