ABSTRACT
Switzerland has long been regarded as a country detached from the history of colonialism and its consequences. Building on recent developments that shed light on multifaceted Swiss entanglements in colonial knowledge production, this chapter examines the manner in which the Swiss put their stamp on the Peruvian Andes, and in particular on the Cordillera Blanca, which became known as ‘La Suiza Peruana.’ Stressing alleged topographical similarities between the Alps and the Andes served to legitimize Swiss involvement in development politics in Peru in the period after the Second World War. Historical comparisons between Swiss and Peruvian mountain-dwellers and their respective natural environments prompted Swiss agents to see themselves as entitled to explore uncharted land, conquer Andean peaks, and claim Andean space for touristic development along Swiss lines in the late 1970s. The introduction of ‘alpinism’ as a specific form of knowledge and the training of Peruvians to become mountain guides according to Swiss standards by the aid project Alps–Andes can be seen as a symbolic appropriation and the imagining of a ‘Golden Age of andinism,’ with the Swiss playing a pioneering role.
