Geneva (/dʒᵻˈniːvə/, French: Genève [ʒə.nɛv], Arpitan: Genèva [dzəˈnɛva], German: Genf [ɡɛnf], Italian: Ginevra [dʒiˈneːvra], Romansh: Genevra) is thesecond most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and is the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situated where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the capital of the Republic and Canton of Geneva.

The municipality (ville de Genève) has a population (as of December 2014) of 197,376, and the canton (which is essentially the city and its inner-ring suburbs) has 482,545 residents. In 2011, the compact agglomération du Grand Genève had 915,000 inhabitants in both – Switzerland and France (< 30mins distance). Within Swiss territory, the commuter area named "Métropole lémanique" contains a population of 1.25 million. This area is essentially spread east from Geneva towards the Riviera area (Vevey, Montreux) and north-east towards Yverdon-les-Bains, in the neighbouring canton of Vaud.

Geneva is a global city, a financial center, and worldwide center for diplomacy due to the presence of numerous international organizations, including the headquarters of many of the agencies of the United Nations^[3] and the Red Cross. Geneva is the city that hosts the highest number of international organizations in the world. It is also the place where the Geneva Conventions were signed, which chiefly concern the treatment of wartime non-combatants and prisoners of war.

Geneva was ranked as the world's ninth most important financial centre for competitiveness by the Global Financial Centres Index, ahead of Frankfurt, and third in Europe behind London and Zürich. A 2009 survey by Mercer found that Geneva has the third-highest quality of life of any city in the world (behind Vienna and Zürich for expatriates; it is narrowly outranked by Zürich).The city has been referred to as the world's most compact metropolis and the "Peace Capital". In 2009 and 2011, Geneva was ranked as, respectively, the fourth and fifth most expensive city in the world.

History

In the Middle Ages, Geneva was ruled by a count under the Holy Roman Empire until the late 14th century, when it was granted a charter giving it a high degree of self-governance. Around this time the House of Savoy came to (at least nominally) dominate the city. In the 15th century, an oligarchic republican government emerged with the creation of theGrand Council. In the first half of the 16th century, the Protestant Reformation reached the city, causing religious strife during which Savoy rule was thrown off and Geneva allied itself with the Swiss Confederacy. In 1541, with Protestantism in the ascendancy, John Calvin, the founder of Calvinism, became the spiritual leader of the city. By the 18th century, however, Geneva had come under the influence of Catholic France, which cultivated the city as its own, who tended to be at odds with the ordinary townsfolk – to the point that an abortive revolution took place in 1782. In 1798, revolutionary France under the Directory annexed Geneva. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, on 1 June 1814, Geneva was admitted to the Swiss Confederation. In 1907, the separation of Church and State was adopted. Geneva flourished in the 19th and 20th centuries, becoming the seat of many international organizations.^[11]Geneva was an Allobrogian border town, fortified against the Celtic tribe Helvetii, when the Romans took it in 121 BC. Itbecame Christian under the Late Roman Empire, and acquired its first bishop in the 5th century, having been connected to the bishopric of Vienne in the 4th.