Place:Basel-Landschaft, Switzerland

Watchers


NameBasel-Landschaft
Alt namesBasel-Country
Basel-Landsource: Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer (1961)
Basel-Landschaftsource: Wikipedia
Baselbietsource: Wikipedia
Basellandsource: Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer (1961); USBGN: Foreign Gazetteers
Bâle-Campagnesource: Cambridge World Gazetteer (1990) p 62
Bâle-Campagnesource: Wikipedia
TypeCanton
Coordinates47.417°N 7.75°E
Located inSwitzerland     (1833 - )
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog


the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Basel-Landschaft or Basel-Country, informally known as Baselland or Baselbiet, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of five districts and its capital city is Liestal. It is traditionally considered a "half-canton", the other half being Basel-Stadt, its urban counterpart.

Basel-Landschaft is one of the northernmost cantons of Switzerland. It lies essentially south of the Rhine and north of the Jura Mountains. The canton shares borders with the canton of Basel-Stadt to the north, the canton of Aargau to the east, the canton of Solothurn to the south and the canton of Jura to the west. It shares international borders as well with France and Germany to the north.

Together with Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft was part of the canton of Basel, who joined the Old Swiss Confederacy in 1501. Political quarrels and armed conflict led to the partition of the canton in 1833.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Basel-Landschaft, together with Basel-Stadt, formed the historic Canton of Basel until they separated following the uprising of 1833 (Battle of the Hülftenschanz near Frenkendorf).


In Roman times, the area of Basel was a centre of Roman activity. There are well-preserved remains at the site of Augusta Raurica in the canton of Basel-Landschaft. Around 200 AD there were about 20,000 people living in this city, now part of the much smaller Augst. The remains are on display in an open-air museum. The museum attracts over 140,000 visitors per year. Many of these visitors are schoolchildren from other parts of Switzerland. The site of Augusta Raurica includes the best-preserved amphitheatre north of the Alps, and a reconstructed Roman villa.

The lands of the canton Basel-Landschaft are part of the lands acquired by the city of Basel. Until the end of the 16th century, most of the canton's land belonged to the city of Basel. After Napoleon's visit in 1798, the country achieved equality with the city. The country was economically dependent on the city, most probably because of the cost and difficulty in transporting agricultural goods to further markets, the financing of land transactions and crop production by city-based merchants. Low levels of education and literacy in the agricultural areas of Europe was typical in that era. The best students would be sponsored and sent away for higher learning. The city of Basel remained the cultural and economic centre of both Basel half cantons until then. Castles and residences of Basel merchants dominated much of the landscape in Basel-Landschaft.


After 1830 there were political quarrels and armed conflict in the canton of Basel. Some of these were concerned with the rights of the population in the agricultural areas. They ultimately led to the separation of the canton Basel-Landschaft from the city of Basel on 26 August 1833. Since then, there has been a movement for reunification. This movement gained momentum after 1900 when many parts of Basel-Landschaft became industrialized. The two half cantons agreed in principle to merge, but in 1969 the people of Basel-Landschaft voted down a referendum on this proposal in favour of retaining their independence. It is thought that the closing economic gap between the two cantons was the main reason why the population changed their attitude.

That vote was not the end of a close relationship between the two Basels. The two half cantons have since signed a number of agreements to co-operate. The contribution of Basel-Landschaft to the University of Basel since 1976 is just one example. in the early 1834 the two were separated

Research Tips


This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Basel-Country. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.