French Indochina
French Indochina was a region in Southeast Asia that belonged to the French colonial empire. France gradually took control of the region in the middle 19th century and in 1887 federated the various protectorates and other states under their control, creating French Indochina. It consisted of modern day Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. It was disestablished following the independence of the Kingdom of Laos and the 1st Kingdom of Cambodia in 1954, and the partition of Vietnam between the China backed Hanoi government in the North of Ho Chi Minh, and the American backed Saigon government in the South of Bao Dai, and later Ngo Dinh Diem, causing the outbreak of the Second Indochina War.
French Indochina | |
|---|---|
| 1887 - 1941 1945 - 1954 | |
 | |
| Motto: "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" | |
| Anthem: | |
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| Capital | Hanoi (1902 - 1945) Saigon (1887 - 1902; 1945 - 1954) |
| Official languages | French |
| Vietnamese, Khmer, Cham, Cantonese, Thai, Isan, Lao | |
| Ethnic groups (1936) | 72% (Vietnamese) 13% (Khmer) 6% (Tai) 1.4% (Chinese, Cham, Hmong, Yao and Bahnar) 0.2% (Europeans) 7.3% (others) |
| Religion | Christianity Buddhism Vietnamese folk religion |
| Demonym(s) | Indochinese |
 Annam Tonkin.svg){kind=small} Laos.svg){kind=small} Cochinchina.svg){kind=small} Cambodia | |
| Governor-General | |
• 1887–1888 (first) | Ernest Constans |
• 1955–1956 (last) | Henri Hoppenot[a] |
| Historical era | New Imperialism World War 1 Interwar Period World War 2 First Indochina War |
| 1858–1885 | |
• | 17 October 1862 |
| 19 April 1899 | |
• Addition of Guangzhouwan | 5 January 1900 |
| 22 September 1940 | |
| October 1940 – May 1941 | |
| 9 March 1945 | |
• Democratic Republic of Vietnam proclaimed | 2 September 1945 |
| 13 September 1945 | |
| 19 December 1946 | |
• State of Vietnam proclaimed | 2 July 1949 |
• Kingdom of Cambodia proclaimed | 9 November 1953 |
• | 27 October 1954 |
| Area | |
• Total | 737,000 km2 (285,000 sq mi) |
| Currency | French Indochinese piastre |
| Today part of | Cambodia Laos Vietnam |
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French Indochina Media
Vietnamese-style seal of the Government-General of French Indochina
Chaliapine - Rouget de Lisle - La Marseillaise
Expansion of French Indochina (violet)
The Presidential Palace, in Hanoi, built between 1900 and 1906 to house the governor-general of Indochina
The oil painting Les Mandarins et les Autorites Françaises Attendant L’Arrivee de l’Empereur Thanh Thai, 1903.
A report by the Viện cơ mật on the financial and military aid given by the Nguyễn dynasty to Great France in the year Khải Định 2 (1917). Note how the document ends with the phrases Đại Pháp vạn tuế, Đông Dương vạn tuế (大法萬歲, 東洋萬歲).
A 1920 report by the Sûreté générale indochinoise on Nguyễn Tất Thành (阮必誠), who would later be known as Hồ Chí Minh (胡志明).
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