ABSTRACT
TO understand the rise of the Swiss Confederation it is necessary to remember that Habsburg territorial policy was not confined to the eastern borders of the Empire, but that the family regarded their hereditary estates in the valleys of the Aar and the Reuss, in Alsace and in the Black Forest as so many jumping-off places for the control of Upper Germany. Their object was to acquire the whole of the ancient duchy of Suabia and as much as possible of the fallen kingdom of Burgundy. Working with the patient tenacity of ants, they slowly pieced together scraps of territory in southern Suabia and Lower Alsace. They recognised the importance of control of the Alpine passes, at first mainly for commercial reasons, and became more and more intent on asserting their authority over the Alpine population. Their policy was resisted by the cities and rural communities of the district, who gradually drew together to resist what they believed to be unwarrantable aggression. In this way the first Swiss Confederation was formed; it was in origin a union of a small part of southern Suabia, organised to combat the land-hunger of the Habsburgs.
