ANNAM, (Nhan-nam, Peace of the South). The central division of French Indo China and formerly the designation of an inde pendent empire, which included the provinces of Annam. Tongking and Cochin China. It em braces the greater part of the east coast of Indo China (washed by the South China Sea), and stretches from Cochin China on the south to Tongking on the north, its southernmost point being about lat. 10° 30' N. and its northern extremity about lat. 20° 30'. at the delta of the Song-koi or Red River. On the west it is bound ed by the country of the Laos, Siam and Cam bodia. The area is about 50.000 square miles. The much larger figures until recently current for the area have been curtailed by the organiza tion of the French Laos country. The coast. about 750 miles long, is deeply indented and fringed with many islets.
Annam is traversed throughout its entire length from north to south by a mountain chain which slopes precipitously toward the sea, but declines gently toward the Mekong valley in the interior. It reaches in the peak of Pusan an elevation of about 9000 feet. Pu-atuat is about 1000 feet lower. The country has two hydro graphic zones. On the west is the basin of the Mekong; on the east are numerous coast rivers, shallow and nearly impracticable for navigation. The Mekong River rises in Tibet, flows through the extreme south of China, traverses the Indo Chinese peninsula with a rapid current, gather ing many tributaries" on its way, and forms the boundary between Annan] and Siam. It is navi gated by steamboats along the Annam frontier. The largest city and the capital of Annam is IN . The productions of Annam include rice and other cereals, cinnamon, sugar-cane. coffee, tobacco, tea, and cotton. A considerable quan tity of silk is produced, and the forests yield valuable woods. The buffalo is domesticated and used in tillage. The Chinese hog is reared in large numbers. The large game characteristic of the wilds of India abounds in Annam. One of the results following on French ocenpation of the Laos country has been to divert trade from Bang kok in Siam to the Mekong valley and the sea coast. The first commercial caravan coming from Laos arrived at Hue in February, 1895. The principal imports are cotton goods, Chinese taper, machinery, metals. Chinese drugs, petro leum, and tea. The exports consist of sugar, cinnamon, horn, ivory, skins, raw silk, wood. etc. In 1897 the imports amounted to 4,719.149 francs and the exports to 2,552,919 francs. The principal ports of Annam arc Tourane, Fai-fu, Qui-nhon and Xuan-dai.
The government is in theory a monarchy. The king is assisted by a council of six members, though everything is in reality subject to the French resident superior at Hutt, who has a stall' of assistants and a military guard. The country is divided into twelve provinces, each of which is subdivided into fu (departments) and huje (districts). Most of the actual ad ministration of justice and tax collection is under the native officials. Service in the native army, of 10.000 men, who are under French ollicers, is compulsory. The population of An
nan( is estimated at about 5,000.009: by some as high as 6,000,000.
The Annamese comprise at least two different stocks—the rather primitive Mois of the moun tainous interior, and the Annamese proper, both of whom exhibit quite uniform physical types, notwithstanding intermixture with other peoples (Khmers, Malays, Chinese..ete.) in prehistoric and in recent times. The foreign-born popula tion, living chiefly in the towns, comprises 5000 Chinese and 400 Europeans. The Annamese proper are short, rather slenderly built, brochy cephalic, and although belonging, by reason of their monosyllabic speech, to the great group of mankind of which the Chinese are the best known representatives, possess a certain physical indi viduality of their own. They have a swaggering stride or gait, arising from a peculiar structure of the pelvis; and femur and a notable separation of the big toe, or "foot-thumb," from the other toes. Like most of the peoples of this region, they possess strains of Aryan, and, possibly, negroid blood. Annamese culture and folk-lore are largely reflections of Chinese. From China eame also their alphabet, literature. and the form of Buddhism and Confucianism professed by the more enlightened classes. The Annamese are essentially democratic in disposition, and live in patriarchal style, the father having al most absolute authority in his family. About 400,000 of the inhabitants are Catholics. Among the principal towns are 11116, the enpital, Bin dinh Windt, Than-hoa, and Tourane.
Subjected to China, together with Tongking, in the third century B.C. by She Twang Ti. An na' became autonomous under Chinese su zerainty in 1428 A.D. after long and sanguinary wars. In 1789 the ruler of Alumni was able. with French aid, to free himself from subjection to China and to join Tongking and C'oehin China to his empire. This became a field of French in fluence. Under Napoleon 11E, Frame began the establishment of her dominion in Indo-China, by engaging in hostilities with Annam in 1858. In 1862 the Kingwas compelled to cede the principal part of Cochin China to the French, and the rest of that territory was added in 18(17. The French continued to encroach, entered in 1882 upon the conquest of Tongking (of which they became masters in 1885), and the treaty of June 6, 1884, ratified at llt% February 23, 1886, estab lished a French protectorate overAnnam. French troops occupy the citadel of Ifni, and France controls the finances. Prince Bun-Lan. who was proclaimed king in 1889, 111111(.1. the militia. of Than-Thai, attained his majority in 1897.
Ilim.10(111APTIY. Leraye. L'E to p in d' -1 awe in it le people annamitr (1SS9) ; Au pays annninite (Paris. 1898) : Ita•ral, La ea/Hui:cut I km fraacaisc an Tonkin el in Annan( ( Paris, 18!n9) ; Norman. Peoples and Politics of the For East (London. 1895); he Nialn anrien (Paris, 1895) ; Dmnontier, Les symboles ehe.7 les An,aniiies (Paris, 1890) ; and Hannah. Brief History of Eastern Asia (New York, 1900).