| Republic of Helvetia Helvetische Republik Timeline: An Honorable Retelling | ||||||
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| Motto: Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno "One for all, all for one" |
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| Anthem: Helvetischer Psalm "Helvetic Psalm" |
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| Capital | Bern | |||||
| Largest city | Zürich | |||||
| Official languages | German | |||||
| Demonym | Helvetian | |||||
| Government | Federal asembly-independent directorial republic | |||||
| - | Federal President | Karin Keller-Sutter | ||||
| - | Federal Chancellor | Ueli Maurer | ||||
| Legislature | Federal Council | |||||
| - | Upper house | Chamber of States | ||||
| - | Lower house | Chamber of Representatives | ||||
| Formation | ||||||
| - | Formation of the Old Swiss Confederacy | 1291 | ||||
| - | Invasion by France | 1798 | ||||
| - | December Revolution/Helvetian Revolution | 1918-21 | ||||
| - | Socialist republic | 1921-88 | ||||
| - | Helvetian Wars | 1988-96 | ||||
| - | Current constitution | 2000 | ||||
| Population | ||||||
| - | 2023 estimate | 6,050,000 | ||||
| Currency | Helvetic new franc (HRF) |
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| Drives on the | right | |||||
Helvetia (Germany: Helvetisch), officially the Republic of Helvetia (German: Helvetische Republik), is a landlocked country located in Southwestern Europe in the Alps mountain range. The country borders France and Germany to its north, Germany and the disputed state of the Grisons to its west, Ticino, Valais and Italy to its south and Romandy to its west. The country’s capital is Bern and its largest city is Zürich. Other large cities include Basel, Winterthur, St. Gallen, Thun, Könin Schaffhausen, Emmen and Zug.
First inhabited 150,000 years ago, Helvetia fell under the control of first the Roman Empire and then the Franks, later the Holy German Empire. In 1291, three city-states in the Central plain signed an alliance, establishing the Old Swiss Confederacy. Until the 1400s and the collapse of the HGE, the confederation was not recognised. However, in the wake of the Germanic Wars and the collapse of the HGE, Switzerland established its neutrality and independence.
In 1798, French troops would storm across the Alps and invade the Old Confederacy, establishing the Helvetic Republic as a Fremch puppet state. In 1803, after a serious revolt in the Republic's main cities, the Grand Duchy of Helvetia was formed with the French monarch as the Grand Duke of Helvetia, effectively placing Helvetia into personal union with France. Helvetia would join the Continental System in GW3 and soldiers would be sent to fight on the Northern and Eastern Fronts. However, trouble brewed at home as rationing took its toll on the Swiss economy.
Ultimately, in November 1918, a general strike was called and socialist revolutionaries began to run amok in Helvetia. With government control quickly decreasing, the Socialist Party called for open revolution against the government to form a communist state. The November Revolution had begun, and with it three long years of war raged throughout the country, ultimately resulting in the victory of the Socialists and the formation of the Socialist People’s and Workers Federation of Helvetia. Helvetia would gain land from France in the early 1920s, and would begin to collectivise its economy. The 1930s saw an economic and military alliance with Germany and Cisleithania signed, forming the European Anti-Fascist Bloc. During the Fourth Great War, Helvetia was invaded, but managed to hold off the French at the Alps and push them back during the spring 1945 offensive, Operation Adler. Helvetia was allied to Germany during the Cold War and was a member of the Frankfurt Pact.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the Helvetian state and its structure began to be increasingly co-opted by German nationalists, as well as regional separatists. Ultimately this would result in the total dissolution of Helvetia in 1996, following the eight year long conflict known as the Helvetian Wars. In the wars, Helvetian soldiers committed multiple atrocities and war crimes, including the Romansh genocide, in which the worst massacre since the Fourth Great War occurred in Zernes in 1995, and the funding of proxy pro-German armies to massacre French and Italian civilians in Romandy, Valais and Ticino. In 1994, the LTEP authorised a GTO-led intervention into the troubled region, codenamed Operation Deliberate Force, including bombings of Helvetian cities to pressure the Helvetian government into a ceasefire, coming two years after the LTEP created the LPROFOR peacekeeping force. Infamously, Russian jet fighters would accidentally destroy the Chinese embassy in Bern in 1995, causing a diplomatic row between the two nations.
As the war dragged on, multiple offensives by the Romandic, Valaisian and Ticinian armies, plus the increasing inability to fight Grisonian separatist rebels in Graubünden, resulted in a total surrender of Helvetia in 1996, partially caused by a revolution that overthrew Helvetian leader Peter Bodenmann. Following the end of the wars, Helvetia was transformed into a federal republic, its name and flag were changed and it began to look towards the West. In 2002, following six years of LTEP administration supported by joint GTO/LTEP peacekeeping, the Grisons declared independence, a move which has not yet been recognised by the Helvetian government, although relations have somewhat normalised since 2019.
An upper-middle to low-high income state, Helvetia has a rather excellent quality of life, ranked "very high" in the Human Development Index. Its economy operates rather similarly to that of the Spartacist nations, although economic liberalisation has been on and off since the late 90s, depending on the country’s government. It is a federal asembly-independent directorial republic, with free multi-party elections every four years, although it is not usual for governments to last that long. The Federal Chancellor, Ueli Maurer, has been accused of democratic backsliding during his previous terms and his current one (2022-present), however the Helvetian government overall appears to be "very transparent", according to independent studies. It is a member of the LTEP, Council of Europe, the GTO Peace Programme, the OSCE and the European Non-Aligned Association. The country has maintained warm relations with bit the EC, GTO and Germany since the early 2000s, and is aspiring for EC membership by 2030, with membership negotiations currently ongoing. The state adheres to armed neutrality, has ingrained the concept into the Constitution and has signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Helvetia maintains free healthcare for all citizens and free education for all children within the state.