From the #HRE we turn to another quite special actor: #earlymodern#Switzerland. We are very happy to have found none other than Sarah Rindlisbacher Thomi from the university of Bern as an author.
Rindlisbacher wrote her PhD on “Ambassadors of Protestantism. Foreign policy activities of Zurich's town clergy in the 17th century” (in German). So who could be better suited to tell us about the characteristics of Swiss #emdiplomacy?! (2/5)
Swiss #emdiplomacy differed in many ways from #emdiplomacy by European #monarchies. For one, the Swiss Cantons didn’t develop a centralized foreign office and didn’t sent permanent #emdiplomats to foreign courts. Instead, they relied heavily on informal diplomatic actors, such as military officers, merchants and clergymen.
This was much cheaper and helped them avoid ceremonial conflicts that they usually could not win against the great European powers. (3/5)
Nonetheless, Switzerland was because of its geopolitical position of great interest for these foreign powers. Thus, they sent their diplomats who then struggled to understand the dynamics of Swiss politics that differed quite a bit from European monarchies. (4/5)