Indochina

Indochina A French colony from 1887, when the Indochinese Union was formed consisting of Cambodia (a colony since 1884), Annam (a protectorate since 1884), Tonkin (a protectorate since 1884), and Cochin-China (a colony since 1867). To this was added the protectorate of Laos in 1893. The royal houses of Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam (Tonkin and Annam) were retained within a federal system, with the governor-general in Hanoi controlling finance and defence. Cochin-China, with its capital of Saigon, was administered directly by a French prefect. A French educational system was developed and a French university established in Hanoi. Resistance to colonial rule was concentrated in the provinces of Annam and Tonkin, where a host of nationalist movements developed in the 1920s. Still, the Nghe Tinh Revolt (1930–1) in central Vietnam developed relatively independently of these political formations. The peasant rebellion was brutally suppressed, with some 10,000 killed and 50,000 deported.

In September 1940 the Japanese obtained military and commercial concessions from the Vichy administration, with free use of ports and airfields. As a result, though never formally under Japanese occupation, the Japanese military became the prime target of nationalist organizations, led by the Vietminh from 1943. On 9 March 1945 the Japanese ambassador Matsumoto gave Governor-General Decroux an ultimatum, which he ignored. The next day 750 French officials were imprisoned, of whom 400 died. Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam proclaimed themselves independent. On 19 August Ho Chi Minh's forces entered Hanoi, forcing Emperor Bao Dai to abdicate. France recognized the autonomy of the states of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos on 6 March 1946, as part of an Indochinese Federation within the French Union. After the Indochina War, France finally accepted the full independence of Cambodia and Laos, and withdrew completely from Vietnam.