Geneva

The League of Nations at its opening session in 1920 in Geneva, Switzerland. The organization was dissolved in 1946 and superseded by the United Nations.

City in Switzerland, capital of Geneva canton, on the southwestern shore of Lake Geneva; population (2003 est) 178,900. It is a point of convergence of natural routes and is a cultural, financial, and administrative centre. Industries include trade, banking, insurance, and the manufacture of watches, scientific and optical instruments, foodstuffs, jewellery, and musical boxes. CERN, the particle physics research organization, is here, as are the headquarters of the International Red Cross and the World Health Organization. The United Nations has its second-largest office (after the New York City headquarters) in Geneva.

History

In the Middle Ages, Geneva was controlled by the prince-bishops of Geneva, but due to a growing antagonism of the rising merchant class towards episcopal authority, in 1285 the citizens of Geneva placed themselves under the protection of the counts (later dukes) of Savoy. Under the Protestant theologian John Calvin, it became a centre of the Reformation 1536–64, and as a refuge for the persecuted from Italy, England, and France, acquired a cosmopolitan character. During the French Revolution it was annexed (1798) to France, but on the fall of Napoleon it regained its liberty and entered the Swiss Confederation 1815. In 1864 the International Red Cross Society was established in Geneva. From 1922 to 1946 the city was the headquarters of the League of Nations, whose properties in Geneva, including the Palais des Nations (1936), passed in 1946 into the possession of the United Nations.

Historic buildings Prior to 1847 the city was surrounded by walls, and its streets were narrow; but after that year it was almost entirely rebuilt. The main historic buildings are the 12th–14th-century cathedral of St Peter (where John Knox preached), the University of Geneva (1473; founded as an academy by Calvin in 1559), the 16th-century town hall, the theatre (ranking next in size to the Paris Opera House), and the Athenaeum. The Museum of Natural History contains Horace Bénédict de Saussure's geological collections, as well as the Reformation monument (1917).

Famous people Geneva was the birthplace of the writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and botanist and chemist Nicholas Theodore de Saussure. The writers Voltaire, Gibbon, Shelley, Ruskin, and Byron also spent time here.

Geneva

Canton in southwest Switzerland, bounded by Lake Geneva, the canton of Vaud, and France; area 282 sq km/108 sq mi; population (1999 est) 403,100. Its capital is Geneva, home to many financial institutions and public and private international organizations. It lies in the Rhône valley between the southern Jura Mountains and the foothills of the Alps. The canton was admitted into the Swiss Confederation in 1815.

The south-facing slopes along Lake Geneva are used for growing vines on steep terraces. The chief industries of the canton are the manufacture of articles of jewellery, clocks, and watches. The canton is French-speaking. In 1960 Geneva was one of the first Swiss cantons to adopt female suffrage.

Geneva

Suburban town and administrative headquarters of Kane County, northeast Illinois; population (1990) 12,600. It is situated on the Fox River, 58 km/36 mi west of Chicago. Farm machinery, electronic parts, auto equipment and batteries, and foundry products are among the goods manufactured in the town. The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is 6 km/4 mi to the southeast. Geneva was founded in the 1830s and served as a trading centre for settlers arriving in Illinois or headed farther west.

Geneva

Small town in Adams County, northeast Indiana; population (1990) 1,300. It is located 53 km/33 mi south-southeast of Fort Wayne, near the Ohio state border, on the upper reaches of the Wabash River. It was the centre of the Limberlost region, a swampy, forested area, which was drained and lumbered in 1913. The area was celebrated in Girl of the Limberlost (1909), among other writings by Gene Stratton Porter, who lived here 1895–1913.

Geneva

Town in Ontario County, west-central New York; population (1990) 14,100. It is located at the northern end of Seneca Lake, 64 km/40 mi southeast of Rochester. The town is the market and processing centre of an agricultural region. Industries manufacture machinery, steel castings, corrugated cartons, and electronic components.

Geneva was settled in 1785 on the site of an American Indian village. Hobart College for men and William Smith College for women were founded here in 1822. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman doctor in the modern Western tradition, graduated from Geneva Medical College in 1849.