View source for Unterwalden

{{Short description|Historical canton of Switzerland}}
{{Infobox Former Country
| native_name            = Unterwalden
| conventional_long_name = Unterwalden
| common_name            = Unterwalden
<!-- |continent              = Europe -->
<!-- |region                 = Alps -->
<!-- |country                = Switzerland -->| status                 = Talschaft
| empire                 = Holy Roman Empire
| status_text            = [[Canton (administrative division)|Canton]] of the [[Old Swiss Confederacy]]
| year_start             = {{Circa|1300}}
| year_end               = 1798<br/>1815&ndash;1999
| event1                 = [[Imperial immediacy]]
| date_event1            = 1309
| event2                 = [[Pact of Brunnen]]
| date_event2            = 1315
| event3                 = division of Obwalden and Nidwalden
| date_event3            = before 1500
| event_end              = [[French invasion of Switzerland|Disestablished]]<br/>modern canton
| p1                     = Zürichgau (Swabia)
| image_p1               = 
| p2                     = Aargau (Burgundy)
| image_p2               = 
| p3                     = Canton of Waldstätten
| image_p3               = 
| s1                     = Canton of Waldstätten
| image_s1               = 
| s2                     = Canton of Obwalden
| image_s2               = 
| s3                     = Canton of Nidwalden
| image_s3               = 
| image_map              = File:Swiss Canton Map UW.PNG
| capital                = 
| image_coat             = Wappen Unterwalden alt.svg
| image_flag             = Old flag of Unterwalden.svg
}}

'''Unterwalden''', translated from the Latin ''inter silvas''<ref>[https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/fr/articles/007409/2013-03-05/ Unterwald]), in the [[Historical Dictionary of Switzerland]].</ref> ("between the forests"), is the old name of a [[forest-canton]] of the [[Old Swiss Confederacy]] in [[central Switzerland]], south of [[Lake Lucerne]], consisting of two valleys or ''[[Talschaft]]en'', now two separate Swiss [[cantons of Switzerland|cantons]] (or two [[half-canton]]s), [[Obwalden]] and [[Nidwalden]].

The name ''Unterwalden'' is first recorded in 1304, as the translation of Latin ''inter silvas'', which together with ''in intramontanis'' was the name for monastery possessions in the area. 
In 1291, [[Rudolf I of Germany]] purchased the estates at [[Stans]], [[Alpnach]] and [[Giswil]]. From 1304, the local [[Amtmann|bailiffs]] used their own seal.
In 1309, [[Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor|Henry VII]] confirmed the imperial immediacy of the territory of Unterwalden as part of the [[Reichsvogt|imperial bailiwick]] of ''Waldstätte'' (but not as a political entity in its own right). The [[Federal Charter]], internally dated 1291, is thought to originate at this time. In the text, Unterwalden figures as ''communitas hominum Intramontanorum Vallis Inferioris'' "community of the men between the mountains of the Lower Valley"; this is usually rendered as "the community of the Lower Valley of Unterwalden" in modern translations, and interpreted as Nidwalden or "Unterwalden proper". Unterwalden was one of the three participants in the [[foundation of the Old Swiss Confederacy]], named in the [[Pact of Brunnen]] of 1315 with [[Canton of Uri|Uri]] and [[Canton of Schwyz|Schwyz]].

The division of Unterwalden into two separate territories, [[Obwalden]] and [[Nidwalden]], in the early period is less than clear. Their status as two independent ''[[Talschaft]]en'' appears to develop over the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, while they retain a single vote in the Confederacy. 

The [[flag of Unterwalden]] in the 14th and 15th centuries was divided horizontally into equal parts red over white, identical with the flag of Solothurn. After the accession of Solothurn to the Confederacy in 1481, there were two cantons with identical flags, sometimes disambiguated by modifying the design of Solothurn's flag. By 1600, Nidwalden was known as Unterwalden proper or ''Subsylvania'', while Obwalden was known as "Unterwalden ob dem Wald", strictly speaking an oxymoron, as it were ''Subsylvania super silva''. From this time, there are also two separate coats of arms for the two half-cantons, the red-and-white flag for Unterwalden proper or Nidwalden, while Obwalden had a silver key in a red field.

By the 1640s, these two designs were re-combined in a white-and-red key on a red-and-white field (''per fess gules and argent, a key paleways with double [[Warded lock|wards]] [[counterchanged]]'') as the coat of arms of the united canton.

In [[Early Modern Switzerland]], Unterwalden counted as a single state in "foreign relations" with the other member states of the Swiss Confederacy, but it consisted of two separate states internally, with separate governments, jurisdictions and separate flags.

[[Martin Zeiller]] in 1642 reports Unterwalden as divided in two separate [[Talschaft]]en the inhabitants of which were derived from separate races, those of Obwalden from the "[[Gallo-Roman|Romans]]", those in Nidwalden from the "[[Cimbri]]" (viz. [[Alemanni|Germans]]).

Unterwalden was restored in the [[Act of Mediation]] (1803) with a single constitution, but with two separate capitals, [[Sarnen]] and [[Stans]], and two separate [[Landsgemeinde|cantonal assemblies]] with equal sovereignty.<ref>[https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Mediationsakte#F%C3%BCnfzehntes_Capitel_-_Verfassung_des_Kantons_Unterwalden Fünfzehntes_Capitel_-_Verfassung_des_Kantons_Unterwalden]</ref>

Unterwalden was a canton of the [[Restored Swiss Confederacy]] of 1815,<ref>[[:wikisource:Translation:Federal Treaty of 1815]]</ref> and it was listed as a canton in the [[Swiss Constitution|constitution of 1848]], as ''Unterwalden (ob und nid dem Wald)''.<ref>[http://www.verfassungen.ch/verf48-i.htm Bundesverfassung der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft. vom 12. September 1848.]</ref> The name of Unterwalden has been omitted in the 1999 constitution, with ''Obwalden und Nidwalden'' named as two separate cantons.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.admin.ch/opc/de/classified-compilation/19995395/index.html |title=SR 101 (admin.ch) |access-date=2018-11-15 |archive-date=2016-09-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160925210152/https://www.admin.ch/opc/de/classified-compilation/19995395/index.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Gallery==
<gallery mode=packed widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:Braun Dreizehn Orte Unterwalden UBHD.jpg| Unterwalden depicted as one of the thirteen cantons in 1572. Its name is Latinized as ''Sylvania'', and its date of foundation is given as 1315, the date of the [[Pact of Brunnen]], taken as the traditional founding date of the Swiss Confederacy until the 19th century. The old flag of Unterwalden is also shown, identical to the later [[Flag of Solothurn]].
File:Museum SH Wappenscheibe 6.jpg| ''[[Standesscheibe]]'' of Unterwalden (16th century), showing the red-and-white design for Obwalden and the double-key design for Nidwalden.
File:Vnderwalden (Merian).jpg| 1642 map of Underwalden ([[Matthäus Merian]])
</gallery>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* {{HLS|7409|author=Emil Weber|date=2013}}
*[[:de:ws:Topographia Helvetiae, Rhaetiae et Valesiae (Schweiz): Vnderwalden|Vnderwalden]] in M. Zeiller, ''Topographia Helvetiae, Rhaetiae et Valesiae'' (1642).
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Unterwalden | volume= 27 |last= Coolidge |first= William Augustus Brevoort |author-link= W. A. B. Coolidge| pages = 780&ndash;781 |short= 1}}

{{Cantons of Switzerland|state=collapsed}}
{{Portal bar|Switzerland}}
{{Authority control}}

{{Coord|46.87|N|8.31|E|scale:100000_region:CH|display=title}}

[[Category:Regions of Switzerland]]
[[Category:Former cantons of Switzerland]]
[[Category:14th-century establishments in the Old Swiss Confederacy]]
[[Category:1315 establishments in Europe]]
[[Category:States and territories disestablished in 1798]]
[[Category:States and territories disestablished in 1999]]