Flags and arms of cantons of Switzerland Flags and arms of cantons of Switzerland Each of the 26 modern cantons of Switzerland has an official flag and a coat of arms. The history of development of these designs spans the 13th to the 20th centuries. The cantons are listed in their order of precedence given in the federal constitution. This reflects the historical order of precedence of the Eight Cantons in the 15th century, followed by the remaining cantons in the order of their historical accession to the confederacy. "Standesfarben" were used to identify the (historical) cantons when the full banner was not available for display, although
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).