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The growth of the Old Swiss Confederacy began as an alliance between the communities of the valleys in the Central Alps to facilitate the management of common interests such as free trade and to ensure the peace along the important trade routes through the mountains. In the late Middle Ages, this region belonged to the Holy Roman Empire, and because of its strategic importance the Hohenstaufen emperors had granted it ''reichsfrei'' status in the early 13th century. As ''reichsfrei'' regions, the cantons (or regions) of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden were under the direct authority of the emperor without any intermediate liege lords and thus were largely autonomous. With the rise of the Habsburg dynasty, the kings and dukes of Habsburg sought to extend their influence over this region and to bring it under their rule; as a consequence, a conflict ensued between the Habsburgs and these mountain communities who tried to defend their privileged status as ''reichsfrei'' regions. The three founding cantons of the ''Swiss Eidgenossenschaft'', as the confederacy was called, were joined in the early 14th century by the city states of Lucerne, Zürich, and Bern, and they managed to defeat Habsburg armies on several occasions. They also profited from the fact that the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, for most of the 14th century, came from the House of Luxembourg and regarded them as potential useful allies against the rival Habsburgs. By 1460, the confederates controlled most of the territory south and west of the Rhine to the Alps and the Jura mountains. At the end of the 15th century, two wars resulted in an expansion to thirteen cantons (''Dreizehn Orte''): in the Burgundian Wars of the 1470s, the confederates asserted their hegemony on the western border, and their victory in the Swabian War in 1499 against the forces of the Habsburg emperor Maximilian I ensured a ''de facto'' independence from the empire. During their involvement in the Italian Wars, the Swiss brought the Ticino under their control. Two similar federations sprung up in neighboring areas in the Alps in the 14th century: in the Grisons, the federation of the Three Leagues (''Drei Bünde'') was founded, and in the Valais, the Seven Tenths (''Sieben Zenden'') were formed as a result of the conflicts with the Dukes of Savoy. Neither federation was part of the medieval ''Eidgenossenschaft'' but both maintained very close connections with it. ==Territorial development== Under the Hohenstaufen dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire, the three regions of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden (the ''Waldstätten'' or "forest communities") had gained the ''Reichsfreiheit'', the first two because the emperors wanted to place the strategically important pass of the St. Gotthard under their direct control, the latter because most of its territory belonged to ''reichsfrei'' monasteries. The cities of Bern and Zürich had also become ''reichsfrei'' when the dynasty of their patrons, the Zähringer, had died out. When Rudolph I of Habsburg was elected "King of the Germans" in 1273, he also became the direct liege lord of these ''reichsfrei'' regions. He instituted a strict rule and raised the taxes to finance wars and further territorial acquisitions. When he died in 1291, his son Albert I got involved in a power struggle with Adolf of Nassau for the German throne, and the Habsburg rule over the alpine territories weakened temporarily. Anti-Habsburg insurgences sprung up in Swabia and Austria, but were quashed quickly by Albert in 1292. Zürich had participated in this uprising. Albert besieged the city, which had to accept him as its patron. This time of turmoil prompted the ''Waldstätten'' to cooperate more closely, trying to preserve or regain their ''Reichsfreiheit''. The first alliance started in 1291 when Rudolph bought all the rights over the town of Lucerne and the abbey estates in Unterwalden from Murbach Abbey in Alsace. The ''Waldstätten'' saw their trade route over Lake Lucerne cut off and feared losing their independence. When Rudolph died on July 15, 1291 the Communities prepared to defend themselves. On August 1, 1291 an Everlasting League was made between the Forest Communities for mutual defense against a common enemy. Uri and Schwyz got their status reconfirmed by Adolf of Nassau in 1297, but to no avail, for Albert finally won the power struggle and became emperor in 1298 after Adolf was killed in the Battle of Göllheim. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Growth of the Old Swiss Confederacy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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