Subdivisions of Switzerland difficulties maintaining the civil services they need to perform the duties they are required to do. In an effort to reduce expenses, many municipalities are combining together (through mergers or the creation of special-purpose districts). This restructuring is generally encouraged by the cantonal governments and the rate of these unions is increasing. "Cities" ("villes" or "Städte") are the municipalities with more than 10'000 inhabitants or smaller places which had medieval town rights. There is no specific designation for smaller communities such as "village" or "town". Some subdivisions that exist are: Subdivisions of Switzerland The Swiss Confederation comprises the 26 cantons
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).