Switzerland had a civil war in 1847 (the Sonderbund War), between the Protestant-dominated liberal federal government and an alliance of conservative Catholic cantons (the “Sonderbund”), who were incensed by the federal government’s anti-Catholic policies. As wars go, it was relatively brief and bloodless - it lasted 3 weeks and less than 100 were killed on both sides - still, it does show that Swiss history is not all “peace” and “brotherly love”.
In reality, of course, they produce a great deal more than cuckoo clocks; one of the most competitive pharmaceutical industries in the world, industrial chemicals, defence technology, agriculture, financial services, food processing, etc - up to a trillion or so per annum IIRC.
and nothing of note has happened in any of them since World War II.
the timeframe does not appear to be pinned to the Renaissance period. Further, the quote I replied to was from The Third Man a movie made and released in 1949 that was set in post world war II Vienna.Further again, that quote appears to address present era Switzerland 500 years after the infamous time of the House of Borgia.
2/ The OP is about San Marino; the quoted excerpt is referencing the European city states of San Marino, Liechtenstein, Monaco, and Andorra; hence the flow of comments you point at is not concerned with Switzerland per se.
3/ The referenced quote is nevertheless false, because cuckoo clocks were invented in the Dresden in early 1600s; only popular culture associate them to Switzerland.
https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/politics/miscellany/history...
Things would be very different in Switzerland if it bordered the Eastern Bloc or the Mediterranean Sea.