1781 Anarchy in Geneva. Pastor Waser is executed at Zurich for opposition to the city government. France, Bern, and Sardinia intervene. Emigration from Geneva. Insurrection at Fribourg under Chenaux. 1784 Joseph Suter, a popular leader in the Inner Rhodes of Appenzell, is executed. 1789 The French Revolution begins to find sympathizers in Switzerland. 1790 Exiles from Vaud and Fribourg organise the Helvetic Club at Paris to spread the new ideas in Switzerland. The club stirs up risings in the western part of the confederation. Lower Valais rises against the oppressive rule of the upper districts. 1792 Porrentruy defies the prince-bishop of Bâle; with the help of the French drives out the imperial troops; forms the Rauracian Republic. This afterward becomes the French department of Mont Terrible. Geneva is saved from France by a force from Zurich and Bern. Massacre of the Swiss guards at the Tuileries by the Paris mob. The diet of Aarau orders the recall of the Swiss regiments. 1793 A reign of terror begins in Geneva because of uprising of the “natives.” 1794 The revolutionary party assumes control in Geneva. Arrests and murders. Demands for greater freedom are made at Stäfa in the territory of Zurich. 1795 A reaction sets in in Geneva. The insurrection at Stäfa is suppressed. 1797 Bonaparte incorporates the Italian bailiwicks of the Valtellina with the Cisalpine Republic. La Harpe calls on the Directory to protect the liberties of Vaud against the oppression of Bern. THE HELVETIC REPUBLIC 1798 French troops in response occupy Mülhausen, Bienne, and part of the lands of the prince-bishop of Bâle. Insurgents open the prison of Chillon. Another French army enters Vaud and the Lemanic Republic is proclaimed there. The French occupy Fribourg and Solothurn; defeat the Bernese after fierce fighting at Neueneck; take Bern, the stronghold of the aristocratic party, and pillage the treasury. The Revolution triumphs over the Confederation. By order of the Directory, the Helvetic Republic, one and indivisible, is proclaimed. Peter Ochs of Bâle supplies a constitution. Ten of the thirteen members of the old confederation accept the new government. Twenty-three “cantons,” or administrative districts, are created. The forest districts rebel. Their resistance, headed by Alois Reding, of Schwyz, is put down after desperate conflicts at Schindellegi, Morgarten, and at Rothenthurm. An insurrection of the mountaineers of Upper Valais against the French is bloodily repressed. The French put down an insurrection in Nidwald with great bloodshed. (The days of terror of Nidwald end.) 1799 Zurich, the forest cantons, and Rhætia become the scene of the struggle of the Austrian and Russians against the French in the wars of the Coalition.