New cantons were added only in the
modern period, during 1803–1815; this mostly concerned former subject territories now recognized as full cantons (such as
Vaud,
Ticino and
Aargau), and the full integration of territories that had been more loosely allied to the Confederacy (such as
Geneva,
Valais and
Grisons).
Grisons acceded with the
Act of Mediation in 1803. At that time, the territory of
Tarasp, formerly an exclave within the territory of the
League of God's House, was ceded by Austria. Similarly, the newly created canton of
Aargau included the territory of
Fricktal, which had previously remained as the only territory left of the Rhine under direct
Habsburg control. The
Canton of St. Gallen was created at the same time, out of a number of disparate territories, which had however all been previously either allied with or subject to Swiss cantons. The territory of Geneva was fragmented, with various enclaves or exclaves of Savoyard and French territory, and it was not connected to Swiss territory. Due to the efforts of
Charles Pictet de Rochemont, the Congress of Vienna decided to incorporate seven communes of the French
Pays de Gex in order to create a land bridge between Geneva and Switzerland. The
Valtellina had been a territory of the
Three Leagues from the 15th century until 1797, when it was annexed by the
Cisalpine Republic. The
Congress of Vienna considered restoring the Valtellina to
Grisons, and thus to Switzerland, but the strategic importance of the territory was deemed as too high by Austria, and it became part of the
Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia instead. The loss of the Valtellina remained an
irredentist issue in Grisons well into the 20th century. Along with the Valtellina,
Chiavenna was lost to the Cisalpine Republic in 1797, and the Congress of Vienna likewise declined its restoration to Switzerland. While Switzerland accepted the loss of Chiavenna itself, the
Valle di Lei north of Chiavenna was indicated as Swiss territory on the
Dufour map of 1858. It was only in 1863 that Switzerland reached an understanding with the
Kingdom of Italy on the exact definition of the
Swiss-Italian border. The Congress of Vienna distributed the remaining territory of the
Prince-Bishopric of Basel (intermittently
annexed by France) to
Bern and
Basel. The commune of
Le Cerneux-Péquignot had been part the
Franche-Comté and as such of the kingdom of France since 1678. It was to be ceded to Neuchâtel according to the treaty of Paris of 30 May 1814, but the necessary border correction did not become official until 1 February 1819. Similarly,
Rhäzüns was restored from Austria to Switzerland on 19 January 1819. Switzerland in 1815 was still a confederacy, not a fully integrated federation. The
canton of Neuchâtel joined in 1815 as a member of the confederacy but was at the same time a monarchy, its sovereign being
Frederick William IV of Prussia. Although Neuchâtel became a republic in a peaceful revolution in 1848, the same year Switzerland
became a federation, Frederick William renounced his claims in the area in 1857, after several attempts at counterrevolution culminating in the
Neuchâtel Crisis. A number of territorial disputes remained along the
German-Swiss border, especially concerning the territories of
Thurgau and
Schaffhausen. The status of
Tägermoos was settled in 1831, the precise borders of Schaffhausen in 1839, and the final remaining questions by 1854. When
Ticino chose to become part of the Swiss Confederation in 1798, the people of the
Italian exclave Campione d'Italia chose to remain part of
Lombardy. In 1800, Ticino proposed exchanging
Indemini for Campione. In 1814 a referendum was held, but the residents of Campione were against it. In 1848, during the wars of Italian unification, Campione petitioned Switzerland for annexation, but this was rejected due to the Swiss desire to maintain neutrality. ==Modern Switzerland (1848–present)==