ANNAM, a country of south-east Asia, the eastern coastal belt of the peninsula of Indo-China (see INDO-CHINA, FRENCH), forming a French protectorate with frontiers fixed by treaty (June 6, 1884). It is bounded on the north by Tongking, east and south east by the China sea, south-west by Cochin China, and west by Cambodia and Laos. It is 7 50-800m. long and has an area of nearly S9,000sq.m. Pop. (1932) 5,I19,8o1, with 2,854 Europeans, apart from the military. The north of Annam, with plains really belonging to the delta of the Red river, is but a prolongation of south Tongking; yet Annam has marked characteristics of its own in situation, climate and people, quite 9o% of whom are indigenous.
The country is traversed longitudinally by the Annamese cordillera which extends south from the high mass of Laos and bends eastward, just as the cordillera of Burma bends westward, under the fluence of the Cambodian block between them. A granitic axis is flanked by ancient rocks ; which again have Devonian or boniferous limestone on their flanks, and there are narrow strips of newer rock along the east coast, while the granitic rocks form most of the south coast and some vulcanicity is indicated. The dissection of the cordillera by rivers has produced the general form of a high axis with high ward projecting buttresses that separate successive valleys and actually reach the coast here and there. Broadly, the lower ends of the rivers are often consequent, i.e., at right angles to the high axis, but they have worked back into the cordillera and have subsequent, or tudinal, sections parallel to the axis. As a result of dissection there are fragments of chains in the north and larger plateaux in the south, and some high peaks (Pu Hak, 6,56oft., Pu Atwat, 8,2ooft., Mother and Child, 6,888ft.) delimited by deep valleys. The eral slope to the east is far sharper than that to the west, and the rivers are short, with courses broken by many rapids. The ent parts of the coastal zone Are linked by cols such as the Assam Gate (39oft.) in the north, the Col des Nuages (I ,54of t.) in the centre and the Deo Ca (I,31 oft.) in the south. Apart from the fine Tourane bay the coast has little shelter; it is low and flat to Cape Mui-Dong, which stands out ; beyond this it remains flat and alluvial southward to Cape Chu May. South again it is more irregular, and very irregular in the far south, but the bays there are too open to offer good anchorage.
The climate is monsoonal, but the period of the south-west monsoon (mid-April to the end of August), blowing from the land to the sea, is the dry season, with temperatures averaging 82° to 86°, whereas the period of the north-east monsoon (September to April), blowing off the China sea, is wet in autumn, with tem peratures averaging about 73°. Typhoons are very frequent, coming almost due west from the sea, and usually following a more southerly course when the sun is far south. The rainfall is about loin. per annum.
The cultivation of rice, chiefly in the small deltas along the coast, in some places gives two crops per annum, and constitutes the country's chief harvest. Other vegetable products include maize, tea, tobacco, cotton, precious woods, spices, dyes, drugs and sugar cane. Rubber (Hevea) cultivation occupies about io sq.m. in the south. As the mulberry is indigenous, silkworm rear ing is very old established. Primitive methods of exploitation are being improved ; there are about I 1 sq.m. of mulberry trees with a production of 920,000kg. of cocoons. Annam exported francs worth of raw silk and 1,872,700 francs worth of silk tis sues in 1924. In 1920 there were 461,333 head of cattle in Annam.
There is a coalfield at Nong Son near Tourane. Gold, silver, copper, zinc, lead, iron and other metals are frequently met with in the mountains, and there is an important haematite seam at Thanhhoa. There are also numerous salt works. Fisheries are an important native industry, and dried fish and rice are the main stays of the native diet. Trade is mostly by sea and uses chiefly the port of Tourane (pop. 25,00o). The total tonnage of the port is said to be including the boats of the French com panies : Chargeurs Reunis and Messageries Maritimes. The im ports (49,298,171 francs in 1925) include cotton yarn, cottons, tea, petroleum, paper goods and tobacco. Exports (40,620,041 francs in 1925) are sugar, rice, cotton and silk tissues, cinnamon, tea and paper. The ports of Tourane, Kwi-Nhon and Xuan (Chuan) Day bay are open to European commerce; and the cus toms revenue is ceded to France.
Annam is ruled in theory by its emperor, assisted by the "comat" or secret council, composed of the ministers of the in terior, finance, war, ritual, justice and public works nominated by himself. The French resident superior, at Hue (pop. 6o,611), is the virtual ruler and advises the emperor with the help of a coun cil (conseil de protectorat). Local administration is in the hands of mandarins chosen by competitive examination. In the province of Tourane a French tribunal alone exercises jurisdiction, but it administers native law where natives are concerned. Outside this province native tribunals are maintained. The Annamese village is self-governing. It has its council of notables, forming a sort of oligarchy which, through the medium of a mayor and two subordinates, directs the interior affairs of the community— policing, recruiting, the assignment and collection of taxes, etc.— and has judicial power in less important suits and crimes. More serious cases come within the purview of the an-sat, a judicial auxiliary of the governor. An assembly of notables from villages grouped together in a canton chooses a cantonal representative, who is the mouthpiece of the people and the intermediary be tween the Government and its subjects. The direct taxes, which go to the local budget of Annam, consist primarily of a poll-tax levied on all males over 18 and below 6o years of age, and of a land-tax levied according to the quality and the produce of the holding. Native collaboration in administration is secured to a considerable extent and the French are working for the increase of that collaboration in economic, political and administrative matters. A chamber of representatives of the people was estab lished in 1926. Education is both French and Franco-Annamese and is considerably developed.
The coastal mandarin road, 1,2ookm. long, is the chief means of communication, linking all the chief towns. Vinh in the north is linked by rail with Hanoi, the capital of Tongking, and is the starting place of roads into Laos. Phan-Tiet, Phan-Rang, with irrigated areas near by, and Nha-Trang are linked by rail with Saigon, the capital of Cambodia. Bhin-Dinh, the largest town, has 70,00o people, and is near the open port of Kwi-Nhon. Tourane has a railway to Hue and beyond, towards Dong-Hoi. Fai-Fo is a little south of Tourane.
History.—Theancient tribe of the Giao-Chi, on the confines of South China and in what is now Tongking and northern Annam, are regarded by the Annamese as their ancestors, and tradition ascribes to their first rulers descent from the Chinese imperial family. These sovereigns were succeeded by another dynasty, during whose rule, at the end of the 3rd century B.C., the Chinese invaded the country, and eventually established there a supremacy destined to last, with little interruption, till the loth century A.D. In 968 Dinh-Bo-Lanh succeeded in ousting the Chinese and founded an independent dynasty of Dinh. Till this period the greater part of Annam had been occupied by the Chams, a nation of Hindu civilization, which has left many monu ments to testify to its greatness, but the encroachment of the Annamese during the next six centuries at last left to it only a small territory in the south of the country. About 1407 Annam again fell under the Chinese yoke. In 1428 an Annamese general Le-Loi succeeded in freeing the country once more, and founded a dynasty which lasted till the end of the i8th century. During the greater part of this period, however, the titular sovereigns were mere puppets, the real power being in the hands of the fam ily of Trinh in Tongking and that of Nguyen in southern Annam, which in 1568 became a separate principality under the name of Cochin-China. Towards the end of the i8th century a rebellion overthrew the Nguyen, but one of its members, Gia-long, by the aid of a French force, in 1801 acquired sway over the whole of Annam, Tongking and Cochin-China. This force was procured for him by Pigneau de Behaine, bishop of Adran, who saw in the political condition of Annam a means of establishing French in fluence in Indo-China. Before this, in 1787, Gia-long had con cluded a treaty with Louis XVI., whereby in return for a promise of aid he ceded Tourane and Pulo-Condore to the French. That treaty marks the beginning of French influence in Indo-China (q.v.).
See also Legrand de la Liraye, Notes historiques sur la nation anna mite 0866?) ; E. Sombsthay, Cours de legislation et d'administration annamites (1898) ; C. Gosselin, L'Empire d'Annam (19o4)•