Subdivisions of Switzerland Subdivisions of Switzerland The Swiss Confederation comprises the 26 cantons of Switzerland. Each canton has its individual structure for further subdivisions. For statistical purposes, Switzerland is subdivided into seven regions at the NUTS-2 level: The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848. Each canton has its own constitution, legislature, government and courts. Most of the cantons' legislatures are unicameral parliaments, their size varying
Cantons of Switzerland in the formation of Switzerland as a federal state in 1848. The cantons retained far-reaching sovereignty, but were no longer allowed to maintain individual standing armies or international relations. As the revolutions of 1848 in Western Europe had failed elsewhere, Switzerland during the later 19th century (and with the exception of the French Third Republic, until the end of World War I) found itself as an isolated democratic republic, surrounded by the restored monarchies of France, Italy, Austria-Hungary and Germany. The Swiss Federal Constitution declares the cantons to be sovereign to the extent that their sovereignty is not limited by