FRENCH INDO-CHINA. History.— 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 is in no sense a compensation to be disdained. A colony which is half as large again as the area of France, with a population estimated at 16,000, 000, of which 30,000 are French, which is situated at the very door of China — that in comparable market with a population of 400, 000,000— is a colony of very great value and justifies, despite its infancy, all the hopes which have been lavished on it. As has been quite rightly stated, it was not a war of 100 years but a slow penetration of Frenchmen into Indo-China extending over a century., However, the real conquest is of quite recent date. In 1870, Cochin-China and Cambodia alone belonged to France. Tonkin, Annam and Laos c.
were acquired under the Republic Here again a fortunate coincidence obliged France to take action : its ministers, with the exception of Jules Ferry, who had a clear in sight into the future, followed not without un easiness the ritlines of fate. 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 Gialong, to have recourse to Louis XIV's aid against the Chinese. This premier interven tion resulted in the signing of the Treaty of Versailles between Louts XIV and the son of Gialong in 1687, and by which France received the Bay of Tourane and the island of Paulo Gondore. 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 Hui 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 be came 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 mission aries; this was followed in 1858 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 Cochin China. 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. A few years later (1867), Admiral Grandiere completed the con quest of Cochin-China by seizing all the im portant places and the Emperor Tu-Duc sur rendered at the Temple of Plumg-Tien, repent ing and declaring himself guilty of "having neglected to perform my 'duties and having been incapable of preserving the patrimony of my forefathers intact?' Thus the six provinces of the Mekong Delta were definitely occupied and Cochin-China became a French possession.
Already, in April 1863, King Norodom, in order to be freed from the harsh vassalage of Sian and Annam — anxious to exploit the Cambodia country — had signed a protectorate treaty with Admiral Grandiere. But larger schemes were conceived and at the time when the English were seeking a trade route to China via Irawaddy or the Salouen, the French wondered if the Mekong, by the very length of its course, would not open up a still easier way. The Doudard de Lagree mission soon found out, however, that this large river was not particularly practicable for penetrating into the Chinese Empire. It was a Trench merchant named Jean Dupuis who discovered a shorter route, the Red River, which led directly to the province of Yunnan, one of the richest and most densely populated of southern China. However, Jean Dupuis was molested by the Tonkin mandarins and Lieut. Francis Gamier was dispatched to Tonkin with 80 men to settle the incident, with the help of a high official of the Court of Hue. As a result of the bad faith of the mandarins he decided, despite the small forces at his disposal, to attack the citadel of Hanoi, which he took on 20 Nov. 1873 after a brilliant battle. In 20 days he was master of the whole of the Red River Delta; but the Annamites were not long in reacting, all the more so as they had the superiority in num bers; Francis Gamier was lured to his death on 21 Dec. 1873. Hostilities ceased at the begin ning of 1874 on the arrival of Lieut. de Vaisseau Philastre who signed a disastrous treaty with the court of Hue by which France lost Tonkin, merely retaining a few commercial and diplomatic rights in Annam. The signing of this treaty assured relative tranquillity for a few years. But little by little the hostility of the Annamite mandarins to the French grew to alarming proportions and the emperor of China declared that he would not recognize the treaty of 1874. Commandant Riviere, who was appointed to bring them once more to reason, committed the same sublime stupidity of his predecessor, Francis Gamier, only to meet the latter's fate at Nam Dinh where he was en deavoring to repel the multitudes who were besieging it. The prestige of France had re ceived a serious set-back. By unanimous de cision the Chamber of Deputies decided °to avenge the glorious servitors of France' and the, necessary credits were voted. But the campaign, carried out on the system of °small drafts,' was long and costly and the country understood but little the importance of colonial expansion. It required all the eloquence and civic courage of a Jules Ferry, backed by the dauntlessness of the army and navy, to secure this flourishing colonial empire for France.