Swiss Associates
type of diplomatic relationship in the Old Swiss Confederacy
Swiss Associates, also known as Associated Places, Zugewandte Orte (Facing Places), or Pays Alliés (Allied Countries), were associate states of the Old Swiss Confederacy, with some form of alliance agreement with either the entire Confederation or individual cantons.
The associates were extremely heterogeneous. They had no institution that bound them together, other than their alliances with the Swiss Confederacy. Some had extremely close bonds with the Confederation, whereas others were only bound with one or two cantons. Generally, all nations that were related to the Confederation that were not subjects nor fully fledged cantons were considered associates.
Whereas members of the Swiss Confederacy were not permitted to form alliances or ties with outside states without consent of all cantons, the associates were permitted to form their own alliances and conduct their own diplomacy. Grisons for example even had their own delegates at the Congress of Vienna. Following the creation of the Federal Diet, associate states were also permitted to send delegates as representatives in the diet. However, not all associate states were not granted the right vote. Over time, many associates were gradually absorbed into the cantons, or became cantons themselves.
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This entry incorporates text from “Swiss Associates” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.