Switzerland is surely one of the more successful nations in today’s world.
Place the praise for this achievement where it belongs - the native good sense of the Swiss people, which demands that every male Swiss citizen also be a member of the Swiss army, and as such, MUST keep a firearm in good working order in every household.
This is one of the primary reasons Switzerland has never been invaded. When Hitler threatened to do just that in 1940, when he was overrunning the rest of Europe, the Swiss coldly informed him that every mountain pass, every railroad and road tunnel, every bridge, would be dynamited, making passege through the country impossible, and the Swiss citizenry would be firing down on every member of the Wehrmacht still remaining in the borders of Switzerland.
Enemy combatants from either side, should they land in Swiss territory, were interned until the end of the war, asylum was not considered.
Switzerland was also very resistant to accepting any “displaced persons” or refugees from other areas in the years following the end of the war, only agreeing to accept a very minimum of “stateless” persons, but granting them only residency, not citizenship, and only on a limited basis.
Ownership of property is one of the paramont virtues of the Swiss, and that includes the limitations on that which may be claimed by any level of government. Swiss banks have a reputation for secrecy, but that was more a courtesy to the foreign depositors there, than from any bound requirement for privacy. Earning on investments orginating from Switzerland are subject to only very modest Swiss taxation, which makes the banking profession there among the most respected and conservative in the world. The Swiss are not in it to LOSE money.
Their money, the franc, is backed with very solid reserves of gold and silver, and in fact, the one-half to five franc coins were among the few in the world still coined with silver content, but this was changed in 1967. Swiss francs are still one of the premier currencies in the world, and the central treasury keeps tight rein on supplies of this currency.
What do you mean? Switzerland was last invaded in 1790s by France which set up the Helvetic REpublic which was really a French subsidiary and that lasted for nearly 15 years...
Hitler never had any firm plans to invade Switzerland -- it didn't make any sense as Switzerland was completely surrounded by Germany or its allies and it served a purpose as a conduit for trade with the Western allies (covert of course) and for banking purposes.