Schwyz, and in 1292 failed in a desperate attempt to seize the Habsburg town of Winterthur. After that Zürich began to display strong Austrian leanings, which characterize much of its later history. In 1315 the men of Zürich fought against the Swiss Confederates at Morgarten. The year 1336 marks the admission of the craftsmen to a share in the town government, which was brought about by Rudolf Brun, a patrician. Under the new constitution (the main features of which lasted till 1798) the Little Council was made up of the burgomaster and thirteen members from the “Constafel” (which included the old patricians and the wealthiest burghers) and the thirteen masters of the craft gilds, each of the twenty-six holding office for six months. The Great Council of 200 (really 212) members consisted of the Little Council, plus 78 representatives each of the Constafel and of the gilds, besides 3 members named by the burgomaster. The office of burgomaster was created and given to Brun for life. Out of this change arose a quarrel with one of the branches of the Habsburg family, in consequence of which Brun was induced to throw in the lot of Zürich with the Swiss Confederation (1st May 1351). The double position of Zürich as a free imperial city and as a member of the Everlasting League was soon found to be embarrassing to both parties (see Switzerland). In 1373 and again in 1393 the powers of the Constafel were limited and the majority in the executive secured to the craftsmen, who could then aspire to the burgomastership. Meanwhile the town had been extending its rule far beyond its walls — a process which began in the 14th, and attained its height in the 15th century (1362-1467). This thirst for territorial aggrandizement brought about the first civil war in the Confederation (the “Old Zürich War,” 1436-50), in which, at the fight of St Jacob on the Sihl (1443), under the walls of Zürich, the men of Zürich were completely beaten and their burgomaster Stüssi slain. The purchase of the town of Winterthur from the Habsburgs (1467) marks the culmination of the territorial power of the city. It was to the men of Zürich and their leader Hans Waldmann that the victory of Morat (1476) was due in the Burgundian war; and Zürich took a leading part in the Italian campaign of 1512-15, the burgomaster Schmid naming the new duke of Milan (1512). No doubt her trade connexions with Italy led her to pursue a southern policy, traces of which are seen as early as 1331 in an attack on the Val Leventina and in 1478, when Zürich men were in the van at the fight or Giornico, won by a handful of Confederates over 12,000 Milanese troops.
In 1400 the town obtained from the Emperor Wenceslaus the Reichsvogtei, which carried with it complete immunity from the empire and the right of criminal jurisdiction. As early as 1393 the chief power had practically fallen into the hands of the Great Council, and in 1498 this change was formally recognized.
This transfer of all power to the gilds had been one of the aims of the burgomaster Hans Waldmann (1483-89), who wished to make Zürich a great commercial centre. He also introduced many financial and moral reforms, and subordinated the interests of the country districts to those of the town. He practically ruled the Confederation, and under him Zürich became the real capital of the League. But such great changes excited opposition, and he was overthrown and executed. His main ideas were embodied, however, in the constitution of 1498. by which the patricians became the first of the gilds, and which remained in force till 1798; some special rights were also given to the subjects in country districts. It was the prominent part taken by Zürich in adopting and propagating (against the strenuous opposition of the Constafel) the principles of the Reformation (the Frau Münster being suppressed in 1524) which finally secured for it the lead in the Confederation (see Switzerland and Zwingli).
The environs of Zürich are famous in military history on account of the two battles of 1799. In the first battle (4th June) the French under Masséna on the defensive, were attacked by the Austrians under the Archduke Charles, Masséna retiring behind the Limmat before the engagement had reached a decisive stage. The second and far more important battle took place on the 25th and 26th of September. Masséna, having forced the passage of the Limmat, attacked and totally defeated the Russians and their Austrian allies under Korsakov's command. (See French Revolutionary Wars.)
In the 17th and 18th centuries a distinct tendency becomes observable in the town government to limit power to the actual holders. Thus the country districts were consulted for the last time in 1620 and 1640; and a similar breach of the charters of 1489 and 1531 (by which the consent of these districts was required for the conclusion of important alliances, war and peace, and might be asked for as to other matters) occasioned disturbances in 1777. The council of 200 came to be largely chosen by a small committee of the members of the gilds actually sitting in the council—by the constitution of 1713 it consisted of 50 members of the Little Council (named for a fixed term by the Great Council), 18 members named by the Constafel, and 144 selected by the 12 gilds, these 162 (forming the majority) being co-opted for life by those members of the two councils who belonged to the gild to which the deceased member himself had belonged. Early in the 18th century a determined effort was made to crush by means of heavy duties the flourishing rival silk trade in Winterthur. It was reckoned that about 1650 the number of privileged burghers was 9000, while their rule extended over 170,000 persons. The first symptoms of active discontent appeared later among the dwellers by the lake, who founded in 1794 a club at Stäfa and claimed the restoration of the liberties of 1489 and 1531, a movement which was put down by force of arms in 1795. The old system of government perished in Zürich, as elsewhere in Switzerland, in February 1798, and under the Helvetic constitution the country districts obtained political liberty. The cantonal constitution was rather complicated, and under it the patrician party obtained a small working majority. That constitution was meant to favour the town as against the country districts. But under the cantonal constitution of 1814 matters were worse still, for the town (10,000 inhab.) had 130 representatives in the Great Council, while the country districts (200,000 inhab.) had only 82. A great meeting at Uster on the 22nd of November 1830 demanded that two-thirds of the members in the Great Council should be chosen by the country districts; and in 1831 a new constitution was drawn up on these lines, the town getting 71 representatives as against 141 allotted to the country districts, though it was not till 1837-38 that the town finally lost the last relics of the privileges which it had so long enjoyed as compared with the country districts. From 1803 to 1814 Zürich was one of the six "directorial cantons," its chief magistrate becoming for a year the chief magistrate of the Confederation, while in 1815 it was one of the three cantons, the government of which acted for two years as the Federal government when the diet was not sitting. In 1833 Zürich tried hard to secure a revision of the Federal constitution and a strong central government. The town was the Federal capital for 1830-40, and consequently the victory of the Conservative party there in 1839 (due to indignation at the nomination by the Radical government to a theological chair in the university of D. F. Strauss, the author of the famous Life of Jesus) caused a great stir throughout Switzerland. But when in 1845 the Radicals regained power at Zürich, which was again the Federal capital for 1845-46, that town took the lead in opposing the Sonderbund cantons. It of course voted in favour of the Federal constitutions of 1848 and of 1874, while the cantonal constitution of 1869 was remarkably advanced for the time. The enormous immigration from the country districts into the town from the "thirties" onwards created an industrial class which, though "settled" in the town, did not possess the privileges of burghership, and consequently had no share in the municipal government. First of all in 1860 the town schools, hitherto open to "settlers" only on paying high fees, were made accessible to all, next in 1875 ten years' residence ipso facto conferred the right of burghership, while in 1893 the eleven outlying districts (largely peopled by working folk) were incorporated with the
