![Soldiers of the Dutch colonial army during the Aceh War (1873-1912) in northeast Sumatra, in which numerous Swiss mercenaries were also involved.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/titel-soldner-300x225.jpg)
Swiss mercenaries in the Dutch colonial army
Between 1815 and 1914 around 7,600 Swiss mercenaries served in the Dutch colonial army. In search of work and adventure, they aided the violent expansion of the Dutch colonial empire in what is now Indonesia.
![A Swiss regiment that fought in the streets of Naples for Ferdinand II, King of the two Kingdoms of Sicily, during the uprising of 15 May 1848.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/soldnerregiment-300x230.jpg)
TV report on the Dutch East India Company. YouTube
Disenchantment with life in the barracks
![Two soldiers immortalise their departure to the Dutch colonies on a portrait card, 1895.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/soldaten-181x300.jpg)
![Arnold Egloff from Aargau joined the Dutch colonial army in 1889 and died in 1894 from injuries he suffered in the Lombok War.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/egloff-202x300.jpg)
![Portrait photograph of a njai from Indonesia, 19th century.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/njai-217x300.jpg)
Colonial violence
![Soldiers of the Dutch colonial army pose with dead villagers in Kuta Reh, Sumatra.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/solder-massaker-300x202.jpg)