Europe · Western Europe · Swiss Franc
Switzerland is presented here as a historical economic dossier rather than a flat stat sheet: long-run macro cycles, public balance-sheet pressure, market depth, external buffers, and the events that likely bent the curve.
A tighter current-state read before dropping into the long historical charts.
The timeline is where macro numbers meet story: crises, wars, policy shifts, trade deals, and other shocks connected to Switzerland.
1798 battle
1798 battle
1798 battle
1798 battle
1799 battle
battle in the War of the Second Coalition
1799 War of the Second Coalition battle
war of the Second Coalition battle, 1799
1799 Battle during the War of the Second Coalition
agreement between the cantons of Zürich, Bern, Luzern, Solothurn, St. Gallen, Aargau and Thurgau
Henry Dunant founded the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva following his horror at the Battle of Solferino, creating the world's most important humanitarian organization. The Red Cross established the principle of neutral medical care in warfare.
first of four treaties of the Geneva Conventions, adopted in 1864
Twelve nations signed the First Geneva Convention, establishing rules to protect wounded soldiers and medical personnel in wartime. The Convention founded international humanitarian law and led to the creation of the Red Cross.
Theodor Herzl convened the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, formally organizing the movement for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Herzl wrote in his diary 'In Basel I founded the Jewish state,' predicting what would happen within 50 years.
Albert Einstein publishes special relativity, fundamentally changing physics and our understanding of the universe.
1922-1923
multilateral treaties negotiated in Locarno, Switzerland during October 1925
ETH Lectures
14th Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance
1949 treaty
1954 conference took place in Geneva dealt with the aftermath of Korean War and First Indochina War
Berne incident
airline bombing incident
President Nixon suspended the dollars convertibility to gold, effectively ending the Bretton Woods system and transitioning to floating exchange rates globally.
treaty
Paschoud affair
Tim Berners-Lee makes the World Wide Web available to the public, transforming global communication.
British scientist Tim Berners-Lee publicly launched the World Wide Web at CERN, creating the foundation of the modern internet. The first web browser made hyperlinked information accessible to the general public.
1992 mass shooting in Switzerland
cult mass murder suicide
conference held at CERN, Geneva, in May 1994
Germany and 10 other EU nations adopted the euro, creating the worlds second-largest reserve currency and transforming European monetary policy.
September 2001 shooting in Zug, Switzerland
CERN scientists announced on July 4, 2012, the discovery of a particle consistent with the long-sought Higgs boson, the subatomic particle that gives matter its mass, confirming a key prediction of the Standard Model of particle physics. The discovery earned Peter Higgs and François Englert the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics.
The Swiss National Bank abruptly removed the CHF 1.20 per euro floor, causing the franc to surge 30% in minutes — the largest single-day move in a major currency in modern history.
pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2
ongoing coronavirus pandemic in Europe
Western nations removed major Russian banks from the SWIFT international payment system, representing unprecedented financial sanctions and accelerating discussions about alternative payment systems.
The Fed raised rates from near-zero to combat inflation reaching 9.1%, the most aggressive tightening cycle in decades, eventually reaching 5.25-5.50%.
The United States, European allies, and partners blocked access to a large share of Russia's foreign reserves after the invasion of Ukraine, marking one of the most consequential financial sanctions actions in modern history.
SVB, the 16th largest US bank, collapsed in the second-largest bank failure in US history, followed quickly by Signature Bank, sparking concerns about regional banking stability.
second Swiss Citizen Science conference, 29 - 30 March 2023, Solothurn (Switzerland)
Swiss authorities brokered the emergency takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS for CHF 3 billion on March 19, 2023, after years of scandals had shattered confidence in the 167-year-old bank, with the SVB collapse accelerating deposit outflows. The deal included a controversial write-down of CHF 16 billion in Additional Tier 1 bonds to zero, upending established creditor hierarchies.