French Cochinchina in the context of "Cochinchina campaign"

The Nguyễn dynasty (Vietnamese: Nhà Nguyễn or Triều Nguyễn, chữ Nôm: 茹阮, chữ Hán: 朝阮) was the last Vietnamese dynasty, preceded by the Nguyễn lords and ruling unified Vietnam independently from 1802 until the start of the French protectorate in 1883. Its emperors were members of the House of Nguyễn Phúc. During its existence, the Nguyễn empire expanded into modern-day Southern Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos through a continuation of the centuries-long Nam tiến and Siamese–Vietnamese wars. With the French conquest of Vietnam, the Nguyễn dynasty was forced to give up sovereignty over parts of Southern Vietnam to France in 1862 and 1874, and after 1883 the Nguyễn dynasty only nominally ruled the French protectorates of Annam (Central Vietnam) as well as Tonkin (Northern Vietnam). Backed by Imperial Japan, in 1945 the last Nguyễn emperor Bảo Đại abolished the protectorate treaty with France and proclaimed the Empire of Vietnam for a short time until 25 August 1945.

The House of Nguyễn Phúc established control over large amounts of territory in Southern Vietnam as the Nguyễn lords (1558–1777, 1780–1802) by the 16th century before defeating the Tây Sơn dynasty and establishing their own imperial rule in the 19th century. The dynastic rule began with Gia Long ascending the throne in 1802, after ending the previous Tây Sơn dynasty. The Nguyễn dynasty was gradually absorbed by France over the course of several decades in the latter half of the 19th century, beginning with the Cochinchina Campaign in 1858 which led to the occupation of the southern area of Vietnam. A series of unequal treaties followed; the occupied territory became the French colony of Cochinchina in the 1862 Treaty of Saigon, and the 1863 Treaty of Huế gave France access to Vietnamese ports and increased control of its foreign affairs. Finally, the 1883 and 1884 Treaties of Huế divided the remaining Vietnamese territory into the protectorates of Annam and Tonkin under nominal Nguyễn Phúc rule. In 1887, Cochinchina, Annam, Tonkin, and the French Protectorate of Cambodia were grouped together to form French Indochina.

French Indochina (previously spelled as French Indo-China), officially known as the Indochinese Union and after 1941 as the Indochinese Federation, was a group of French dependent territories in Southeast Asia from 1887 to 1954. It was initially a federation of French colonies (1887–1949), later a confederation of French associated states (1949–1954). It comprised Cambodia, Laos (from 1899), Guangzhouwan (1898–1945), Cochinchina, and Vietnamese regions of Tonkin and Annam. It was established in 1887 and was dissolved in 1954. In 1949, Vietnam was reunited and it regained Cochinchina. Its capitals were Hanoi (1902–1945) and Saigon (1887–1902, 1945–1954).

The Second French Empire colonized Cochinchina in 1862 and established a protectorate in Cambodia in 1863. After the French Third Republic took over northern Vietnam through the Tonkin campaign, the various protectorates were consolidated into one union in 1887. Two more entities were incorporated into the union: the Laotian protectorate and the Chinese territory of Guangzhouwan. The French exploited the resources in the region during their rule, while also contributing to improvements of the health and education system in the region. Deep divides remained between the native population and the colonists, leading to sporadic rebellions by the former.

The French protectorate of Cambodia (Khmer: ប្រទេសកម្ពុជាក្រោមអាណាព្យាបាលបារាំង; French: Protectorat français du Cambodge) refers to the Kingdom of Cambodia when it was a French protectorate within French Indochina, a collection of Southeast Asian protectorates within the French colonial empire. The protectorate was established in 1863 when the Cambodian King Norodom requested the establishment of a French protectorate over his country, meanwhile Siam (modern Thailand) renounced suzerainty over Cambodia and officially recognised the French protectorate on Cambodia.

Cambodia was integrated into the French Indochina union in 1887 along with the French colonies and protectorates in Laos and Vietnam (Cochinchina, Annam, and Tonkin). In 1947, Cambodia was granted self-rule within the French Union and had its protectorate status removed in 1949. Cambodia later gained independence. The day was celebrated as Independence Day on 9 November 1953 led by King Sihanouk and continued to rule as the leader of the nation until he was overthrown in 1970 by the US-led Khmer Republic of Lon Nol in a coup d'état before the rise of Angkar and the Khmer Rouge coming to power on 17 April 1975, following the Fall of Phnom Penh and the end of the Cambodian Civil War.

The Empire of Vietnam was a short-lived puppet state of Imperial Japan between March 11 and August 25, 1945. It was a member of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. It was ruled by the Nguyễn dynasty and created when Emperor Bảo Đại declared independence for Vietnam (Tonkin and Annam) from French protection. At the end of its existence, on 14 August 1945, the empire also successfully reclaimed Cochinchina as part of Vietnam.

The Cochinchina campaign was a series of military operations between 1858 and 1862, launched by a joint naval expedition force on behalf of the French Empire and the Kingdom of Spain against the Nguyễn period Vietnamese state. It was the opening conflict of the French conquest of Vietnam.

Initially a limited punitive expedition against the execution of two Spanish Catholic missionaries in Đại Nam, the ambitious French emperor Napoleon III however, authorized the deployment of increasingly larger contingents, that subdued Đại Nam territory and established French economic and military dominance. The war concluded with the founding of the French colony of Cochinchina and inaugurated nearly a century of French colonial rule in Vietnam in particular and Indochina in general.

The Treaty of Saigon (French: Traité de Saïgon, Vietnamese: Hòa ước Nhâm Tuất, referring to the year of "Water Dog" in the sexagenary cycle) was signed on 5 June 1862 between representatives of the colonial powers, France and Spain, and the last precolonial emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty, Emperor Tự Đức after the coalition's invasion during the Cochinchina campaign. The signatories were Louis Adolphe Bonard (France), Carlos Palanca Gutiérrez (Spain) and Phan Thanh Giản (Vietnam). Based on the terms of the accord, Tự Đức ceded Saigon, the island of Poulo Condor and three southern provinces of what was to become known as Cochinchina (Bien Hoa, Gia Dinh, and Dinh Tuong) to the French. The treaty was confirmed by the Treaty of Huế signed on 14 April 1863.

The Treaty of Huế or Protectorate Treaty (Vietnamese: Hòa ước Giáp Thân 1884, or Hòa ước Patenotre, or Hòa ước Patơnốt) was concluded on 6 June 1884 between France and Đại Nam (Vietnam/Nguyễn dynasty). It restated the main tenets of the punitive Harmand Treaty of 25 August 1883, but softened some of the harsher provisions of this treaty. The treaty created the protectorates of Annam (central Vietnam) and Tonkin (northern Vietnam). It formed the basis of French colonial rule in Vietnam during the next seven decades and was negotiated by Jules Patenôtre, France's minister to China; it is often known as the Patenôtre Treaty. The treaty was signed on the Vietnamese side by Phạm Thận Duật and Tôn Thất Phan, representatives of the emperor Tự Đức’s court. The treaty marked the Nguyễn dynasty's second acceptance of French protectorate in central and northern Vietnam, but it was canceled when the Élysée Accords was signed on 8 March 1949.

Despite the government of the Nguyễn dynasty canceling the treaty with the Japanese help in 1945, the French didn't recognise the end of the protectorates until the signing of the Élysée Accords on 8 March 1949. The treaty officially transferred sovereignty over Vietnam to former emperor Bảo Đại and the Provisional Central Government of Vietnam. The treaty also recognized Vietnamese sovereignty over Cochinchina in the South, which would return to Vietnam on June 4. The formal end of the Patenôtre Treaty was proclaimed during a ceremony at the Saigon-Cholon City Hall attended by the high commissioner of French Indochina Léon Pignon, Chief of State Emperor Bảo Đại, and delegates of the government of the State of Vietnam. During this ceremony Pignon officially renounced French sovereignty over Vietnam and recognised the independence of Vietnam, as an associated state within the French Union on June 14. The treaty led to the establishment of the State of Vietnam and would be completed on 2 February 1950.

Southern Vietnam (Vietnamese: Nam Bộ) is one of the three geographical regions of Vietnam, the other two being Northern and Central Vietnam. It includes 2 administrative subregions, which in turn are divided into 19 First Tier units, of which 17 are provinces and 2 are municipalities.

Known as Nam Bộ today in Vietnamese, it was historically called Gia Định (1779–1832), Nam Kỳ (1832–1945, during Nguyễn's Lục tỉnh and French Cochinchina), Nam Bộ (1945 to the present, encompassing the Empire of Vietnam and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam), and Nam Phần, sometimes Nam Việt (1948–1975, during the State of Vietnam and the Republic of Vietnam). Cochinchina is a historical exonym for this region during the colonial period, which referred to the entire domain of Đàng Trong in the feudal period. A more accurate term for the southern region is Lower Cochinchina, or Basse-Cochinchine in French.