Economy
Geographically Switzerland is located in a very bad location for getting natural resources; however the country has found other ways to survive financially. Most all of Switzerland is covered with mountains. This leads to very poor land for agriculture, mining for natural resources, and maintaining any sort of lifestyle without imports from other countries. Through all of the downfalls caused by Switzerland’s location, the country has been able to create a very prosperous economy for itself. While Switzerland can not provide itself with natural resources of fresh produce due to its geographical location, it can get raw materials imported. This leads to Switzerland developing a bustling industrial system. While Switzerland does have many things imported, they are also known for exporting manufactured goods, such as machinery and food products, especially chocolate. While Swiss land might not be good for the planting a growing portion of farming, Switzerland is known for its breeding of livestock. Hence the production of meats and cheeses is high and greatly contributes to the economy. In fact the cheese, Gruyere, was even named after the town where it was developed, Gruyere, Switzerland. Along with Switzerland's production of machinery and livestock, banking has become the main portion of the economy in Switzerland. They are known for their finances and for assisting other countries through crises as well when it comes to banking. So although Switzerland lacks the resources they find a way to benefit from their shortcomings. In more modern times Switzerland has become known from their machine parts, their manufactured electrical systems, their chemicals, their pharmaceuticals, and their electrical energy. Some cities in Switzerland are exclusively run on hydro-power, nuclear power, or wind power, this in turn leads Switzerland to have a very small carbon footprint. While Switzerland does agree with the laws of the European Union in order to keep peace within Europe, Switzerland does not follow the currency of the Euro, but rather is still on the Swiss Franc.