Persecution of Christian missionaries in Vietnam led France and Spain to declare war on the Vietnamese, ending Vietnamese independence and creating French Indochina.
Angered by Tu Duc’s blatant policy on persecuting and executing Christian missionaries
During negotiations, brief clashes erupted between French and Vietnamese forces. Fearing a Vietnamese attack, French forces prepared for battle, eventually destroying harbor forts. Two years of relative peace ensued while French forces attended to the Second Opium War
Unfortunately for Vietnam, French forces were positioned off the coast of China and available for retaliation. The execution of Diaz offended the Christian French, hardening their resolve to control Vietnam. Eager for revenge, Spain united with France, sending Catholic Filipinos to fight in Vietnam. Spain specifically wanted Tongking as payment for the execution of Diaz. In August, 1858, a French and Spanish force of fourteen war vessels and three thousand men appeared off Da Nang. Within forty-eight hours, the European forces landed and took Da Nang. Their victory stemmed primarily from the inadequate weaponry of the Vietnamese, who used eighteenth century cannon. With the fall of Da Nang, the French were hoping for a Christian-led rebellion in Tongking. The rebellion did not occur, and the French planned on marching to Hue, the imperial capital. The French forces were not prepared for the harsh conditions of the tropics, and the Vietnamese forces were able to hold the French at bay.
The French did not have the necessary provisions to fight, and rather than wait for supplies, Admiral Charles Rigault de Genouilly changed his tactic and instead sailed for Gia Dinh in February, 1859, to attack from the south, despite Spanish protest. Admiral de Genouilly attacked the city and took it in one week. Gia Dinh was a fertile rice area, and with its capture the French were able to feed the troops for an extended amount of time. However, they still were short on some supplies, and in April, Genouilly left some troops garrisoned in Gia Dinh and headed back to Da Nang to join the troops he had left. Genouilly found the situation at Da Nang the same as it was at Gia Dinh.
A major clash between French and Vietnamese forces occurred in May, and, despite the overwhelming French advantage, cholera
After Genouilly had left troops in Gia Dinh, the French force was plagued with constant attacks by the Vietnamese. A Vietnamese force of twelve thousand men descended on Gia Dinh in mid-1860, but superior weaponry made up for being outnumbered. In February, 1861, Admiral Leonard V. J. Charner brought reinforcements of seventy ships and three thousand men up the Dong Nai River to Gia Dinh. With these forces and modern weapons, the French maintained control and forced the Vietnamese to evacuate from around the city. The French took My Tho, Gia Dinh province, and parts of Bien Hoa and Go Cong provinces in May. Charner sought to negotiate with Hue, but Tu Duc still had hope of ousting France. Guerrilla fighting against France increased, and after France unilaterally annexed Gia Dinh in July, the Vietnamese attacked. However, the French were stronger and their counterattack in early 1862 resulted in the control of all of Baria and Bien Hoa provinces, including the fertile rice region of the Delta islands.
The island fortress of Vinh Long, which also happened to be one of the richest rice producing areas, fell to the French in March. Faced with the loss of food supplies and a Christian rebellion in the north, Tu Duc opened negotiations with France and signed the Treaty of Saigon (1862)
Despite agreeing to the treaty, Tu Duc had no desire to ratify it. The documents were delayed en route to Vietnam, and Tu Duc took this opportunity to again try to oust the French. Tu Duc tried to exploit the differences between France and Spain, but his attempts failed. Under the threat of aiding the rebels in Tongking, France forced Tu Duc to ratify the Treaty of Saigon in April, 1863.
The Treaty of Saigon, in addition to giving the Vietnamese provinces, also gave France Vietnamese territories. Because Vietnam claimed suzerainty over Cambodia
Ang Duong’s successor, Norodom
Vietnam had been able to remain independent for nine hundred years, fighting off China and other Asian powers. With the age of imperialism, however, European countries such as Britain, France, Portugal, and Spain sought to expand their empires, increase trade, and Christianize other countries.
France’s emperor, Napoleon III, was particularly interested in expanding his empire to rival that of Napoleon Bonaparte’s, and he felt that a military post in Asia was an imperial necessity. In an effort to secure that post, Napoleon III involved French troops with the Second Opium
The Treaty of Saigon marked the end of Vietnam’s independence and the rise of French Indochina, beginning a colonial period that did not end until the First Indochina War began (1946; ended 1954). Without the persecution of the Christian missionaries, Napoleon
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Chapuis, Oscar. A History of Vietnam. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1995. General history of Vietnam that places Tu Duc’s reign in a larger context. -
_______. The Last Emperors of Vietnam: From Tu Duc to Bao Dai. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2000. A discussion of the emperors of Vietnam during the country’s status as a French protectorate. The book focuses more on the actions and motives of the emperors than on the war itself. -
Sardesai, D. R. Vietnam: Past and Present. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 2005. A detailed discussion of the history of Vietnam with an emphasis on colonial expansion, the colonial period, and the rise of nationalism in Vietnam. -
Tarling, Nicholas, ed. From c. 1800 to the 1930’s. Vol. 2, part 1 in The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. A detailed analysis of the war with a discussion on the motives of the Europeans, the political atmosphere in Europe, and how those two factors affected the colonization of Southeast Asia. -
Tate, D. J. M. The Making of Modern South-East Asia: The European Conquest. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Oxford University Press, 1977. A detailed discussion of the war from many angles, with an emphasis on events and their dates.
First Opium War
Second Opium War
China’s Self-Strengthening Movement Arises
French Indochina War
Korean Military Mutinies Against Japanese Rule
Sino-Japanese War
Scramble for Chinese Concessions Begins
Boxer Rebellion
Gia Long; Ho Xuan Huong; Napoleon III; Tu Duc.