Loose confederation of Alpine cantons that defied Habsburg rule; grew from 3 to 13 cantons by 1513, de facto independent from 1499, basis of modern Switzerland.
Dissolved following the French invasion; on 12 April 1798, 121 cantonal deputies proclaimed the Helvetic Republic, replacing the Old Swiss Confederacy after French troops occupied Bern on 5 March 1798 and overran Switzerland.
The atlas holds 8 border frames for Old Swiss Confederacy — the shape you scrub through changes in 1291 · 1392 · 1511 · 1565 · 1625 · 1675 · 1708 · 1749.
Standard English-language survey tracing Switzerland from the Old Confederacy's medieval origins to the present; Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Concise Histories). Confirmed via Cambridge UP catalogue, Goodreads, and Amazon.
Schiller's play dramatizes the legendary founding of the Swiss Confederacy against Habsburg rule, the nation's defining origin story.