At first sight, this book, a Ph.D. thesis defended at Zurich University, is on a nonexistent theme since it deals with the colonial history of a small, predominantly inward-looking European country without colonies. However, as modern imperialism was a multinational undertaking, Switzerland's people as well as Swiss industry were definitively involved in European colonialism in Southeast Asia. On almost five hundred pages the historian Andreas Zangger meticulously describes this hitherto unknown past from an economic and social history perspective and links it with current insights on global and transnational history. His theme is the history of Swiss who were engaged in trade, plantation agriculture and science during the period of high imperialism, between 1860 and 1930, with a special focus on the triangle between Singapore, Deli (in North Sumatra) and Penang.
The book is divided into three major sections, first on the Swiss textile exports to mostly Singapore, then on the role of the Swiss and their capital in the plantation belt of East Sumatra and finally on the networks between Southeast Asia-based Swiss and the homeland. Around the mid-nineteenth century Switzerland was one of the major exporters of European textiles to Asia; thus in Singapore a distribution system was created and run by young Swiss agents and supported by Swiss employees of international trading houses there. Although the Swiss tried to sell their products through active marketing and branding, in the end it was quality that counted and not the country of origin. The Swiss cooperated particularly with German firms, but together they still occupied a rather marginal position in a trade dominated by the British, Dutch and Chinese.
Sumatra, especially in Deli, had a relatively large population of Swiss, some owners of small plantations at the fringes of the cultivated area specialising in niche produce but most working as plantation managers. Since the Dutch were apprehensive of too great a British presence in East Sumatra, the Swiss could act as facilitators for the latter. And because Swiss and Germans often knew each other from collaborating in trading houses in Penang and Singapore, they supported each other. The virtues of masculinity at the frontier seemed also to attract a substantial number of noble or upper middle class Swiss to this area.
Whereas the first two sections of the book inform the reader about Swiss participation in the world of European commerce and plantation agriculture, the final part of the book focuses on the entanglements between Switzerland and insular Southeast Asia in two directions. The Swiss were part of a connective structure between metropoles and colonies and their role is analysed in four spheres: transport insurance, capital investments in plantations, scientific endeavours and Swiss associations. Swiss natural scientists preferred to work in the Dutch East Indies, where they were rather welcome and Dutch students also went to Zurich to study there in order to prepare for a career in the colony. In Switzerland some professorships in this field were established and cultural objects were collected for museums, based on collaboration between export industry and academia. Swiss associations in Singapore and Sumatra tried to advance national patriotism, while in Switzerland the idea of a ‘person from overseas’ (Überseer) became commonplace.
What then are the conclusions drawn from this extensive study? In a short final section the author makes three main statements. First, Swiss people were strongly involved in European colonialism in Southeast Asia through participation in the export economy and involvement in scientific as well as cultural activities. The format was that of ‘a specific reaction of Switzerland towards the state imperialism of other nations’ (p. 434). At the same time the Swiss and Germans largely remained outsiders in colonial economies. Second, Swiss involvement in Southeast Asia illustrated the rise of global network building. Trade networks between Swiss textiles producers and European trading companies in Southeast Asia were primarily based on personal connections. Likewise Swiss family and regional networks shaped their presence in this part of the world and in this they moved between nationalism and a transnational orientation. Third, there were many reverse linkages of engagement in Southeast Asia to Swiss politics, society and culture.
Without a doubt Andreas Zangger's study fills a gap in the existing historiography of modern imperialism in Southeast Asia. It shows how even one small, non-colonising European country was involved in colonialism, although it was not a prime mover and its presence was primarily in non-state affairs ranging from private business to scientific knowledge-gathering. In his conclusion, the author uses the term ‘reaction’ to indicate that the Swiss joined in a wider European project which was initiated and advanced elsewhere. His digressions and his references to theoretical debates on networks, frontier capitalism, circulations and entanglements between Europe and its colonies are well done. The study includes extensive literature and archival research in several locations in Europe and Singapore. On the other hand, the perspective from ‘the sideline’ does not produce completely novel insights and there does not seem to have been much interaction between the Swiss and the population of Southeast Asia itself. Therefore this study's contribution lies in the history of colonialism rather than in Southeast Asian history. Readers in Switzerland may, however, be surprised to know that their country was part of the European imperial project after all.
