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1858-62 - Franco-Indochinese War

France lost India in the 18th century. In the 19th century she conquered eastern Indo-China. Although the territory is much smaller and less peopled than that of Hindustan, it was in no sense a compensation to be disdained.

The real pioneer of the French in Indo-China was Pigneau de Behaine, a vicar in Cochin-China and bishop of Adran, who persuaded the emperor of Annam, Gialong, to have recourse to Louis XIV's aid against the Chinese. This premier intervention resulted in the signing of the Treaty of Versailles between Louis X.IV and the son of Gialong in 1687, and by which France received the Bay of Tourane and the island of PauloCondore. The French officers, appointed to the court of Hue, formed a disciplined army which defended Annam against the English during the Revolution and the Empire.

Chaigneau, the last survivor, died in 1822, having received the title of consul of Hue which was conferred on him by the Duke of Richelieu. Later on, however, a changed and hostile attitude was adopted toward the French and this spirit of persecution became extremely violent on the accession of Tu-Duc who deemed the French to be the implacable enemies of his country, describing them as "people who bark like dogs and run away like goats." Tu-Duc in fact became so menacing and defiant that the two European powers most directly concerned, France and Spain, decided to dispatch a small squadron, under Admiral Rigault de Genouilly, in 1847. A further intervention took place at Tourane in 1852, under the reign of Tu-Duc, as a result of the murder of several missionaries.

In 1858 France first appeared in Indo-China by the dispatch of a Franco-Spanish expeditionary force which took possession of Tourane, and later of Saigon, in 1859. But the wars in which the French Empire was engaged in Italy and China diverted momentarily the attention of France. Tourane was taken and Saigon blockaded. In 1861, Admiral Charner, at the head of a properly equipped expedition, which included but few Spaniards, conquered a part of CochinChina. On 5 June 1862 Admiral Bonard signed at the "Camp des Lettres* a treaty by the terms of which the three oriental provinces of the Mekong Delta, Saigon, Mytho and Bien Hoa, were ceded to France.

Having made herself mistress of the Annam provinces of the delta of the Mekhong, France on ll August 1863 concluded a treaty with the new king of Cambodia, Norodom, placing Cambodia under a French protectorate. This treaty has been superseded by that of the 17th June 1884, under which the king of Cambodia accepts all the reforms, administrative, judiciary, financial, and commercial, which the government of France may deem advisable.