The Helvetic Republic of nineteen cantons, under French auspices, endured till 1805; then a new republican constitution was adopted, the Federal Pact of twenty-two cantons. On Napoleon’s downfall, Valais, Neuchâtel, and Geneva, which had been incorporated with France, were restored, and Swiss neutrality and inviolability were recognized by the treaty of Vienna in 1815. Religious troubles led to a Catholic league in 1844, which was suppressed by the Federal forces in 1847. The present constitution was adopted in 1848, but revised in 1874. In 1891 a demand for popular initiative for measures was carried. In 1908 Switzerland entered into an international convention for compulsory arbitration at the court of the Hague.

BERNE CLOCK TOWER,

famous for its Bear Chimes—figures which perform every time the clock strikes.

TURKEY, or Ottoman Empire

TURKEY, or Ottoman Empire, comprises the wide but heterogeneous territories really or nominally subject to the Osmânlî Sultan, in Europe, Asia, and Africa. These territories, which once extended from the Danube to the cataracts of the Nile, and from the Euphrates to the borders of Morocco, have been greatly reduced in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Asiatic Turkey is now the true center of gravity of the empire; it includes Anatolia (the great plateau of Asia Minor), the lowlands of Mesopotamia, the highlands of Kurdistan and Armenia, and the island of Samos. The total area of the empire has been estimated as follows:

Area in Square Miles
Turkey in Europe12,000
Turkey in Asia:
Anatolia193,800
Armenia and Kurdistan72,600
Mesopotamia and Syria244,460
Turkish Arabia172,000
Total694,860
Estimated Population
Turkey in Europe2,755,000
Turkey in Asia:
Anatolia9,175,000
Armenia and Kurdistan2,500,000
Mesopotamia and Syria4,650,000
Turkish Arabia1,100,000
Total20,150,000

Of the above totals only 700,000 square miles (with a population of 21,000,000) are directly under Turkish government.