Switzerland & Italy Are Changing Their Border, Here's Why

In this episode of General Knowledge I talk about the border change that's happening between Switzerland and Italy at the Matterhorn Mountain in the Alps. I explain how borders aren't a fixed thing, despite how rare it is for changes to happen in modern times. Then we learn about the various minor changes and adjustments that Switzerland has made in its border with Italy but also with France - due to the melting of ice, shifting courses of rivers, among others. All of this while learning a little bit of the background history of the border between these two countries and their predecessors, which dates back to the Napoleonic period.

▶ A special thank you to my Patrons: Richard Hartze, Yasin Chaykh, Zehev Benzaken, Carsten Krogh-Simonsen, Stuart Tunstead, The Wanton Dogfish, JP van Splunder, Steve the Goat, Yeti , Brikku Donovan, Kyle Doctor, Roy, David Ziff, Jan Krause, Janice Ness, Javier Campos, Jeffrey F, Joesports2022, Juan Forero, Kalvin Saccal, Kate Nichols, Kris Rizakis, Lastmatix, Rogaine Ablar, RyanMcMurry, Sandro, Sebastian Karlo, Senor Valasco.

Stay up to date on more content from me:

#GeneralKnowledge #Italy #Switzerland

[General.Knowledge]

*Switzerland casually annexing all of Italy, step by step*

[GeoCrusader]

“While the northern border is pretty simple”…
Schaffhausen: allow me to introduce myself

[Jan-Sery]

Excluding those minor changes, Switzerland is the only country in Central Europe that's got the same borders since 1815, same political system (constitution) since 1848 and the same currency since 1850.

[moiqp]

Lago Maggiore is 200m ABOVE see level ! Great video otherwise! Thanks

[lizzylinks]

I never thought that voice would come from that guy

[KingAlton]

5:57 I had no Idea the Matterhorn' peak declined that much over the years. That's a huge difference from 1940.

[aum]

Agreed; most of the country border beteween Switzerland and Italy is along the Alps, but there is one big exception.
> Southern Switzerland (Canton Ticino), which is south of the Alps, going almost down to Lake Como and Milano.
In Ticino they speak Italian, buildings are Italian stile, weather/climate is northern Italian. Even palm trees grow well there.
In fact the Swiss Confederation conquered Ticino in the 15th/16th century from the Duchy of Milan.

[chanpost]

2:43 mentions that the map says Bavarian Alps rather than German Alps while ignoring it says Julian Alps instead of Slovene/Slovenian Alps

[gregwochlik]

I agree with the concept of shifting borders back to natural features like rivers and mountain peaks. Otherwise, you will end up with a mess like on the Danube or the Mississippi.

[vincentl]

A history of Alsase-Lorraine / Elsass-Lothringen would be interesting. How many families living in the same village for generations have generations with different nationalities?

[kildevang]

You should definitely cover the new border on Hans Island between Greenland and Canada. The new border resulted in both Denmark and Canada no longer being single neighbor nations, and also ended the whisky war!

[TheKeeperofChaos]

General Knowledge and Lieutenant Doggo

[aum]

I disagree about the northern borders beeing "reasonably simple". There are many curious border situations along the northern borders:
Especially in the Swiss cities of Basel and Schaffhausen.
1) Basel Euroairport is fully located in France and has a swiss transit road into Switzerland. As far as I know this is the only bi-national Airport operated by two countries (Switzerland/France) worldwide.
2) Basel Bad Bahnhof (train station) is fully located within Switzerland, despite beeing a fully operating DB German train station. This makes it probably the only "Exclave" train station worldwide ;-)
3) Usually the Rhein river is the border river. But half of the city of Basel is located north of the Rhein river (so is the full city of Schaffhausen).
4) Last one about Basel ;-)... The Basel city public transportation network connects three countries. This is probably unique worlwide.
You could travel with tramway line Nr.8 to Weil am Rhein (Germany) or you could travel with tramway line Nr.3 to St.Louis (France).
5) The Rhein river also flews through the town of Rheinfelden and through the town of Laufenburg. Those two towns used to belong to the Austrian Empire until 200 years ago when the Rhein river was not the border. Now as of today the Rhein river separates a German Rheinfelden(north) and a Swiss Rheinfelden(south), and also separates a German Laufenburg(north) and a Swiss Laufenburg(south).
6) Büsingen am Rhein is a German town (or Exclave) fully surrounded by Swiss towns.
7) The main train line between the Swiss cities of Zürich and Schaffhausen runs partially (10km) through German territory .
8) Constance is the only German city south of the German/Swiss Rhein river border...
9) And most curious of all: There are three countries bordering at Lake Constance (Germany, Switzerland, Austria), but officially there are no international borders separating those three countries on the lake. (> see Wikipedia) Making it the only border region on this planet without borders. You could say that lake Constance belongs to no country.... Nothing "reasonably simple" about that :-)
10) One last curiosity (more to the eastern border). Just a few kilometers south of Lake Constance is the country of Liechtenstein which is landlocked between Austria and Switzerland, which are landlocked countries themselves. Making Liechtenstein one of only two double-landlocked countries worldwide.

[Markus_Abrach]

I am a Swiss guy and i haven't heard anything about this border changes

[max_laser]

0:17 and now the UK is transferring Chagos Islands to Mauritius

[wolschou]

The Bavarian Alps are called bavarian instead of german, because Bavaria is... well, kinda sorta not as german as the rest of Germany, as all Germans will happily tell you, first of all the Bavarians themselves. No one in Bavaria actually thinks of leaving the federation, but they do like to think they could if they wanted to and they also like to remind the rest of Germany of it. They like to feel a bit special, as if the federal rule does not REALLY apply to them, they only follow it because they want to and because, well we others would be lost without them anyway. Kind of like Texas, you know? Which is why they are not a Bundesland, but a Freistaat, and even have their own conservative party, the CSU which is kind of inextricably bound to the CDU, but somehow also isn't, and also claim their share of the Alps for themselves instead of sharing it with their friends.

[Pyliip]

Many thanks for the video, always a pleasure to watch your work. At 7:37 (Genève-Cointrin) the change happens at the border with France north of Geneva and result in (overall) more territory for Switzerland.

[FlagsinFocus]

It’s great to finally see the face behind the voice. And of course always cover great topics in your continual superb videos.

[Chasfondue]

The rectangle was part of a border exchange, so that the dam of the lake belongs to Switzerland, has nothing to do with the rest of the video.

[MagereHein]

In 2018 Netherlands and Belgium corrected their border near Maastricht and Visé due to the river Meuse shifting its riverbed over time and dredging and straightening.