My understanding of the move of the Celtic Helveti was slightly different. The Romans could not defeat the Helveti because of the terrain and battle tactics they used. The Helveti suffered continous raids from the Germanic tribes though. Caesar controlled Gaul at the time, so in the interest of mutual interest the Helveti requested to pass through Roman controlled territory to attack and destroy the Germanic tibes. Caesar express concern about a large Helveti army passing through his area of control. He gave authorization on condition, that they were not armed, their arms being place in their baggage train. The trusting Helveti leadership, agreed. Tens of thousands of Helveti, their families (as was the custom at the time) with their baggage train in the rear marched into Gaul to invade the Germanic tribes. They never made it. Caesar took the opportunity to finally over come the Helveti and slaughtered most and enslaved the rest. Rome was finally able to over come the Helveti, when they were unarmed, out of their defensive terrain and lead by stupid trusting liberal leadership. The rest was history. Romans then built a series of fortified cities in Switzerland, one of the most important was Basel, at the fork in the lower Rhine river. Long after the Roman Empire fell the Roman fortified cities remained. It was said by Manchivealli, that Basel remained one of the last vistages of the Roman Empire in Europe. Swiss ethic of all men being military trained preceeded the Roman occupation. Evenually, Austria considered it part of their empire and as long as it was too their mutual benefit, the Swiss went along. Ultimately, the bond broke, when the Austrians tired of disagreements and decided to subdue the Swiss once and for all. The king (Leopold) took a well armed army of about 4000-5000 to crush the Helviti. He had several hundred armored knights (shock troops), as well as infantry. What he failed to consider was the military training all Swiss men were required to do. Unlike all other armies at the time, which took hours to deploy for combat, the lightlhy armored Swiss were trained to do this on the march. Thus when they met a Sempach in July of 1209, Leopold saw a deployed army of a few hundred peasants, on a hill in front of him armed with pikes. Intelligent guy that he was, he knew that horses would not charge into the pikes to be impaled. Thus he dismounted his armored knights and sent them as shock troops to disrupt the small force of Swiss. Well, July being what it is and hills what they are, it was said that many of the heavily armed knights either never reached the Swiss and those that did were easily cut down. Then came the infantry charge up the hill, armed much lighter and with weapons similiar to the Swiss, it looked like their superior numbers would have the desired effect. When pikes came to pikes the front lines absorbed the brunt of the fighting. It was a battle of attrition that the Swiss could not win. Suddenly, one Swiss soldier saw that all would be lost and scarificed himself by reaching out pulling as many Austrian pikes into his own body as he could, this openned a hole in the Austrian ranks and inspired the rest of the Swiss. They poured through the opening and slaughtered the Austrians behind the front ranks. The Austrian army fell apart and fled down the hill, King Leopold was killed in the battle and the beginings of the Swiss Republic was born. The Swiss army at Sempach consisted of a hodge podge of militia men from various cantons from all over Switzerland. The fact that they could fight and deploy as a unified force was a credit to their military training and discipline all men in Switzerland are required to participate in to this day. As for the German presents in Switzerland, this was the result most like of trade and not being conquered. A large section of Switzerland is separated from Germany only by a river. The lower Rhine. Marriages across the river were not uncommon. Switzerland is also bordered by France, so another large section has assimulated with the French. The same is true of Italy. Switzerlan d not only shares its Republic status with the United States but, also it is melting pot of ethnic groups. It should be noted the framers of the United States Consitution referred mostly to two civilizations for ideas, one was the Greeks (the first know Republic), the other was the only known current Republic at the time...the Swiss. I'm not a historian, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn once.... I could have misstated some of this material. But most of history, is written by the victors and should always be suspect. Ed Bienz