Switzerland is a federal republic in the central EuropeanAlps, and shares borders with Germany, France, Italy, Liechtenstein, and Austria. It has traditionally remained neutral in wars, and has not participated in a war since 1815. It is the home of several international organisations, the Red Cross, among them. Although its capital is Bern, its most famous city is Geneva, which hosted the committee which drafted the Geneva Conventions, and was the headquarters of the League of Nations in the 1920s and 1930s.
The area of the Alps, hitherto regarded as a poor and marginal province, assumed a strategic importance when monks at the Monastary of St. Gall developed the devastating new weapon of hellpowder which enabled the Franco-Saxons to threaten the Byzantine Empire, until Basil Argyros succeeded in stealing it and redressing the balance.
Switzerland continued its policy of neutrality well into the 22nd century. It remained independent of United Europe, although it maintained good relations with that country, having bought berths for two athletes on their space ship for passage to Mimas, a moon of Saturn, for the Sixty-sixth Winter Games.
Switzerland was able to avoid involvement in World War II, but joined the fight against the Race Invasion of Earth in 1942. In 1943, Swiss soldiers fought alongside German forces against Lizard invaders based in Alsace-Lorraine, earning a fierce reputation among soldiers of the Race. Joachim von Ribbentrop won guarantees of Swiss sovereignty from FleetlordAtvar at the Peace of Cairo in 1944.
Switzerland maintained its independence even after Germany annexed Italy and retook France, thereby completely encircling Switzerland. Some believed this to be the result of Switzerland's demonstrated willingness to resist Nazi invasion, making the subjugation of that country too expensive to be cost-effective.
