View allAll Photos Tagged Competitive,
Washington, DC, USA - May 17, 2012: National Association of Manufacturers/National Chamber Foundation Business Horizon Series: "Manufacturing in America: A New Cornerstone of Competitiveness. Featuring Dennis Muilenburg, President and CEO, Boeing Defense, Space & Security and Margaret Spellings.. Photo by David Bohrer
Photos from the 2014 "Girls Generation" pre-season, competitive practice session held at Catlin Gabels School in Portland, Oregon on October 11, 2014.
Most of these photos are of FIRST Robotics Team #4488 Shockwave, from Glencoe High School, in Hillsboro, Oregon.
The team has 1 amazing teacher, about 40 awesome students, and 15-20 volunteer engineering and business mentors.
Their web site is at glencoerobotics.com/
To learn more about how you can participate in FIRST Robotics, visit www3.usfirst.org/
Panel: The Evolving City
Mr. John Thornhill, Innovation Editor, Financial Times
2016 Global Innovation Summit
Mr. Charles O. Holliday, Jr., Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell, plc and Chairman, Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils
2016 Global Innovation Summit -- Gala Dinner at Guildhall
Competitive and casual boaters set sail in the 2012 Baja Ha-Ha vessel rally that began on Oct. 29, 2012 and will extend to Nov. 10, 2012.
The rally began in the southwest corner of Shelter Island and will end in Cabo San Lucas for a total distance of approximately 750 miles.
(Photo Courtesy: Dale Frost)
This is a photograph from the 13th annual running of the Tom Brennan Memorial 5KM Road Race and Fun Run which was held on Furze Road, Phoenix Park, Chapelizod, Dublin, Ireland on New Year's Day Monday 1st January 2018 at 12:00. The race route is a two loop course which starts and finishes on the Furze Road in the middle of the Phoenix Park. Participants follow a clockwise, right-handed, looped route around Furze Road, Ordnance Survey and Chesterfield Avenue. The loop course is also another difference of this race from traditional 5KM road racing. The weather on New Year's Day in the Phoenix Park is always unpredictable and today was no different. A particularly strong headwind into the faces of participants along Furze road (between 2KM and 3KM) made this particular section tough going for everyone. There was also a particularly cold icy feel in the air. However several hundred runners, joggers and walkers shook off the effects of Christmas celebrations to take part. The route itself is flat without any noticeable undulations. This year's race had one of the biggest field of participants in its long and well established history.
The race is organised and promoted by the local athletics club Liffey Valley Athletic Club who are based in Islandbridge, Dublin 8 and have a catchment area around this part of Dublin city. The race itself commemorates the memory and contribution of former club member Tom Brennan who won the National Cross Country Championships in 1975 in UCD Belfield at the age of 24 years. A special commemorative perpetual trophy is presented to the winner of the race every year. The race is also of particular interest to those runners, joggers and walkers who are not necessarily involved in the competitive side of road racing. Annually the race is the first of a series of races in Dublin city which make up the Lord Mayor’s 5 Alive Challenge. This initiative by Dublin City Council is now in its sixth year and several hundred runners, joggers and walkers volunteer to take part in five of Dublin’s most popular road races. Dublin City Council makes an open call for people to register to be a part of the programme in autumn every year. The Liffey Valley Club and many other volunteers work hard to make this a very successful event. Undertaking a road race event in any location is a challenging task. However the Phoenix Park presents a unique challenge in terms of traffic flow around this part of Dublin and general logistics. Despite this these efforst by the host club are greatly appreciated as is evident by the turn out every year. It provides a splendid opening of the New Year for runners of all abilities. It is also a fitting 'official' start to the new calendar year of road racing in the Dublin and North Leinster region.
This photograph is part of a large set of photographs which was taken at the race. The complete set is available on our Flickr page at [https://www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/albums/72157667970479679]
Timing and Event Management was provided by the Irish company MyRunResults.com. The results from today's race can be found on their website in the results section [www.myrunresults.com/]
USEFUL LINKS:
Our photographs from the Tom Brennan Memorial Road Race 2017: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/albums/72157676887245971
Our photographs from the Tom Brennan Memorial Road Race 2016: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/albums/72157662953593456
Our photographs from the Tom Brennan Memorial Road Race 2015: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/albums/72157649636870307
Our photographs from the Tom Brennan Memorial Road Race 2014: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157639246897663
Our photographs from the Tom Brennan Memorial Road Race 2013: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157632403740910/
Our photographs from the Tom Brennan Memorial Road Race 2012: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157628663656621/
Our photographs from the Tom Brennan Memorial Road Race 2011: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157625720306412/
Liffey Valley AC on Twitter: www.twitter.com/liffeyvalleyac
Liffey Valley AC on Instagram: www.instagram.com/liffeyvalleyac/
The Liffey Valley AC Website Homepage: www.liffeyvalleyac.com/
The Liffey Valley AC Facebook Page (might require Facebook logon to access): www.facebook.com/liffeyvalleyac
Location of the Phoenix Park on OpenStreetMap: www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=53.3587&mlon=-6.3362#map=...
GPS Garmin Trace of the 5KM Road Race Route: connect.garmin.com/activity/661573721
USING OUR PHOTOGRAPHS - A QUICK GUIDE AND ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS
Can I use these photographs directly from Flickr on my social media account(s)?
Yes - of course you can! Flickr provides several ways to share this and other photographs in this Flickr set. You can share directly to: email, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr, LiveJournal, and Wordpress and Blogger blog sites. Your mobile, tablet, or desktop device will also offer you several different options for sharing this photo page on your social media outlets.
BUT..... Wait there a minute....
We take these photographs as a hobby and as a contribution to the running community in Ireland. We do not charge for our photographs. Our only "cost" is that we request that if you are using these images: (1) on social media sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter,LinkedIn, Google+, VK.com, Vine, Meetup, Tagged, Ask.fm,etc or (2) other websites, blogs, web multimedia, commercial/promotional material that you must provide a link back to our Flickr page to attribute us or acknowledge us as the original photographers.
This also extends to the use of these images for Facebook profile pictures. In these cases please make a separate wall or blog post with a link to our Flickr page. If you do not know how this should be done for Facebook or other social media please email us and we will be happy to help suggest how to link to us.
I want to download these pictures to my computer or device?
You can download this photographic image here directly to your computer or device. This version is the low resolution web-quality image. How to download will vary slight from device to device and from browser to browser. Have a look for a down-arrow symbol or the link to 'View/Download' all sizes. When you click on either of these you will be presented with the option to download the image. Remember just doing a right-click and "save target as" will not work on Flickr.
I want get full resolution, print-quality, copies of these photographs?
If you just need these photographs for online usage then they can be used directly once you respect their Creative Commons license and provide a link back to our Flickr set if you use them. For offline usage and printing all of the photographs posted here on this Flickr set are available free, at no cost, at full image resolution.
Please email petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com with the links to the photographs you would like to obtain a full resolution copy of. We also ask race organisers, media, etc to ask for permission before use of our images for flyers, posters, etc. We reserve the right to refuse a request.
In summary please remember when requesting photographs from us - If you are using the photographs online all we ask is for you to provide a link back to our Flickr set or Flickr pages. You will find the link above clearly outlined in the description text which accompanies this photograph. Taking these photographs and preparing them for online posting takes a significant effort and time. We are not posting photographs to Flickr for commercial reasons. If you really like what we do please spread the link around your social media, send us an email, leave a comment beside the photographs, send us a Flickr email, etc. If you are using the photographs in newspapers or magazines we ask that you mention where the original photograph came from.
I would like to contribute something for your photograph(s)?
Many people offer payment for our photographs. As stated above we do not charge for these photographs. We take these photographs as our contribution to the running community in Ireland. If you feel that the photograph(s) you request are good enough that you would consider paying for their purchase from other photographic providers or in other circumstances we would suggest that you can provide a donation to any of the great charities in Ireland who do work for Cancer Care or Cancer Research in Ireland.
Let's get a bit technical: We use Creative Commons Licensing for these photographs
We use the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License for all our photographs here in this photograph set. What does this mean in reality?
The explaination is very simple.
Attribution- anyone using our photographs gives us an appropriate credit for it. This ensures that people aren't taking our photographs and passing them off as their own. This usually just mean putting a link to our photographs somewhere on your website, blog, or Facebook where other people can see it.
ShareAlike – anyone can use these photographs, and make changes if they like, or incorporate them into a bigger project, but they must make those changes available back to the community under the same terms.
Above all what Creative Commons aims to do is to encourage creative sharing. See some examples of Creative Commons photographs on Flickr: www.flickr.com/creativecommons/
I ran in the race - but my photograph doesn't appear here in your Flickr set! What gives?
As mentioned above we take these photographs as a hobby and as a voluntary contribution to the running community in Ireland. Very often we have actually ran in the same race and then switched to photographer mode after we finished the race. Consequently, we feel that we have no obligations to capture a photograph of every participant in the race. However, we do try our very best to capture as many participants as possible. But this is sometimes not possible for a variety of reasons:
►You were hidden behind another participant as you passed our camera
►Weather or lighting conditions meant that we had some photographs with blurry content which we did not upload to our Flickr set
►There were too many people - some races attract thousands of participants and as amateur photographs we cannot hope to capture photographs of everyone
►We simply missed you - sorry about that - we did our best!
You can email us petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com to enquire if we have a photograph of you which didn't make the final Flickr selection for the race. But we cannot promise that there will be photograph there. As alternatives we advise you to contact the race organisers to enquire if there were (1) other photographs taking photographs at the race event or if (2) there were professional commercial sports photographers taking photographs which might have some photographs of you available for purchase. You might find some links for further information above.
Don't like your photograph here?
That's OK! We understand!
If, for any reason, you are not happy or comfortable with your picture appearing here in this photoset on Flickr then please email us at petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com and we will remove it as soon as possible. We give careful consideration to each photograph before uploading.
I want to tell people about these great photographs!
Great! Thank you! The best link to spread the word around is probably http://www.flickr.com/peterm7/sets
Panel: The Well City
Mr. Paul Scialla, Chief Executive Officer, Delos Living; Dr. Laoucine Kerbache, Chief Innovation Strategist, Qatar Foundation Research & Development and Professor, HEC-Paris; Datuk Dr. Mohd Yusoff Sulaiman, President & CEO, Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology
2016 Global Innovation Summit
Argentina's Labor, Employment and Social Security Minister Jorge Triaca discussed economic competitiveness and labor reform in Argentina at the Wilson Center, in particular the Argentine government’s efforts to build a consensus labor agenda and institutionalized dialogue to reduce informality, foster productivity and create new jobs in the country.
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El Ministro de Trabajo, Empleo y Seguridad Social de la Argentina, Jorge Triaca, expuso en el Wilson Center sobre la competitividad económica y la reforma laboral de la Argentina, en particular los esfuerzos del Gobierno argentino para construir una agenda laboral consensuada y un diálogo institucionalizado para reducir la informalidad, fomentar la productividad y crear nuevos empleos en el país.
(Official Embassy of Argentina Photo by Julian Ortiz)
This official Embassy of Argentina in US photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the Ambassador, his family, or the Embassy of Argentina in the United States.
From left to right:
Leann Clark, U.S. Department of Commerce
Adriana Bonilla, Assistant in the OAS Competitiveness Program
Date: January 20, 2011
Place: Washington, DC
Credit: Patricia Leiva/OAS
Panel: The Evolving City
Mr. John Thornhill, Innovation Editor, Financial Times; Mr. Mauricio Zuazua, Partner, Innovation, Government & Economic Development Practices, A.T. Kearney; Dr. Nawal Al Hosany, Executive Director, Sustainability and Brand, Masdar
2016 Global Innovation Summit
Female Soldiers and Female Airmen participate in the F2F Pink Bowl, three fun competitive matches at the F2F event on Caserma Del Din June 6.
More than 40 Female Airmen travelled from Aviano Air Force Base to meet with the Female Soldiers from the Vicenza Military Community to partake in the sports event hosted at the Del Din Fitness Center.
Participants competed in volleyball, dodgeball and a hard fought basketball game, which ended with only a one-point difference after an overtime period. An awarding of Pink Bowl Cup concluded the day.
Photo by Laura Kreider/USAG Vicenza PAO
Learn more about us on www.usag.vicenza.army.mil and www.facebook.com/USAGvicenza
Eighth-ranked eater Richard Lefevre, right, and 17th-ranked Seaver Miller rounded out the IFOCE contingent, placing second and third, respectively, at the World Tamale Eating Championship in Lewisville, Tex., Saturday, September 2, 2006.
Panel: The Seamless City
Prof. David Gann, Vice President (Innovation), Imperial College London; H.E. Tae-shin Kwon, President and Chief Executive Officer, Korean Economic Research Institute
2016 Global Innovation Summit
Apparently there is a competitive 'sport' called 'dock jumping' involving dogs, people, and docks, and apparently the docks near the Rotary Center in Riverside Park are a perfect place to practice.
2016-03-22: H.E. Mr. Esmel Emmanuel Essis, Minister to the Prime Minister in charge of the promotion of private investment, Côte d'Ivoire during OECD SEMINAR on Competitiveness in Francophone West Africa.
Dance school for preschool through adults featuring tap, jazz, hip hop, ballet, lyrical, contemporary, dance
fitness, Zumba and competitive dance.
Academy of Dance Westlake Village
5700 Corsa Avenue
Westlake Village,CA,91362,USA
Phone: (818) 889-1515
Fax: (818) 889-1562
Contact Person: Richard Warfield
Contact Email: academyofdancewestlake@gmail.com
Website: www.academyofdancewestlake.com
You Tube URL: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vM2ZaTSuNhU
Main Keywords:
dance school and studio for preschooler thru adult,tap, jazz and hip hop classes,ballet, lyrical and contemporary dance classes,dance fitness and Zumba,competitive dance
Panel: The Seamless City
Prof. David Gann, Vice President (Innovation), Imperial College London; H.E. Tae-shin Kwon, President and Chief Executive Officer, Korean Economic Research Institute; Mr. Alan Mitchell, Executive Director, Cities, KPMG Canada; Brigadier General Simon "Pete" Worden, USAF, Ret., PhD, Chairman, Breakthrough Prize Foundation, Former Director, NASA Ames Research Center; Ms. Gianna Sagazio, Director for Innovation, Brazilian National Confederation of Industry
2016 Global Innovation Summit
Leveling the Playing Field: Strengthening Ireland’s Competitiveness.”
On June 7, U.S. Ambassador to Ireland, Daniel M. Rooney hosted the annual Embassy conference at Croke Park in Dublin. This year’s theme was “Leveling the Playing Field: Strengthening Ireland’s Competitiveness.”
The conference addressed strategies to enhance competitiveness, using the importance of diversity and opportunity as key drivers to economic stabilization and recovery.
Ambassador Rooney noted: “It is special to be here in Croke Park to celebrate so much of what is wonderful about Ireland and its culture. This conference began as a way to look at how some of the ideas which are behind the Rooney Rule can be incorporated into other areas – lassrooms, cliving rooms, the medical field, lassrooms, businesses, sports leagues. It has made a huge difference in the National Football League .
I know new practices and adopting changecan be difficult, but the rewards are significant. I have always believed that to be truly successful everyone needs an equal chance to compete. This is true in business and it is true in sports.”
An Taoiseach Enda Kenny, T.D. and William R. Johnson, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of the H.J. Heinz Company.
The Taoiseach said “Already, the progress that Ireland has made in repairing our damaged economy is well recognised internationally. Step by step, we are bringing our public finances under control through our fiscal consolidation programme. At the same time, my Government has brought a strong and determined focus to the agenda for growth and jobs.”
While Mr. Johnson noted that "It's a leader in foreign investment per capita for many reasons, most noticeably the availability of skilled labour, the productivity of the Irish workforce, and your success in stimulating business investment over the years, through legislation and attractive corporate tax rates." "Ireland continues to be an attractive place to do business, and many other global companies have discovered this by establishing factories and operations in the country," he said.
Other participants speaking at the conference included Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairi Quinn, T.D.; Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton, T.D.; Norah Casey, CEO of Harmonia; Cathriona Hallahan, Managing Director Microsoft EOC, Microsoft Ireland; and James Mailley, Monster.com Sales Director. Mark Waller, Chief Marketing Officer with the NFL; Eamon Dunphy, Broadcaster & Journalist;
Panel: The Seamless City
H.E. Tae-shin Kwon, President and Chief Executive Officer, Korean Economic Research Institute; Mr. Alan Mitchell, Executive Director, Cities, KPMG Canada
2016 Global Innovation Summit
Be410- Competitive Team Retreat! We had a great time in Malibu battling to bring home this year's trophy!
Panel: The Seamless City
Prof. David Gann, Vice President (Innovation), Imperial College London; H.E. Tae-shin Kwon, President and Chief Executive Officer, Korean Economic Research Institute; Mr. Alan Mitchell, Executive Director, Cities, KPMG Canada; Brigadier General Simon "Pete" Worden, USAF, Ret., PhD, Chairman, Breakthrough Prize Foundation, Former Director, NASA Ames Research Center; Mr. Roger Bailey, Asset Management Director, Thames Tideway; Ms. Gianna Sagazio, Director for Innovation, Brazilian National Confederation of Industry
2016 Global Innovation Summit
U.S. Army Soldiers, assigned to Multinational Battle Group-East Task Force Explosive Ordnance Disposal, host a competitive explosive ordnance range in Orahovac, Kosovo, May 4. The range competition was attended by EOD teams from the Kosovo Security Force, Ukraine, and the Moldovan Armed Forces. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Adeline Witherspoon, 20th Public Affairs)
Miglieglia is a Swiss municipality of 308 inhabitants in the Canton of Ticino , in the district of Lugano .
Miglieglia is located in Malcantone , on the southern slope of Monte Lema.
On 17 August 2004 the merger project for the new municipality of Medio Malcantone was rejected in order to unite Astano , Bedigliora , Curio , Miglieglia and Novaggio . The aggregation was abandoned due to the negative result of the vote of the population of the municipalities concerned on 8 February 2004.
Monuments and places of interest
The church of Santo Stefano al Colle
Church of Santo Stefano al Colle , from the Romanesque period;
Parish church of Santo Stefano , built in the 17th century ( 1634).
Each family originating from the area is part of the so-called patrician municipality and is responsible for the maintenance of every property within the boundaries of the municipality. The patrician office is chaired in the period 2017-2021 by Marco Marcozzi
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is geographically divided among the Swiss Plateau, the Alps and the Jura; the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, whereas most of the country's population of 9 million are concentrated on the plateau, which hosts its largest cities and economic centres, including Zürich, Geneva and Basel.
Switzerland originates from the Old Swiss Confederacy established in the Late Middle Ages, following a series of military successes against Austria and Burgundy; the Federal Charter of 1291 is considered the country's founding document. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognised in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Switzerland has maintained a policy of armed neutrality since the 16th century and has not fought an international war since 1815. It joined the United Nations only in 2002 but pursues an active foreign policy that includes frequent involvement in peace building.
Switzerland is the birthplace of the Red Cross and hosts the headquarters or offices of most major international institutions, including the WTO, the WHO, the ILO, FIFA, and the United Nations. It is a founding member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), but not part of the European Union (EU), the European Economic Area, or the eurozone; however, it participates in the European single market and the Schengen Area. Switzerland is a federal republic composed of 26 cantons, with federal authorities based in Bern.
Switzerland is one of the world's most developed countries, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Switzerland ranks first in the Human Development Index since 2021 and performs highly also on several international metrics, including economic competitiveness and democratic governance. Cities such as Zürich, Geneva and Basel rank among the highest in terms of quality of life, albeit with some of the highest costs of living.
It has four main linguistic and cultural regions: German, French, Italian and Romansh. Although most Swiss are German-speaking, national identity is fairly cohesive, being rooted in a common historical background, shared values such as federalism and direct democracy, and Alpine symbolism. Swiss identity transcends language, ethnicity, and religion, leading to Switzerland being described as a Willensnation ("nation of volition") rather than a nation state.
Since 1848 the Swiss Confederation has been a federal republic of relatively autonomous cantons, some of which have a history of federation that goes back more than 700 years, putting them among the world's oldest surviving republics.
The early history of the region is tied to that of Alpine culture. Switzerland was inhabited by the Helvetii, and it came under Roman rule in the 1st century BC. The Gallo-Roman culture was amalgamated with Germanic influence during Late Antiquity, with the eastern part of Switzerland becoming Alemannic territory. The area of Switzerland was incorporated into the Frankish Empire in the 6th century. In the High Middle Ages, the eastern part became part of the Duchy of Swabia within the Holy Roman Empire, while the western part was part of Burgundy.
The Old Swiss Confederacy in the Late Middle Ages (the Eight Cantons) established its independence from the House of Habsburg and the Duchy of Burgundy, and in the Italian Wars gained territory south of the Alps from the Duchy of Milan. The Swiss Reformation divided the Confederacy and resulted in a drawn-out history of internal strife between the Thirteen Cantons in the Early Modern period. In the wake of the French Revolution, Switzerland fell to a French invasion in 1798 and was reformed into the Helvetic Republic, a French client state. Napoleon's Act of Mediation in 1803 restored the status of Switzerland as a Confederation, and after the end of the Napoleonic period, the Swiss Confederation underwent a period of turmoil culminating in a brief civil war in 1847 and the creation of a federal constitution in 1848.
The history of Switzerland since 1848 has been largely one of success and prosperity. Industrialisation transformed the traditional agricultural economy, and Swiss neutrality during the World Wars and the success of the banking industry furthered the ascent of Switzerland to its status as one of the world's most stable economies.
Switzerland signed a free-trade agreement with the European Economic Community in 1972 and has participated in the process of European integration by way of bilateral treaties, but it has notably resisted full accession to the European Union (EU) even though its territory almost completely (except for the microstate Liechtenstein) has been surrounded by EU member states since 1995. In 2002, Switzerland joined the United Nations.
Archeological evidence suggests that hunter-gatherers were already settled in the lowlands north of the Alps in the Middle Paleolithic period 150,000 years ago. Agriculture in Switzerland began around 5500 BC. By the Neolithic period, the area was relatively densely populated. Remains of Bronze Age pile dwellings from as early as 3800 BC have been found in the shallow areas of many lakes. Around 1500 BC, Celtic tribes settled in the area. The Raetians lived in the eastern regions, while the west was occupied by the Helvetii.
A female who died in about 200 B.C. was found buried in a carved tree trunk during a construction project at the Kern school complex in March 2017 in Aussersihl. Archaeologists revealed that she was approximately 40 years old when she died and likely carried out little physical labor when she was alive. A sheepskin coat, a belt chain, a fancy wool dress, a scarf and a pendant made of glass, and amber beads were also discovered with the woman.
In 58 BC, the Helvetii tried to evade migratory pressure from Germanic tribes by moving into Gaul, but were defeated by Julius Caesar's armies and then sent back. The alpine region became integrated into the Roman Empire and was extensively romanized in the course of the following centuries. The center of Roman administration was at Aventicum (Avenches). In 259, Alamanni tribes overran the Limes, putting the settlements on Swiss territory on the frontier of the Roman Empire.
With the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Germanic tribes entered the area. Burgundians settled in the west; while in the north, Alamanni settlers slowly forced the earlier Celto-Roman population to retreat into the mountains. Burgundy became a part of the kingdom of the Franks in 534; two years later, the dukedom of the Alamans followed suit. In the Alaman-controlled region, only isolated Christian communities continued to exist and Irish monks re-introduced the Christian faith in the early 7th century.
Under the Carolingian kings, the feudal system proliferated, and monasteries and bishoprics were important bases for maintaining the rule. The Treaty of Verdun of 843 assigned Upper Burgundy (the western part of what is today Switzerland) to Lotharingia, and Alemannia (the eastern part) to the eastern kingdom of Louis the German which would become part of the Holy Roman Empire.
In the 10th century, as the rule of the Carolingians waned, Magyars destroyed Basel in 917 and St. Gallen in 926. Only after the victory of King Otto I over the Magyars in 955 in the Battle of Lechfeld, were the Swiss territories reintegrated into the empire.
In the 12th century, the dukes of Zähringen were given authority over part of the Burgundy territories which covered the western part of modern Switzerland. They founded many cities, including Fribourg in 1157, and Bern in 1191. The Zähringer dynasty ended with the death of Berchtold V in 1218, and their cities subsequently became reichsfrei (essentially a city-state within the Holy Roman Empire), while the dukes of Kyburg competed with the house of Habsburg over control of the rural regions of the former Zähringer territory.
Under the Hohenstaufen rule, the alpine passes in Raetia and the St Gotthard Pass gained importance. The latter especially became an important direct route through the mountains. Uri (in 1231) and Schwyz (in 1240) were accorded the Reichsfreiheit to grant the empire direct control over the mountain pass. Most of the territory of Unterwalden at this time belonged to monasteries that had previously become reichsfrei.
The extinction of the Kyburg dynasty paved the way for the Habsburg dynasty to bring much of the territory south of the Rhine under their control, aiding their rise to power. Rudolph of Habsburg, who became King of Germany in 1273, effectively revoked the status of Reichsfreiheit granted to the "Forest Cantons" of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden. The Forest Cantons thus lost their independent status and were governed by reeves.
By 1353, the three original cantons had been joined by the cantons of Glarus and Zug and the city-states of Lucerne, Zürich, and Bern, forming the "Old Federation" of eight states that persisted during much of the 15th century. The Holy Roman Empire built roads and bridges to connect the industrial region of north Italy with the Rhine (linked with the other industrial area of Middle Age Europe, the Burgundian Netherlands), making the peasants and bankers on the road rich, allowing them to buy specialized Italian armor and to stop paying the road collecting taxes to the Empire who built the road. At the Battle of Sempach in 1386, the Swiss defeated the Habsburgs, gaining increased autonomy within the Holy Roman Empire.
Zürich was expelled from the Confederation from 1440 to 1450 due to a conflict over the territory of Toggenburg (the Old Zürich War). The Confederation's power and wealth increased significantly, with victories over Charles the Bold of Burgundy during the Burgundian Wars (1474–1477), greatly due to the success of the Swiss mercenaries, a powerful infantry force constituted by professional soldiers originally from the cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy. They were notable for their service in foreign armies, especially among the military forces of the Kings of France, throughout the Early Modern period of European history, from the Late Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Their service as mercenaries was at its peak during the Renaissance when their proven battlefield capabilities made them sought-after mercenary troops. The traditional listing order of the cantons of Switzerland reflects this state, listing the eight "Old Cantons" first, with the city-states preceding the founding cantons, followed by cantons that joined the Confederation after 1481, in historical order.
The Swiss defeated the Swabian League in 1499 and gained greater collective autonomy within the Holy Roman Empire, including exemption from the Imperial reforms of 1495 and immunity from most Imperial courts. In 1506, Pope Julius II engaged the Swiss Guard, which continues to serve the papacy to the present day. The expansion of the Confederation and the reputation of invincibility acquired during the earlier wars suffered its first setback in 1515 with the Swiss defeat in the Battle of Marignano and Battle of Bicocca.
The Reformation in Switzerland began in 1523, led by Huldrych Zwingli, priest of the Great Minster church in Zürich since 1518. Zürich adopted the Protestant religion, joined by Berne, Basel, and Schaffhausen, while Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, Nidwalden, Zug, Fribourg, and Solothurn remained Catholic. Glarus and Appenzell were split. This led to multiple inter-cantonal religious wars (Kappeler Kriege) in 1529 and 1531, as each canton usually made the opposing religion illegal, and to the formation of two diets, the Protestant one meeting in Aarau and the Catholic one in Lucerne (as well as the formal full diet still meeting usually in Baden), despite this the Confederation survived.
During the Thirty Years' War, Switzerland was a relative "oasis of peace and prosperity" (Grimmelshausen) in war-torn Europe, mostly because all major powers in Europe depended on Swiss mercenaries, and would not let Switzerland fall into the hands of one of their rivals. Politically, they all tried to take influence, by way of mercenary commanders such as Jörg Jenatsch or Johann Rudolf Wettstein. The Drei Bünde of Grisons, at that point not yet a member of the Confederacy, were involved in the war from 1620, which led to their loss of the Valtellina in 1623.
At the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, Switzerland attained legal independence from the Holy Roman Empire. The Valtellina became a dependency of the Drei Bünde again after the Treaty and remained so until the founding of the Cisalpine Republic by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1797.
In 1653, peasants of territories subject to Lucerne, Bern, Solothurn, and Basel revolted because of currency devaluation. Although the authorities prevailed in this Swiss peasant war, they did pass some tax reforms and the incident in the long term prevented an absolutist development as would occur at some other courts of Europe. The confessional tensions remained, however, and erupted again in the First War of Villmergen, in 1656, and the Toggenburg War (or Second War of Villmergen), in 1712.
During the French Revolutionary Wars, the French army invaded Switzerland and turned it into an ally known as the "Helvetic Republic" (1798–1803). It had a central government with little role for cantons. The interference with localism and traditional liberties was deeply resented, although some modernizing reforms took place.
Resistance was strongest in the more traditional Catholic bastions, with armed uprisings breaking out in spring 1798 in the central part of Switzerland. The French Army suppressed the uprisings but support for revolutionary ideas steadily declined. The reform element was weak, and most Swiss resented their loss of local democracy, centralization, new taxes, warfare, and hostility to religion.
Major steps taken to emancipate the Jews included the repeal of special taxes and oaths in 1798. However, many such reforms were turned back in 1815, and not until 1879 were the Jews granted equal rights with the Christians.
In 1803, Napoleon's Act of Mediation partially restored the sovereignty of the cantons, and the former tributary and allied territories of Aargau, Thurgau, Grisons, St. Gallen, Vaud, and Ticino became cantons with equal rights. Napoleon and his enemies fought numerous campaigns in Switzerland that ruined many localities.
The Congress of Vienna of 1814–15 fully re-established Swiss independence and the European powers agreed to recognize permanent Swiss neutrality. At this time, Valais, Neuchâtel, and Geneva also joined Switzerland as new cantons, thereby extending Swiss territory to its current boundaries.
The long-term impact of the French Revolution has been assessed (by William Martin):
It proclaimed the equality of citizens before the law, equality of languages, and freedom of thought and faith; it created Swiss citizenship, the basis of our modern nationality, and the separation of powers, of which the old regime had no conception; it suppressed internal tariffs and other economic restraints; it unified weights and measures, reformed civil and penal law, authorized mixed marriages (between Catholics and Protestants), suppressed torture and improved justice; it developed education and public works.
On 6 April 1814, the so-called "Long Diet" (delegates from all the nineteen cantons) met at Zürich to replace the constitution.
Cantonal constitutions were worked out independently from 1814, in general restoring the late feudal conditions of the 17th and 18th centuries. The Tagsatzung was reorganized by the Federal Treaty (Bundesvertrag) of 7 August 1815.
The liberal Free Democratic Party of Switzerland was strong in the largely Protestant cantons and obtained the majority in the Federal Diet in the early 1840s. It proposed a new Constitution for the Swiss Confederation which would draw the several cantons into a closer relationship. In addition to the centralization of the Swiss government, the new Constitution also included protections for trade and other progressive reform measures. The Federal Diet, with the approval of a majority of cantons, had taken measures against the Catholic Church such as the closure of monasteries and convents in Aargau in 1841, and the seizure of their properties. Catholic Lucerne, in retaliation,1844 recalled the Jesuits to head its education. That succeeded and seven Catholic cantons formed the "Sonderbund." This caused a liberal-radical move in the Protestant cantons to take control of the national Diet in 1847. The Diet ordered the Sonderbund dissolved, igniting a small-scale civil war against rural cantons that were strongholds of pro-Catholic ultramontanism.
The Radical-liberal-Protestant element charged that the Sonderbund violated the Federal Treaty of 1815, § 6 of which expressly forbade such separate alliances. Forming a majority in the Tagsatzung they decided to dissolve the Sonderbund on October 21, 1847. The odds were against the Catholics, who were heavily outnumbered in population; they were outnumbered in soldiers by 79,000 to 99,000 and lacked enough well-trained soldiers, officers, and generals. When the Sonderbund refused to disband, the national army attacked in a brief civil war between the Catholic and the Protestant cantons, known as the Sonderbundskrieg ("Sonderbund War".) The national army was composed of soldiers from all the other cantons except Neuchâtel and Appenzell Innerrhoden (which remained neutral). The Sonderbund was easily defeated in less than a month; there were about 130 killed. Apart from small riots, this was the last armed conflict on Swiss territory. Many Sonderbund leaders fled to Italy, but the victors were generous. They invited the defeated cantons to join them in a program of federal reform, and a new constitution was drafted along American lines. National issues were to be under the control of the national parliament, and the Jesuits were expelled. The Swiss voted heavily in favor of the new constitution by 2 million against 300,000. Switzerland became calm. However, conservatives around Europe became frightened and prepared their forces to meet possible challenges, which indeed soon exploded the Revolutions of 1848. In those violent revolutions, outside Switzerland, the conservatives were always successful.
As a consequence of the civil war, Switzerland adopted a federal constitution in 1848, amending it extensively in 1874 and establishing federal responsibility for defense, trade, and legal matters, leaving all other matters to the cantonal governments. From then, and over much of the 20th century, continuous political, economic, and social improvement has characterized Swiss history.
While Switzerland was primarily rural, the cities experienced an industrial revolution in the late 19th century, focused especially on textiles. In Basel, for example, textiles, including silk, were the leading industry. In 1888 women made up 44% of the wage earners. Nearly half the women worked in the textile mills, with household servants as the second largest job category. The share of women in the workforce was higher between 1890 and 1910 than it was in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Swiss Universities in the late 19th century are notable for the number of female students receiving medical education.
The major powers respected Switzerland's neutrality during World War I. In the Grimm–Hoffmann Affair, the Allies denounced a proposal by one politician to negotiate peace on the Eastern Front; they wanted the war there to continue to tie Germany down.
While the industrial sector began to grow in the mid-19th century, Switzerland's emergence as one of the most prosperous nations in Europe—the "Swiss miracle"—was a development of the short 20th century, among other things tied to the role of Switzerland during the World Wars.
Germany considered invading Switzerland during World War II but never attacked. Under General Henri Guisan, the Swiss army prepared for the mass mobilization of militia forces against invasion and prepared strong, well-stockpiled positions high in the Alps known as the Réduit. Switzerland remained independent and neutral through a combination of military deterrence, economic concessions to Germany, and good fortune as larger events during the war delayed an invasion.
Attempts by Switzerland's small Nazi party to cause an Anschluss with Germany failed miserably, largely due to Switzerland's multicultural heritage, a strong sense of national identity, and long tradition of direct democracy and civil liberties. The Swiss press vigorously criticized the Third Reich, often infuriating German leaders. Switzerland was an important base for espionage by both sides in the conflict and often mediated communications between the Axis and Allied powers.
Switzerland's trade was blockaded by both the Allies and the Axis. Both sides openly exerted pressure on Switzerland not to trade with the other. Economic cooperation and extension of credit to the Third Reich varied according to the perceived likelihood of invasion, and the availability of other trading partners. Concessions reached their zenith after a crucial rail link through Vichy France was severed in 1942, leaving Switzerland surrounded by the Axis. Switzerland relied on trade for half of its food and essentially all of its fuel, but controlled vital trans-alpine rail tunnels between Germany and Italy.
Switzerland's most important exports during the war were precision machine tools, watches, jewel bearings (used in bombsights), electricity, and dairy products. During World War Two, the Swiss franc was the only remaining major freely convertible currency in the world, and both the Allies and the Germans sold large amounts of gold to the Swiss National Bank. Between 1940 and 1945, the German Reichsbank sold 1.3 billion francs worth of gold to Swiss Banks in exchange for Swiss francs and other foreign currency.
Hundreds of millions of francs worth of this gold was monetary gold plundered from the central banks of occupied countries. 581,000 francs of "Melmer" gold taken from Holocaust victims in eastern Europe was sold to Swiss banks. In total, trade between Germany and Switzerland contributed about 0.5% to the German war effort but did not significantly lengthen the war.
Over the course of the war, Switzerland interned 300,000 refugees. 104,000 of these were foreign troops interned according to the Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers outlined in the Hague Conventions. The rest were foreign civilians and were either interned or granted tolerance or residence permits by the cantonal authorities. Refugees were not allowed to hold jobs. 60,000 of the refugees were civilians escaping persecution by the Nazis. Of these, 26,000 to 27,000 were Jews. Between 10,000 and 25,000 civilian refugees were refused entry. At the beginning of the war, Switzerland had a Jewish population of between 18,000 and 28,000 and a total population of about 4 million.
Within Switzerland at the time of the conflict, there was moderate polarization. Some were pacifists. Some took sides according to international capitalism or international communism. Others leaned more towards their language group, with some in French-speaking areas more pro-Allied, and some in Swiss-German areas more pro-Axis. The government attempted to thwart the activities of any individual, party, or faction in Switzerland that acted with extremism or attempted to break the unity of the nation. The Swiss-German speaking areas moved linguistically further away from the standard (high) German spoken in Germany, with more emphasis on local Swiss dialects.
In the 1960s, significant controversy arose among historians regarding the nation's relations with Nazi Germany.
By the 1990s the controversies included a class-action lawsuit brought in New York over Jewish assets in Holocaust-era bank accounts. The government commissioned an authoritative study of Switzerland's interaction with the Nazi regime. The final report by this independent panel of international scholars, known as the Bergier Commission, was issued in 2002.
During the Cold War, Swiss authorities considered the construction of a Swiss nuclear bomb. Leading nuclear physicists at the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich such as Paul Scherrer made this a realistic possibility. However, financial problems with the defense budget prevented substantial funds from being allocated, and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968 was seen as a valid alternative. All remaining plans for building nuclear weapons were dropped by 1988.
From 1959, the Federal Council, elected by the parliament, is composed of members of the four major parties, the Protestant Free Democrats, the Catholic Christian Democrats, the left-wing Social Democrats, and the right-wing People's Party, essentially creating a system without a sizeable parliamentary opposition (see concordance system), reflecting the powerful position of an opposition in a direct democracy.
In 1963, Switzerland joined the Council of Europe. In 1979, parts of the canton of Bern attained independence, forming the new canton of Jura.
Switzerland's role in many United Nations and international organizations helped to mitigate the country's concern for neutrality. In 2002, Switzerland voters gave 55% of their vote in favour of the UN and joined the United Nations. This followed decades of debate and its previous rejection of membership in 1986 by a 3-1 popular vote.
Swiss women gained the right to vote in national-level elections in 1971, and an equal rights amendment was ratified in 1981, however it was not until 1990 that the courts established full nationwide voting rights for women in all elections.
Switzerland is not a member state of the EU but has been (together with Liechtenstein) surrounded by EU territory since the joining of Austria in 1995. In 2005, Switzerland agreed to join the Schengen treaty and Dublin Convention by popular vote. In February 2014, Swiss voters approved a referendum to reinstitute quotas on immigration to Switzerland, setting off a period of finding an implementation that would not violate the EU's freedom of movement accords that Switzerland adopted.
Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Switzerland decided to adopt all EU sanctions against Russia. According to the Swiss President Ignazio Cassis, the measures were "unprecedented but consistent with Swiss neutrality". The administration also confirmed that Switzerland would continue to offer its services to find a peaceful solution to the conflict. Switzerland only participates in humanitarian missions and provides relief supplies to the Ukrainian population and neighbouring countries.