Uri

a canton in Switzerland. Uri has an area of 1,000 sq km and a population of 34,000 (1970). Its capital is Altdorf.

From the ninth to the 13th century, Uri was subject to the monastery of the city of Zürich and to the Hapsburgs. In 1291 it concluded a treaty of perpetual alliance with the cantons of Unterwalden and Schwyz, thus forming the Swiss state. The united cantons achieved independence from the Hapsburgs in 1308, and their independence was strengthened by their victory at Morgarten in 1315. In the late 15th century, Uri became one of the main areas for recruiting Swiss mercenaries into the armies of the Catholic countries of Europe. In the 16th century, Uri and other economically backward cantons opposed the Reformation in Switzerland.

From 1798 to 1803, Uri was part of the Helvetian Republic. During A. V. Suvorov’s Swiss Campaign of September 1799, the Russian Army fought several battles in the canton. In the mid-19th century, Uri joined the reactionary unions known as the League of Sarnen and the Sonderbund. In 1882 a railroad tunnel was constructed under the St. Gotthard Pass.