Page 26 RAIN Winter/Spring 1991 members may have held several jobs, were stronger than weak orders from a elite communal leadership whose city was divided by noble quarrels. Scattered across the city, their ranks swelled with popolo members, these militia were able to quickly alert and mobilize large sections of the city. The lesson is clear: the less centralized a police force, the more responsive it is to the needs of the residents. The most radical Milanese, calling themselves the Credenza of Saint Ambrose, broke to the surface in 1198. They worked alongside more moderate groups that supported them in their calls for change. The strength of the rebellion eventually forced the consul to give up half the city government to the popolo. Like their counterparts elsewhere in Northern Italy (except for Genoa and Venice, where the large shipping interests were powerful and the artisans few), they vastly broadened the political citizenship of the commune. In Bologna, the popolo freed the serfs and took over the government completely. But in cities where the middle class could force no official recognition, they took to the strategy of creating popular counter governments. Side by side with the stubborn governing body of the old guard they set up a council of elders, a huge people's assembly, and a captain whose main job was to get the crowd riled up. They refused tax payments, battled nobles with their militia, and stood as a distinct popular opposition government, claiming the city as theirs. Unfortunately, the gains of the popolo were eventually captured by or lost to extremely wealthy interests in these mercantile regions. With their deeper resources and battle hardened knights, the nobility reacted successfully, and fiercely, in support of their way of life. By the 1350's, most Italian city states were ruled by despots. The popolo movement arose during the clash of interests between urban middle class merchants and urban noble merchants. In the cities the nobles taxed trade and manufacturing, and in the countryside they taxed traveling merchants. The nobles' power to tax was maintained through force of arms, the expense of which was paid for by taxes. Merchants found this cycle a trying economic burden, and since the nobles would let very few into the power structure, the merchants rebelled. Those who worked for the merchants fought alongside them, broadening the movement. The Alps lie just north of Milan, specifically the mountains of the Saint Gotthard massif and a passable route over it constructed.during the era of the popolo. This route leads directly to the region where the successful story of the Swiss resistance begins. The Origins of the Swiss Confederation It was always difficult to travel across the massive continental swelling of St. Gotthard, the source for both the Rhine and Rhone rivers. But sometime between 1140 and 1230 the devil's bridge was built across a tributary of Lake Lucerne, part of a road boldly carved along the river gorge leading north. This road turned Saint Gotthard's pass into an important trade route between Italy and Germany. The reasons for the founding of the Confoederatio Helvetica (CH) follow directly. The small traders who dealt new wealth to the district of Uri, on the Swiss side of the pass, were just the sort of Italians who resented entrenched nobility, disliked tax on trade, and favored broadening participation in politics. These traders took pleasure in doing business with the mountain and forest people of Uri, since there were basically no Lords in the region. Mountainous areas typically could not sustain aristocracy: there simply was not enough surplus to extract. Any Alpine feudal Lord would have been just as poor as his subjects. When the pass was opened, the Hohenstaufen dynasty that ran the Holy Roman Empire at the time put Uri directly under the rule of the Empire. Because of the pass's importance and the potential for tax revenue, individual noble princes were not allowed to own the district. Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden, the Waldstatten or forest districts around Lake Lucerne, were self-governed in ways common to remote, highland, self-reliant communities in Europe. Typically, these were run by cooperative rural 'associations, which helped to organize and plan the use of community lands. In the Waldstiitten, these rural associations adapted to the influx of trade, and organized their communities to take advantage of new opportunities. Who needs a political party? Start a counter-government instead! Money could be made through transit (guarding passes, providing lodging and transporting goods) and in trade: the ancient Roman call for meat, wool and Swiss cheese was being heard again from diverse sources.
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