![Helvetia, enthroned in the centre, is crowned with a laurel wreath as she brandishes the new Federal Constitution. Instead of the usual allegories, she is flanked on both sides by citizens depicted in military uniform and in civilian dress, embodying the people as the supreme political authority.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/Politischer-Ausgleich-Titel-1-300x229.jpg)
The Confederation's policy of concordance
The Swiss Confederation has had a constitution since 1848. Yet the history of this legal document, which is still in force today, dates back much further. It would be almost impossible to imagine the federal state in its current form without this historical prelude.
![The Sonderbund War of 1847 was the last armed conflict on Swiss soil.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/revslider/genesis-2/sonderbundskrieg-300x211.jpg)
Policy of concordance
![List of troop contingents in accordance with the Defensionale of Wil, 1647.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/defensionale-180x300.jpg)
Attempts to revise the Federal Treaty, and the Sonderbund War
![Kasimir Pfyffer on a visiting card portrait, circa 1850.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/kasimir-pfyffer-210x300.jpg)
![Conservative caricature lampooning the revision of the Federal Treaty of 1815.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/karikatur-bundesvertrag-300x274.jpg)
![General Dufour on a print dating from 1862.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/general-dufour-276x300.jpg)
The genius of the Federal Constitution
![Federal Constitution of 1848.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/bundesverfassung-229x300.jpg)