Cantons of Switzerland the canton of Schwyz. Six of the 26 cantons are traditionally, but no longer officially, called "half-cantons" (, , , ). In two instances (Basel and Appenzell) this was a consequence of a historic division, whilst in the case of Unterwalden a historic mutual association, resulting in three pairs of half-cantons. The other 20 cantons were — and in some instances still are — though only in a context where it is needed to distinguish them from any half-cantons, typically termed "full" cantons in English. The historic half-cantons, and their pairings, are still recognizable in the first article of the
Historiography of Switzerland methods, and, following European trends, on the medieval period and the Reformation. The conservative Roman Catholic cantons – who had been defeated in the 1847 Sonderbund war – also received little attention from scholars situated in the liberal Protestant mainstream of the time. The early 20th century saw the publication of great topical histories of Switzerland, including Eugen Huber's legal history ("Geschichte und System des schweizerischen Privatrechts", 1893), Andreas Heusler's constitutional history ("Schweizer Verfassungsgeschichte", 1920; supplanted by Hans Conrad Peyer's "Verfassungsgeschichte" of 1978) and Paul Schweizer's diplomatic history ("Geschichte der schweizerischen Neutralität", 1895; continued by Edgar Bonjour from 1946 on).