Ticino#History
Federal conquests
In the Middle Ages the territory of today Ticino was ruled by the Dukes of Milan ( → History of Milan ). The Confederates won their supremacy in the southern Alpine valleys during the so-called Ennetbirgischen campaigns 1403-1515.
Between 1403 and 1422 some parts of the canton were already under the reign of Uri, but had to be assigned later. The Leventina brought Uri in 1440 under his control. In a second conquest Uri, Schwyz and Nidwalden gained the town of Bellinzona in 1500 and the Riviera. The third foray to the south was carried out by the troops of all cantons.
Locarno, as the Maggia Valley, Lugano and Mendrisio were annexed in 1512. In the exclusive dominion of Uri then was the Leventina St. Gotthard to Biasca. The Bleniotal, the Riviera and Bellinzona was jointly controlled by the three cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Nidwalden. The later conquests, the Maggia, Locarno, Lugano and Mendrisio were Common dominions throughout the Old Confederacy (except Appenzell ). With the engagement of French revolutionary troops in 1798 in the territory of the Confederation ended the subjects status of Ticino. The current constitution of the Helvetic Republic until 1802 unit built the new cantons Bellinzona and Lugano, although they were only administrative districts without autonomy. Provided by Napoleon Bonaparte before the election, to Lombardy or the " Helvetic Republic " to belong, the Ticino created the slogan " liberi e svizzeri ".
Liberal constitutional revision
The Ticino 1803 was upgraded to a full-fledged Swiss canton. The representative constitution of 1803 was modified in 1814 in an aristocratic sense. In Ticino began even before the July Revolution in France with a under the leadership of Stefano Franscini later to become the Federal Council set to the factory constitutional revision of 30 June 1830, the liberal movement in Switzerland. However, the internal history of the canton always remained a passionate moved as a result of the contrast between the clericals, which in Sopraceneri, and the Liberals, who held the decisive majority in Sottoceneri. On December 6, 1839 Liberals rushed with violence a threatening them with persecution ultramontane government, while a similar attempt the ultramontane 1841 ended with the execution of their leader Nessi.
The capital question
After the Liberals had used their excess weight in the Grand Council and the Council of State in 1858 to repeal or at least to limit in the Novice recording to exclude the clergy from the school and with the dioceses of Como and Milan resolve the ecclesiastical association on the part of the State, the convents, broke 1870 whether Bellinzona or Lugano should be the sole capital of the canton, and again a passionate party struggle between the Sopra and Sottocenerinern. The contrast was exacerbated when in 1875 the ultramontane the majority of the Grand Council received (see Kulturkampf in Switzerland). This came now in conflict with the liberal State Council on a new electoral law. The excitement rose above so high that it came in Stabio on 22 October 1876 a bloody clash between clericals and liberals. However, a settlement was reached and new elections for the Grand Council on January 21, 1877 scheduled in which the clerical definitely achieved victory through the mediation of a federal commissioner. The previous change of the seat of government between Locarno, Lugano and Bellinzona was abolished by a constitutional law of 10 March 1878, declared the latter the only capital.
Kulturkampf
New material for igniting the party passions were the now exclusively of clerics ordered government by the ruthless elimination of all liberal teachers and officials, repopulation of the monasteries etc.; by the experiment but to use the process to the events in Stabio to the Supreme Mola, a leader of the Liberals, off, though his innocence was clear days, she brought the whole of Switzerland in excitement. These lay down again only when the majority of clerical court ended the process on 14 May 1880, a full-scale acquittal.
1883, the referendum was introduced by a constitutional revision, and in 1886 the church law changed to ultramontanem sense, whereas the Pope agreed through contracts with the Swiss Confederation (1884 and 1888 ) in the formal connection of the Ticino to the bishopric of Basel, under the condition that one of the Curia to ernennender Apostolic Administrator in Lugano performing episcopal authority in the canton with the consent of the bishop of the Ticinese clergy.
On the occasion of the elections for the Grand Council on March 3, 1889, came to a violent struggle between the conservatives and the liberals. The latter accused the Conservatives Liberal unlawful deletions from the electoral lists. The escalation of the dispute was prevented by the intervention of the federal authorities under the direction of the posted by the Federal Commissioner Eugène Borel. Elected were finally 75 Conservatives and 37 Liberals.
20th century
In the context of irredentism, the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in 1938 raised the demand for an annexation of Ticino in Italy, since the population was Italian.
This intention was its concretization in an attack plan that was drafted on July 7, 1940 in Rome. Subject to a coordinated approach with Hitler's Germany roughly following procedure was planned:
- The Division "Trieste " in Bellinzona
- The Division " Marche " in Biasca
Apparently, primarily the General Badoglio, however, has favored an attack on Greece.