Switzerland Helvetik Napoleon Basel (b/w photo)

Contemporary depiction of Napoleon's stay in Basel on 24 November 1797. Shortly afterwards, Peter Ochs of Basel was commissioned by the first consul to draft a unified constitution for Switzerland. After France's military success in northern Italy and its advance to the Rhine border in the north, the Swiss Confederation became a military key around 1797. But the wealth lured. Bern and a number of other places possessed a considerable national treasure. For the board of directors in Paris, enough of the reasons to decide in favor of a military capture of Switzerland. (see various reports on Helvetics).