ABSTRACT
Well before the July Days there had been clear signs of impending political change inside Switzerland. During the late 1820s the authority of governments began to yield to a growing wave of political pressure. So, while the fall of the Bourbons may have been a sign, it was not really a cause of the events in the cantons. Why this was so needs to be explained in local rather than in general terms. The complexities of cause, process and achievement in 1830 can best be appreciated by looking in detail at the ‘Regeneration’ as the Swiss call the movement for political reform between 1829 and 1833. And we must remember that the Regeneration was successful at the cantonal level, not at the federal or national level. Indeed, to treat Switzerland as a single and uniform nation is to lose sight of its most fundamental trait.
