The Ancient Tribe That Gave Switzerland Its Name

The year is 58 BC, and remnants of the major Celtic tribes inhabit modern day France and Switzerland. One of them was the Helvetii tribe, located on the Swiss plateau. They realized that their strategic position wasn't particularly great, surrounded by mountains and lakes while having the prospect of being invaded by hostile Germanic tribes on the other side of the Rhine, so they came up with the most reasonable solution, packing their stuff and migrating to Come on, we still think of doing this after any major crisis in our lives. But yeah, they actually took it so seriously that they applied a scorched earth strategy, so they basically burned all their cities. I guess they wanted to convince those in doubt. So yeah, here we have them, they basically packed all their stuff, and they went to modern day Geneva. Why? Because here we have a pass, so we have the Jura mountains on the north, and the Geneva lake on the south, and we have basically a bit of a river in there, so it was one of the natural ways to cross. Obviously, this being such an important location, it was already owned by someone, this someone were the Romans, so the Roman Republic was established there, and the idea from the Helvetii tribe, and I swear it is absolutely true, was to actually ask for permission. So they went there, and they said, hey, we would like to actually go to the other side of France, would you please let us go? So they actually did that, and they asked the Romans. So who do we have on the Roman side? The character we have is of course Julius Caesar, quite a known character, mostly because he conquered Gaul, and the French like to basically tell great things about the guy, because he conquered his country, but that's a different story. But we basically have him there, he's not even in the area, he's in Rome doing other things, I guess, he was a Roman after all, and he hears that there's a gathering of quite some people on the frontier, so he says, okay, I'll have to go back. He rushes back, and he goes back from Rome to Geneva in about basically 10 days, quite efficient. He appears there, he hears from the emissaries, from the envoy, like, oh yeah, we would like to cross, he's like, oh, very interesting, and great idea. I need some time to think about it. And he asks for a couple of weeks. He already knows the answer, the answer is that he is not going to let them go through. Why? Multiple reasons, or a variety of reasons. First and for all, if they, having troops cross your territory, not particularly a great idea at any time in history. Second of all, they will basically go to an area which was mostly more inhabited, but at the end you have a surplus of population, so probably they become hostile and they start attacking you, and they are leaving a vacuum, so probably that vacuum will have to be filled by the Germanic tribes, which were a problem, so there's really no reason why he wanted to let them cross. So he simply asks for more time, and in the meantime he starts to fortify the area. So all this crossing is basically fortified in this couple of weeks that they've given him, and after that time has passed, the envoy goes and they, as the Romans, say, hey, can we actually cross? And he says, oh, sorry, my bad, no, well, I've decided that you can actually, you actually can cross this area. They are very sad, and they do the obvious, which is basically attacking at night, of course, but they fail because the area is fortified, and that's when the Helvetii tribe says, okay, we've tried this way, it's not going anywhere, we cannot cross through here, so we'll take the northern path, so they basically go to the north, surrounding the mountains from the upper side. In the meantime, Ulysses is sort of expecting some issues in there, so he goes back to Italy, and there he recruits some additional legions, he gets five additional legions, which would add on top of his current one, so he's basically now with six legions, quite a considerable number, about 30,000 troops. He goes back, and in the meantime, he's been informed that the Helvetii tribe has actually crossed using another path, and now it's in a territory of an ally from Rome, so it's still a Celtic tribe, it's a different one, but they are allied with Rome, and of course the Helvetii are basically quite hungry, because for some reason they've decided to burn their own land, so they have hardly anything to eat, they are there, and they start to pillage, and basically try to eat anything they can find there, any livestock, anything that they can find, they'll basically eat it. So of course, this ally of Rome asks Rome for support, they are like, hey, I have like these weird people here, pillaging, please do something. Ulysses is more than happy to intervene on this one, among many reasons, because he has also some internal political issues. First of all, he is completely bankrupt, not the first time that this happens to him. Additionally, he also has some political issues at home, so it's a bit complicated for him. He basically doesn't really want to go back to Italy, so he wants to prolong his time as governor, let's say, as much as possible, so he's very happy to intervene there. All of this was, by the way, completely illegal by Roman standard law, because you should always ask for permission from the Senate, and the Senate should approve it, but he states that, no, no, it's an emergency, we have to act fast, and that's why there's no time for such things. So basically, he's doing completely illegal things, including recruiting the legions, and of course entering the allied territory. It's basically completely out of the law. But anyway, there he goes, he starts to chase the Helvetii tribe. At first, they try to escape, there's some issues on crossing rivers, crossing rivers is always complicated. Then the Romans have issues with the supply chain, well, I mean, supply for the food, basically. They say like, ah, we cannot sustain here, we'll have to go to the capital of our ally, and then when they do that, the tribe of the Helvetii thinks that they are retreating, so they say, this is our time, and then they basically attack. We have here the battle of Vibracte, I'm sure I've pronounced this properly, and Julius Caesar basically defeats the Helvetii on this one. The reason we know all this is because Julius Caesar's hobby was basically to write how great he was, so he even gives us some numbers on how many troops there were, which I'm not going to say because they are completely made up. But anyway, there he is, he's very happy, and the Helvetii tribe asks like, oh, you defeated us, like, we surrender, like, what can we do, what agreement can we have? And he says, ah, it's okay, easy, you simply go back with the fewer people that you are now, you go back to your territory, and you start cultivating there. So my expectations are, you go back, and you simply defend that territory, and you cultivate. And they're like, sure, I guess we'll do that, even though we've burned all our things. So they basically give them some wheat and some supplies from the time being, this and then back. And that's basically the beginning of how Switzerland started to exist. If you've noticed, Switzerland, the official letters, let's say, would be CH, almost everywhere, that comes from Confederatio Helvetica. It's a name they took later, but it basically means the Helvetian Confederation. So I guess people in the 19th century were like, yeah, sure, we are definitely descendants of these people, the Helvetii, so they are very proud. I, up to now, I still don't really understand why you would be proud of some people who are known for basically trying to leave your territory, and then were forced to basically stay there. But hey, who am I to judge? But yeah, so basically that's the beginning of the story of Switzerland. We'll see what happens to these people after Julius Caesar will have the whole romanization period. So be sure to subscribe to stay tuned, and if you like the video, please give me a like. See you on the next one!