Unterwalden Unterwalden | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| c. 1300–1798 1815–1999 | |||||||||||||||||
 Coat of arms | |||||||||||||||||
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| Status | Canton of theOld Swiss Confederacy | ||||||||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||||||||
• Established | c. 1300 | ||||||||||||||||
| 1309 | |||||||||||||||||
| 1315 | |||||||||||||||||
• division of Obwalden and Nidwalden | before 1500 | ||||||||||||||||
• Disestablished modern canton | 1798 1815–1999 | ||||||||||||||||
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Unterwalden, translated from the Latininter silvas[1] ("between the forests"), is the old name of aforest-canton of theOld Swiss Confederacy incentral Switzerland, south ofLake Lucerne, consisting of two valleys orTalschaften, now two separate Swisscantons (or twohalf-cantons),Obwalden andNidwalden.
The nameUnterwalden is first recorded in 1304, as the translation of Latininter silvas, which together within intramontanis was the name for monastery possessions in the area. In 1291,Rudolf I of Germany purchased the estates atStans,Alpnach andGiswil. From 1304, the localbailiffs used their own seal.In 1309,Henry VII confirmed the imperial immediacy of the territory of Unterwalden as part of theimperial bailiwick ofWaldstätte (but not as a political entity in its own right). TheFederal Charter, internally dated 1291, is thought to originate at this time. In the text, Unterwalden figures ascommunitas hominum Intramontanorum Vallis Inferioris "community of the men between the mountains of the Lower Valley"; this is usually rendered as "the community of the Lower Valley of Unterwalden" in modern translations, and interpreted as Nidwalden or "Unterwalden proper". Unterwalden was one of the three participants in thefoundation of the Old Swiss Confederacy, named in thePact of Brunnen of 1315 withUri andSchwyz.
The division of Unterwalden into two separate territories,Obwalden andNidwalden, in the early period is less than clear. Their status as two independentTalschaften appears to develop over the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, while they retain a single vote in the Confederacy.
Theflag of Unterwalden in the 14th and 15th centuries was divided horizontally into equal parts red over white, identical with the flag of Solothurn. After the accession of Solothurn to the Confederacy in 1481, there were two cantons with identical flags, sometimes disambiguated by modifying the design of Solothurn's flag. By 1600, Nidwalden was known as Unterwalden proper orSubsylvania, while Obwalden was known as "Unterwalden ob dem Wald", strictly speaking an oxymoron, as it wereSubsylvania super silva. From this time, there are also two separate coats of arms for the two half-cantons, the red-and-white flag for Unterwalden proper or Nidwalden, while Obwalden had a silver key in a red field.
By the 1640s, these two designs were re-combined in a white-and-red key on a red-and-white field (per fess gules and argent, a key paleways with doublewardscounterchanged) as the coat of arms of the united canton.
InEarly Modern Switzerland, Unterwalden counted as a single state in "foreign relations" with the other member states of the Swiss Confederacy, but it consisted of two separate states internally, with separate governments, jurisdictions and separate flags.
Martin Zeiller in 1642 reports Unterwalden as divided in two separateTalschaften the inhabitants of which were derived from separate races, those of Obwalden from the "Romans", those in Nidwalden from the "Cimbri" (viz.Germans).
Unterwalden was restored in theAct of Mediation (1803) with a single constitution, but with two separate capitals,Sarnen andStans, and two separatecantonal assemblies with equal sovereignty.[2]
Unterwalden was a canton of theRestored Swiss Confederacy of 1815,[3] and it was listed as a canton in theconstitution of 1848, asUnterwalden (ob und nid dem Wald).[4] The name of Unterwalden has been omitted in the 1999 constitution, withObwalden und Nidwalden named as two separate cantons.[5]
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