See also:

Zürich
Montreux

Prehistory

The first traces of human activity in the canton of Vaud go back to the end of the Ice Age (from around 13'500 B.C. onwards). The hunting farmers which populated this region and more specifically the lakeshores (from 5500 B.C.) mastered the techniques of bronze (approx. 2000 B.C.) and iron (approx. 800 B.C.). In 58 B.C., the Helvetians were stopped by Julius Caesar in their migration towards the south-east of Gaul and were forced to return to their homeland.

Antiquity

The Helvetic territory was submitted to Rome from the year 44-45 B.C., following the Helvetian alliance with the failed attempt of the Gaul uprising lead by Vercingetorix in 52 B.C. The region enjoyed peace under the Roman empire and the prosperity it brought until around 350 A.D. What is now Avenches was the capital of the Roman Helvetia. The major contributions that Rome made to the region were the adoption of Latin, urbanisation and stone construction. From the 3rd century, Helvetia was subject to several invasions by the Germanic peoples.

Middle Ages

The canton of Vaud belonged to the Kingdom of Burgundy from 443 to 554, and then was linked with the Frank, Merovingian and Carolingian Sovereigns. Between the 6th and 8th centuries, no Lord could establish himself and the bishop of Lausanne can only exert his power over his vast diocese in a restrained way. From 1207, the House of Savoy settled in the region. It already had several seigneuries in the Vaud region and was the suzerain of a large number of Vaudois Lords. In Lausanne, the Tour de l'Ale and that of the Bishop’s castle in Ouchy date back to the 8th century and are the last remains of around fifty towers of the medieval compound.

Modern era

Weakened from the middle of the 15th century onwards, the House of Savoy lost the Vaud region. Its conquest by Bern in 1536 definitively linked this region to the Swiss Leagues. This was followed by the introduction of the Reformation, to which the Cathedral of Lausanne bore witness. The recumbent statues and sculptures which were not entirely destroyed by the iconoclasts bear the marks of passage. The facial features have disappeared, which gives them a ghostly and captivating appearance.
Bern governed the region well for more than two centuries whilst benefitting from the peace of this Helvetic region. At the end of the 18th century, in spite of great prosperity, the urban elites, under the influence of new ideas particular to the century, no longer tolerated this subservience.

Contemporary era

The independence of the Vaud region came about at the same time as the fall of the Helvetic Confederation (1798) and the French invasion. The canton of Vaud, as an autonomous member of the Confederation, created in 1803 by the Act of Mediation, consolidated, from 1813 to 1845, what had been gained in the Revolution. The economic and social changes particular to this period accelerated from the beginning of the 20th century. The critical years of the economic crisis and the two world wars gave way to an economic prosperity, from the 1950’s until 1975, which transformed the region. The last years of the century did not escape the world economic crisis, especially during the 1990’s.
In Lausanne, from 1850 onwards, whilst the economy and industry were booming, the developed space of the city did not go beyond the limits of the medieval town. During this period, great works of architectural genius profoundly changed its appearance, with, for example, the building of the Grand-Pont in 1944 or the arrival of the railway in 1856. The population boomed and went from 15'000 in 1850, to 65'000 in 1910, to reach the number of 120'000 inhabitants in 1999. The old town was soon not enough to accommodate this population. From 1870 onwards, the city was built outside the walls, in a mostly anarchic fashion, given the absence of a legal framework until 1905. The organisation of the national boom of 1965 allowed Lausanne to develop its lakeshores, with notably the Place d’Ouchy and the Bois de Vaux, a very popular picnic area which is home to numerous sports facilities and one of the seats of the International Olympic Committee.