Switzerland was home to two of the leading figures of the Protestant reformation which swept across Europe in the 16th century, Ulrich Zwingli and Jean Calvin. On the whole it was the better-off rural cantons and the cities which were to develop into Switzerland's industrial centres which adopted the new religion. Geneva in particular became a stronghold of Protestantism, and a haven for refugees - including Calvin himself - fleeing oppression in Catholic countries. These refugees in turn made an important contribution to the city's intellectual and economic life. Protestants valued rationality and hard work, and saw wealth as a reward from God, an ethos which helped lay the foundations of modern Swiss prosperity.

The 1848 constitution which created the federal Swiss state as we know it today, was drawn up by Protestant radicals who saw greater centralisation as essential to develop an industrialised economy. The federal state created a single currency system to replace the different cantonal currencies, and lifted internal trade barriers.