Basel: History

Pre-20th-Century History

Celtic tribes first established a settlement at the site of the present-day cathedral on the Rhine bend around the 4th century BC.

In 44 BC, the Roman town of Augusta Raurica was founded by Munatius Plancus 10km upstream. Augusta Raurica became the capital of a Roman province and excavations have revealed temples, a forum, Roman baths and a theatre with seating for 10,000 people.

In the 3rd century BC, the Romans overtook the cathedral site and by AD 374 had named the town Basilea (royal stronghold). Alemannic tribes drove the Romans out in 401, but instability continued until Holy Roman emperor Henry II took control of the town in the 11th century.

In 1019 Henry ordered the construction of the cathedral and he was later declared Basel's patron saint.

Basel became a bishopric in 740 and throughout the Middle Ages prince-bishops wielded enormous power over the city. In 1226 Bishop Heinrich von Thun built one of the first bridges over the Rhine and lesser Basel (Kleinbasel) was established as a first line of defence for the bridge.

In 1348 half of the city's population died in the plague and in 1356 large parts of the city were devastated by an earthquake and fires.

In 1431 the Council of Basel was established to administer church reform and over the next decades secular princes were introduced. In 1459 one of them, who later became Pope Pius II, founded the University of Basel.

Humanists including Erasmus of Rotterdam settled in Basel to teach at the university and the city began to develop as a centre of knowledge and humanitarian causes.

Basel's cathedral was finally completed in 1500 and in 1501 the city defacto broke from the Holy Roman empire and joined the Swiss Confederation. However, the bishops remained until the reformation in 1529 and are still represented in the city's coat of arms by their symbol - a crook.

The city's inclusion in the Swiss Confederation in 1501 was a boon for both sides. Basel was afforded protection during an unstable period, while the confederation gained a trading and political base in the north.

In 1648 the Peace of Westphalia marked the end of the Thirty Years' War and ended the jurisdiction of the Holy Roman empire over Basel once and for all.

Modern History

In 1833 Basel's rural districts, claiming exploitation by the city, rebelled and formed their own canton (Basel-Land), with its capital at Liestal. As a result, Basel-Stadt - the city and its suburbs - lost a large chunk of its territory and a third of its revenue.

In 1897 the First Zionist Congress was organised in Basel by Theodor Herzl, who later famously wrote in his diary: 'The Jewish state was founded in Basel'.

During World War I the Swiss army was stationed along the border areas but Basel survived unscathed. Throughout World War II the city was adjacent to Fascist-ruled territory, but Switzerland's neutrality held and Basel once again rode out the war without being attacked.

In 1969 an attempt to reunify Basel's two half-cantons failed due to a majority of 'no' voters in Basel-Landschafta.

Recent History

The 1990s ushered in a rash of mergers in Basel, including the merger of the Swiss Bank Corporation and Union Bank of Switzerland to become the UBS. This decade also saw Basel emerge as a centre of biotechnology research and development.

With its airport increasingly becoming an international hub, Basel's status as a major business destination and trade fair location looks set to continue.

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