Zurich History

The city of Zurich was established as a Roman customs post by the name of Turicum in 15 B.C. The Germanic tribes then occupied the area. A whole number of monasteries and churches were built. Such monasteries played an important role in the development of the society.

They helped humanise and handed down the knowledge and skills of the ancient world, so that they could provide artisans and peasants with advice and offered the inhabitants refuge.

Expansion thereafter was slow, but the increasingly powerful merchants and artisans formed guilds that took over the governing of the city and the little town began to enjoy increasing prestige and acquired the status of an imperial city.

In 1336, the government was overthrown by knight Rudolf Brun and Guild Constitution is adopted, before Zurich turned its back to the nobility of the surrounding region and joined the Swiss Confederation in 1351. From then on, Zurich received a reputation as a cultural and intellectual centre and its importance increased under the rule of Mayor Hans Waldmann.

Around 1520, Huldrych Zwingli starts the Swiss Protestant Reformation. Zurich evolved slowly as the leading puritan centre for commerce, economic and transport (machine and textile industries, banking, insurance and tourism). Zurich was small and isolated, but for all that it was not less prosperous.

In 1798, after the breakdown of the French monarchy, French, Austrian, German, and Russian armies were fighting over Zurich. A severe famine followed. This was the worst crisis the town has ever experienced until.

In 1847, Switzerland drafted a new, democratic constitution, which was the first step to become a harmonious small republic and led to a governmental public voting on parliamentary bills.

Zurich became kind of a melting-pot of ethnic groups, because of the political liberty. Cheap labour flooded in out of the catholic cantons, Italy, Germany, Austria and Eastern Europe. This resulted in a rapid growth of the population.