Ashley Walker
Indochina is a region on the Indochinese Peninsula which is near Thailand, Burma, and China and is surrounded by the Gulf of Thailand, the South China Sea, and the Gulf of Tonkin. It is made up of the three states of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. It is called Indochina because of the cultural mixing between the Indian and Chinese in the region. Indochina is also sometimes known as French Indochina because of its history as a French colony. Starting around the late 1840s and ending around early 1890s, the French gradually took over Vietnam and added Laos and Cambodia to it to create what they called French Indochina. In order to control French Indochina, the French then established the first Indochinese Union. This is an example of imperialism- a larger, more powerful country taking over a smaller, less powerful country.The people living in the Indochina region did not approve of the French, however. When the French had taken control, the Nguyen dynasty had been in power in Vietnam for a while. One of the distinguishing characteristics of the Nguyen dynasty was that it was strongly opposed to foreign missionaries. This, in fact, was one of the roots of the conflict between the Vietnamese and French. Most of the emperors of Vietnam were anti-Christian and many French missionaries were put to death in Vietnam. This angered the French and gave them a reason to invade Vietnam. The French were able to take over only Cochinchina (the eastern province), at first, while the Nguyen dynasty remained in control over the central and northern parts of Vietnam, but these parts of Vietnam eventually fell to the French and became colonies too. After the French took over Vietnam, they combined it with Laos and Cambodia and called the resulting territory French Indochina.
The French used direct rule to control French Indochina and had only Frenchmen in authoritative positions of government. The French rule was generally not in favor of the people and the descisions made by the French government typically did not improve condition for the people, though they did get somewhat improved health care and education. Other than this, the improvements in French Indochina mostly benfitted the French. So, like most types of imperialism, the French control in Indochina was only beneficial to the larger country (France). Eventually, Indochina received its independence, but it wasn't until after World War 2 that they were granted even partial independence.
