Far East Kingdoms

French Cochinchina (French Colonies) (South-East Asia)
AD 1858 - 1887

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The region of Asia which is usually known as South-East Asia has a long history of its own kingdoms and empires, as well as incursions by outside forces. The term 'Indochina' refers to the intermingling of Indian and Chinese influences in the region's culture, with three modern countries having evolved within its general borders in the form of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.

The former Champa kingdom had its roots in what is now Vietnam. This was a long-running rival of the Khmer empire, which had undergone a long period of decline by the time the French arrived in the region. France began colonising Vietnam (in the form of the Nam Viet empire) in full force under Emperor Napoleon III. They started in the Cham-dominated south to create French Cochinchina.

With a force which was supported by Spanish troops who were based in the Philippines, the French attacked the important port city of Danang in central Dai Nam in September 1858 and renamed the city Tourane. This was followed by the capture of Saigon in 1859. The captured territories were formed into three protectorates as they were taken from the Dai Nam administrative establishment: Tonkin in the north, Annam in the centre, and the colony of Cochinchina in the south.

However, the conquest of Cochinchina (sometimes shown as Cochin-China) was not completed until 1862. In the north, the regions of Tonkin and Annam came under French rule in 1884-1885. Dai Nam had fallen and the French were free to pursue a plantation economy with rubber as its most important export.

France in 1887 forcibly included the protectorates into the new colonial administrative creation of French Indochina, which they viewed as part of their broader civilising mission throughout the growing French colonial empire which was taking off both here and in areas of Africa.

In the aftermath of the French Revolution a belief had emerged in France that it was the nation's mission to spread French culture and civilisation (and preferably before the British got there first), to turn the populations of the colonies into Frenchmen. Once amalgamated into French Indochina, the colony of Cochinchina continued to appoint its own local governors, but now with reduced levels of authority. The colony was terminated along with Indochina itself in 1957.

(Information by Peter Kessler and the John De Cleene Archive, with additional information from Vietnam: A New History, Christopher Goscha, from Early Mainland Southeast Asia, C Higham (River Books Co, 2014), from Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopaedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor, Keat Gin Ooi (ABC-Clio, 2004), from A History of the Vietnamese, Keith W Taylor (Cambridge University Press, 2013), from Times Atlas of World History (Maplewood, 1979), from Historical Atlas of the World, R R Palmer (Ed, Chicago, 1963), from The Times Atlas of World History, Geoffrey Barraclough (Ed, Hammond Inc, 1979), from Asia in the Modern World, Claude A Buss (Macmillan Publishing Co, 1964), from Kingdoms of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, Gene Gurney (Outlet, 1986 (reissued 1988)), from Oxford Atlas of World History, Patrick K O'Brien (Ed, First Edition, Oxford University Press, 1999), from The Birth of Vietnam, Keith Weller Taylor (University of California Press, 1983), and from External Links: Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Vietnam (Countrystudies), and Vietnam from the 1st to the 10th centuries AD (Vietnam National Museum of History), and Vietnam from the 10th century AD to the mid-20th century AD (Vietnam National Museum of History), and Vietnam (Rulers.org).)

1858 - 1861

The French have finally had enough of the Viet refusal to allow them full access and influence in the country. They launch a military campaign which takes Da Nang, which the French refer to as Tourane. There they set up a colonial governorship. In the following year they capture Gia Dinh (Saigon). In 1861, provinces surrounding Saigon are added to French holdings.

Emperor Gia Long was aided in the winning of his Viet kingdom by French mercenaries and other western soldiers of fortune, but he never fully trusted Europeans or their motives

1858 - 1859

French commander-in-chief of expeditionary corps.

1859 - 1861

French commander-in-chief of the naval division.

1858 - 1859

French governor of Cochinchina, based in Tourane.

1859 - 1860

French governor of Cochinchina, based in Tourane.

1859

French governor of Cochinchina, based in Saigon.

1859 - 1860

French acting gov of Cochinchina, based in Saigon.

1860 - 1861

French governor of Cochinchina, based in Saigon.

1860 - 1861

French acting gov for Page.

1861

French governor of Cochinchina, based in Saigon.

1861 - 1863

French governor of Cochinchina, based in Saigon.

1862

Faced with local rebellions and French military dominance, Emperor Tu Duc of Dai Nam cedes his lost provinces to the French as part of the Treaty of Saigon. The area becomes a French colony which will become Cochinchina.

This illustration of French Zouaves (light infantry, generally drawn from North Africa) in Crimea was published in The Charleston Mercury on 21 November 1861

1863 - 1865

French governor of Cochinchina, based in Saigon.

1863

King Norodom requests that France establishes a protectorate over Cambodia, ending joint Siamese-Vietnamese protection. Siam voluntarily relinquishes its role and recognises the French protectorate of Cambodia. Vietnam has its own problems, with creeping French colonial activities taking place within its borders.

1865

French interim gov of Cochinchina, based in Saigon.

1865 - 1868

French governor of Cochinchina for the second time.

1868 - 1869

French acting gov of Cochinchina, based in Saigon.

1869 - 1870

French interim gov of Cochinchina, based in Saigon.

1870 - 1871

French governor of Cochinchina, based in Saigon.

1871 - 1872

French governor of Cochinchina, based in Saigon.

1872

French acting gov of Cochinchina, based in Saigon.

1872 - 1874

French governor of Cochinchina for the second time.

1874

French acting gov of Cochinchina, based in Saigon.

1874 - 1876

French governor of Cochinchina, based in Saigon.

1876

French acting gov of Cochinchina, based in Saigon.

1876 - 1877

French governor of Cochinchina for the second time.

1877 - 1879

French governor of Cochinchina, based in Saigon.

1879 - 1882

French governor of Cochinchina, based in Saigon.

1881

French acting gov of Cochinchina, based in Saigon.

1882 - 1885

French governor of Cochinchina, based in Saigon.

1883 - 1884

Tonkin (northern Vietnam) and Annam (central Vietnam) become French protectorates when the Qin formally abandon their own claim to overlordship. In 1884 the name 'Vietnam' reverts to Annam under French control (although this act is not universally agreed in modern sources). The emperors of Dai Nam are figureheads, with French governors holding true power.

The French colonial presence in Laos built the Bureau de la Residence in 1915 (today it serves as the offices of the country's Ministry of Information and Culture)

1885 - 1886

French governor of Cochinchina, based in Saigon.

1885 - 1886

Emperor Ham Nghi flees the Dai Nam capital to head for the mountains from where he conducts a guerrilla campaign against the French until he is betrayed by the head of his guard. They declare him to be officially deposed in 1886, replacing him with a more malleable puppet emperor.

1886 - 1887

French governor of Cochinchina, based in Saigon.

1887

Acting French governor of Cochinchina.

1887

Acting French governor. Later Indochina.

1887 - 1888

Now firmly in control of the imperial throne of Dai Nam, the French unite Annam, Tonkin, Cochinchina, and Cambodia into the 'Union of Indochina'. In 1888, the French capture Emperor Ham Nghi and exile him.

French colonial holdings in South-East Asia were generally referred to as French Indochina, but officially they were the Indochinese Union until 1947, and then the Indochinese Federation