NO COLONIAL ARCHIVES IN SWITZERLAND, BUT A STATE HISTORY YET TO BE TOLD – Switzerland, which officially had no colonies, played a significant role in 19th-century colonialism. However, locating and explaining the sources relating to the State is a complex task. They exist, but they are not easy to find and their study remains marginal in historiography. These sources do, however, make it possible to contradict a very popular commonplace: that of the absence of the state in Swiss expansionism overseas. This article plunges into this new field of research, which involves questioning the implications of the state (in this case the Confederation, but there are also cantons and communes) in Switzerland's colonial past.