Zwischen Geld, Gewalt und Rassismus: Neue Perspektiven auf die koloniale Schweizer Söldnermigration nach Südostasien, 1848–1914


Author / Producer

Date

2021-08

Publication Type

Journal Article

ETH Bibliography

yes

Citations

Altmetric

Data

Abstract

The historiography of Swiss overseas emigration has tended to ignore the migration of 5,600 Swiss colonial mercenaries who served in the Dutch East Indies between 1848 and 1914. This article argues for conceiving these mercenaries as life-cycle military labour migrants and aims to place them in the migration history of the 19th century. By combining colonial, migration and mercenary history, this article not only contributes to a revision of the statistics of Swiss emigration, it also provides new perspectives on an entangled history between Switzerland and Southeast Asia. In the first part, the author explains that Swiss military labour migration to the Dutch East Indies was widely practised in the second half of the nineteenth century. In the second part, the aspects of money transfers, violence and racism are harnessed to discuss how fruitful a new perspective is for an entangled Swiss history

Publication status

published

Editor

Book title

Volume

71 (2)

Pages / Article No.

229 - 250

Publisher

Schwabe

Event

Edition / version

Methods

Software

Geographic location

Date collected

Date created

Subject

Schweizer Geschichte; Söldner; Kolonialismus; Indonesien; NIEDERLANDE (WESTEUROPA). KÖNIGREICH DER NIEDERLANDE; new military history; Migrationsgeschichte

Organisational unit

03814 - Fischer-Tiné, Harald / Fischer-Tiné, Harald check_circle

Notes

Funding

172613 - Swiss 'Tools of Empire'. A transnational history of mercenaries in the Dutch East Indies, 1814—1914 (SNF)

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