Just like the US later, it offered support to a local surrogate state and then got drawn in a much broader conflict than expected, ramping up forces along the way (many of the soldiers came from the rest of the French colonial empire by the way). It is not correct to suggest that France chose only Vietnam to colonize. There were 100,000 settlers living in New France at the start of the French and Indian War. Because of so much troubles from its neighbor such as Thailand and Vietnam, made Cambodia asked France to help protect the country. The French colonised Vietnam (and Indochina) for two important reasons. In the 20 years between the two world wars, one Michelin-owned plantation recorded 17,000 deaths. 1863-1953 - French Colonial Rule. Local farmers were forced to labour on these plantations in difficult and dangerous conditions. Around 1,000 French soldiers perished in Vietnam between late 1858 and 1862, most from illness. On Wikipedia it says that France regarded Algeria in a way similar t how the USA think of Hawaii and Alaska. French colonialism in Vietnam began around 1860. Copyright: The content on this page may not be republished without our express permission. France even invested in industrialization in Vietnam, building factories to produce cigarettes, alcohol, and textiles for export. France started their invasion into Vietnam in 1858 and gained complete control over what was then Indochina by 1887. This encouraged self-interest, corruption, venality and heavy-handedness. The French also constructed factories and built mines to tap into Vietnam’s deposits of coal, tin and zinc. Most colonies were developed to export products such as fish, rice, sugar, and furs. 2. Instead, the French relied on a small number of local officials and bureaucrats. French colonists were interested in acquiring land, exploiting labour, exporting resources and making profit. French colonialism did provide some benefits for Vietnamese society, most noticeable of which were improvements in education. The recognized reason why France invaded and colonized Vietnam was the treatment of Catholics by the three Nguyen Emperors who succeeded Gia Long. The Vietnamese, unable to mount effective resistance to the invaders and their advanced weapons, concluded a peace treaty in June 1862, which ceded the conquered territories to France. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Conditions were particularly poor on the plantations owned by French tyre manufacturer Michelin. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. The French now moved to impose a Western-style administration on their colonial territories and to open them to economic exploitation. It contains 184,073 words in 261 pages and was updated last on January 30th 2021. French colonial laws prohibited corporal punishment but many officials and overseers used it anyway, beating slow or reluctant workers. France founded colonies in much of eastern North America, on a number of Caribbean islands, and in South America. The events of 1954 marked the beginnings of serious United States involvement in Vietnam and the ensuing Vietnam War. France obtained control over northern Vietnam following its victory over China in the Sino-French War (1884–85). Date accessed: March 22, 2021 There was a tendency in France to associate empire with national worthiness, and imperialism of a great nation like France was helping to keep empire respectable. The amount of land used for growing rice almost quadrupled in the 20 years after 1880 while Cochinchina (southern Vietnam) had 25 gigantic rubber plantations. They did this for reasons of self-interest or because they held Francophile (pro-French) views. The exploitation of natural resources for direct export was the chief purpose of all French investments, with rice, coal, rare minerals, and later also rubber as the main products. The workers on plantations in French Indochina were known as ‘coolies’, a derogatory term for Asian labourers. The French justified their imperialism with a ‘civilising mission’, a pledge to develop backward nations. The French also burdened the Vietnamese with an extensive taxation system. France started their invasion into Vietnam in 1858 and gained complete control over what was then Indochina by 1887. The nation was carved into three separate pays (provinces): Tonkin in the north, Annam along the central coast and Cochinchina in the south. 2. By the 1930s, Indochina was supplying 60,000 tons of rubber each year, five per cent of all global production. Vietnamese people were not in favour of these foreigners and from time to time some of these priest were killed without the Vietnam emperor trying to correct this situation and neither the French or Spaniards challenged the emperor to put an end to such killings. Genouilly soon recognized, however, that he could make no further progress around Tourane and decided to attack Saigon. According to some interpretations of Chinese record, Romans arrived in the Red River delta in A.D. 166. It was the result not only of missionary propaganda but also, after 1850, of the upsurge of French capitalism, which generated the need for overseas markets and the desire for a larger French share of the Asian territories conquered by the West. Ring in the new year with a Britannica Membership. Paris never designed or promoted a coherent colonial policy in Indochina. So long as it remained in French hands and open to French economic interests, the French government was satisfied. Leaving a small garrison behind to hold Tourane, he sailed southward in February 1859 and seized Saigon two weeks later. By and large, the mission civilisatrice was a thin facade. Millions of Vietnamese no longer worked to provide for themselves; they now worked for the benefit of French colons (settlers). In 1885, France looked to take over Vietnam and in 1887 they did it. Harnessing and transforming Vietnam’s economy required considerable local support. The Nguyen emperors remained as figurehead monarchs in Vietnam but from the late 1800s, they exercised little political power. Turn the question on its head: Why was the population of British North America (~1,000,000) so much greater than that of New France (~100,000) at … French imperialism was driven by a demand for resources, raw materials and cheap labour. Through education and examinations, it was theoretically possible for a Vietnamese to obtain French citizenship, with all its privileges. French colonisers were relatively few in number so were assisted by Francophile collaborators among the Vietnamese people. France did not immediately commit huge resources and probably did not realise what it was up against. Introduced in 1901, the corvee required male peasants of adult age to complete 30 days of unpaid work on government buildings, roads, dams and other infrastructure. Yet in reality, the criteria for citizenship were manipulated to ensure that subject citizens never threatened French political power.” Under Gov.-Gen. Paul Doumer, who arrived in 1897, French rule was imposed directly at all levels of administration, leaving the Vietnamese bureaucracy without any real power. The French government established a near monopoly on the trade of opium, salt, and rice wine. “The French ‘civilising mission’ was the transformation of subject peoples into loyal French men and women. It had a profound impact on the lives of people in Vietnam. Profit, not politics, was the driving force behind French colonisation. All important positions within the bureaucracy were staffed with officials imported from France; even in the 1930s, after several periods of reforms and concessions to local nationalist sentiment, Vietnamese officials were employed only in minor positions and at very low salaries, and the country was still administered along the lines laid down by Doumer. French colonialism in Vietnam lasted more than six decades. The French colonised Vietnam (and Indochina) for two important reasons. Many resistance fighters were sent to jail because they had broken the law. 4. French Colonialism and Vietnam, to 1908 . For its part, the Nguyễn Dynasty increasingly saw Catholic missionaries as a political threat; courtesans, for example, an influential faction in the dynastic system, feared for their status in a society influenced by an … These collaborators assisted in the administration and exploitation of French Indochina. Indochina became one of France’s most important colonial possessions. Doumer’s economic and social policies also determined, for the entire period of French rule, the development of French Indochina, as the colony became known in the 20th century. Significant business, such as banking and mercantile trade, was conducted in French rather than local languages. Perhaps the most famous collaborator was Bao Dai, the last of the Nguyen emperors (reigned 1926-45). French–Vietnamese relations started as early as the 17th century with the mission of the Jesuit father Alexandre de Rhodes. The conquest of Vietnam by France The decision to invade Vietnam was made by Napoleon III in July 1857. The syllabuses at these schools reinforced colonial control by stressing the supremacy of French values and culture. Japanese Invasion During the Second World War The Japanese Empire invaded French Indochina in 1941 and the Nazi-allied French Vichy government handed over Indochina to Japan . The French seized vast swathes of land and reorganised them into large plantations. URL: https://alphahistory.com/vietnamwar/french-colonisation-in-vietnam/ It was not uncommon for plantations to have several workers die in a single day. Sometimes they came voluntarily, lured by false promises of high wages; sometimes they were conscripted at the point of a gun. France never had a large military presence in Indochina (there were only 11,000 French troops there in 1900) nor were there enough Frenchmen to personally manage this transformation. The working day could be as long as 15 hours, without breaks or adequate food and freshwater. Title: “French colonisation in Vietnam” This was, in effect, a French form of the English ‘white man’s burden’. Vietnam War memory quiz – events 1946-1964, Vietnam War memory quiz – events 1965-1975, Vietnam War memory quiz – terms and concepts (I), Vietnam War memory quiz – terms and concepts (II). The naval commander in East Asia, Rigault de Genouilly, long an advocate of French military action against Vietnam, was ordered to attack the harbour and city of Tourane (Da Nang) and to turn it into a French military base. Life in French-controlled Vietnam When France imposed colonial rule in Southeast Asia, it removed the name "Vietnam" from official use because the Vietnamese people associated the word with self-rule. In general, French colonialism was more haphazard, expedient and brutal than British colonialism. Some were paid in rice rather than money. Called nguoi phan quoc (‘traitor’) by other locals, these Vietnamese supported colonial rule by collaborating with the French. Some collaborators were given scholarships to study in France; a few even received French citizenship. The total number of workers employed by all industries and mines in Vietnam was some 100,000 in 1930. Rice and rubber were the main cash crops of these plantations. French Rule: The French colonized Vietnam in the mid 1800s. The French were feeling the need for more respect. French officials and colonists also benefited from growing, selling and exporting opium, a narcotic drug extracted from poppies. Vietnamese peasant farmers who remained outside the plantations were subject to the corvee, or unpaid labour. Among these enterprises—located chiefly in Saigon, Hanoi, and Haiphong (the outport for Hanoi)—were breweries, distilleries, small sugar refineries, rice and paper mills, and glass and cement factories. The political management of Indochina was left to a series of governors. India … Genouilly arrived at Tourane in August 1858 with 14 vessels and 2,500 men; the French stormed the harbour defenses on September 1 and occupied the town a day later. Map of North America. The French did recruit conscripts in France for their war in Vietnam, in order to keep the war from becoming more unpopular at home than it was – a war being called the "dirty war" (la sale guerre) by France's communists and leftist intellectuals, including Jean Paul Sartre. In reality, French colonialism was chiefly driven by economic interests. In April 1882, with the blessing of Paris, the administration at Saigon sent a force of 250 men to Hanoi under Capt. Vietnam did indeed approve the arrival of some missionaries from Portugal and Spain at the beginning and from France later on. The French colonization of the Americas began in the 16th century and continued on into the following centuries as France established a colonial empire in the Western Hemisphere. Where there were labour shortfalls, Viet farmers were recruited en masse from outlying villages. French propagandists held these collaborators up as an example of the mission civilisatrice benefiting the Vietnamese people. Authors: Jennifer Llewellyn, Jim Southey, Steve Thompson These changes, however, were really only significant in the cities: there was little or no attempt to educate the children of peasant farmers. Not only were local sales of opium very profitable, its addictiveness and stupefying effects were a useful form of social control. Vietnamese land was seized by the French and collectivised into large rice and rubber plantations. The decision to invade Vietnam was made by Napoleon III in July 1857. It then began the process of transforming Vietnam into the sort of country that French business, military, and religious leaders wanted. In 1861 France occupied Saigon, and by 1883 it had taken control of all of Vietnam as well as Laos and Cambodia. Each of these pays was administered separately. The development of colonised nations was scarcely considered, except where it happened to benefit French interests. Ten years later the French annexed Laos and added it to the so-called Indochinese Union, which the French created in 1887. So she needs to find new ones. French imperialists claimed it was their responsibility to colonise undeveloped regions in Africa and Asia, to introduce modern political ideas, social reforms, industrial methods and new technologies. In addition to the Malnutrition, dysentery and malaria were rife on plantations, especially those producing rubber. Moreover, the colonies that had been left to her had been made unprofitable through Britain’s self-interested abolition of slavery. Various traders would visit Vietnam during the 18th century, until the major involvement of French forces under Pigneau de Béhaine from 1787 to 1789 helped establish the Nguyễn Dynasty. For more information, please visit our FAQ or Terms of Use. Because the aim of all investments was not the systematic economic development of the colony but the attainment of immediate high returns for investors, only a small fraction of the profits was reinvested. French Indochina was a colony of France, exploited for economic advantage. Church leaders and people from the industry wanted a larger share of the oversea market, so they demanded a military intervention to the Emperor Napoleon III after: Date published: January 7, 2019 The Portuguese traded with Vietnam from a commercial colony set up alongside those of the Japanese an… French colonial governors, officials and bureaucrats had significant autonomy and authority, so often wielded more power than they should have or was necessary. The development of colonised nations was scarcely considered, except where it happened to benefit French interests.In general, French colonialism was more haphazard, expedient and brutal than British colo… The real motive for French colonialism was profit and economic exploitation. The French colonisation of Vietnam began in earnest in the 1880s and lasted six decades. because France wanted to trade with inner china. When Rivière was killed in a skirmish, Paris moved to impose its rule by force over the entire Red River delta. The union consisted of the colony of Cochinchina and the four protectorates of Annam, Tonkin, Cambodia, and Laos. In 111 BC the Han Dynasty formally annexed what was then called Nam Viet - and the country remained part of China for a thousand years. Even Vietnamese emperors were deposed at will and replaced by others willing to serve the French. The first Europeans to arrive in the Age of Exploration were Portuguese, who landed near Danang in 1516. If it is, why? By 1935, France’s collective sales of rice wine, salt and opium were earning more than 600 million francs per annum, the equivalent of $US5 billion today. They absolutely did colonize North America. they wanted to take Vietnam because they thought that they could get to china through there, but they realized that they couldn't after the colonization was already complete. Some led guerrilla groups, composed of the remnants of the defeated armies, in attacks on French outposts. The greatest industrial establishment was a textile factory at Nam Dinh, which employed more than 5,000 workers. An even deadlier scourge for the French was the local climate and infectious diseases, particularly dysentery, malaria and cholera. First, they wanted to get a toe-hold into China, after losing India to British colonisers. It took them 16 more years to extend their control over the rest of the country. The anticolonial movement in Vietnam can be said to have started with the establishment of French rule. Introduction Important Terms/Places French Indochina Tonkin (North Vietnam) Annam (South Vietnam) Cochin China (Central Vietnam) Laos Cambodia Dissent and Rebuttal Important Cities and Documents Hanoi Hue Saigon Treaty of Protectorate Treaty of Hue Important People Paul Doumer Ho