Imperialism Investigation
Question: How were the Vietnamese treated by the French when they were invaded? What did
the French do and implement to Vietnam + other parts of Indochina?
Steps:
1. First I looked at the map of India’s Invasion from France, Britain and more. I thought that
since I was focused more on Britain’s conquering in Nigeria, Africa, I decided that this
time my focus was going to be in France’s Indochina. I chose the French Indochina
because the name itself was interesting as Indonesia + China?(a guess)
2. I searched Indochina French Imperialism and I found this good, credible-looking article
from Alpha History. https://alphahistory.com/vietnamwar/french-colonialism-in-vietnam/
the information was good as in the end, it even gave the 5 key points from that analysis,
so I started to read through it and summarize key points. (This time I made sure not to
include information not needed, but only the ones that were important to this
investigation.
3. Then, I was sort of confused as the website didn’t say what countries were part of
indochina in the first sentence, so I searched on google and these countries came up Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia. (That explains why the first website was talking about
Vietnam)
4. I wanted to find out what the civilizing mission in Vietnam was, as I wasn’t quite clear on
it .I looked up what was the civilising mission of vietnam, and a website from
https://brainly.in/question/3028237 came up. I decided that what the website said made
sense, as civilising - making the country more civilised, more modern.
5. While I was reading, the word Nguyen came up. I didn’t know what that word meant so I
looked it up, and it said it was a common name for Vietnamese Families
6. Another word I came across was proto capitalist system, so I googled that, and
according to Yourdictionary.com, it was “any early system of trade from which modern
capitalism ultimately derives.” (capitalism - political system of trade that isn’t controlled
by government, but by private owners)
7. The first source I used was the main source that I was going to use for the base of my
investigation. Then, I decided to look in the book, and found a few paragraphs in page
363. The paragraphs were descriptive in how the French even helped the Nguyen, while
the website didn’t include that.
8. I looked up indochina french imperialism again, and I scrolled down and found two good
sources. One was a Microsoft Word document which included a lot of positive aspects of
the French in Indochina and Vietnam.
9. The other source was good as well because it included chronological order of how
events happened, which is something key because it shows organizing. Plus, i can also
relate and implement what I learned in other sources to the order of events.
10. I also wanted to find another source that was sort of connected to the source with the
Chronological order, a video showing what the website said, which is source 5.
Source
https://alphahistory.com
/vietnamwar/french-colo
nialism-in-vietnam/
What I learned from the Source
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French Colonization in Vietnam - +6 decades! First
fully controlled Vietnam in 1880s
French Controlled - Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia called Indochine Français. (French Indochina)
Part of French Empire along with the Caribbean
islands and the Pacific
French developed their “own principle - the “mission
civilisatrice” - civilising mission.
○ French form of making the country modern
(looked up on
https://brainly.in/question/3028237)
The reason why the French thought that they should
colonise parts of Africa and Asia was because of
introducing social reforms, “modern political ideas,
industrial methods and new technologies.”
The french also thought that without them going to
Asia and Africa, the places would remain uncivilised
and not up to date.
ALTHOUGH, that civilised mission was thought to be
a facade, hiding a real motive from the french, which
was them having to profit economically (making the
connection between the other sources I found on the
other investigation, that said the main reason for
Europe’s countries to go to Asia and Africa was for
economic growth)
○ “ So long as it (Indochina) remained in
French hands and open to French economic
interests, the French government was
satisfied.”
“French imperialism was driven by a demand for
resources, raw materials and cheap labour.”
Developing the Asian colonised nations, was barely
considered, but it was when it was a profit for the
French
More brutal than the British colonisation.
The political management of the place was left to 20
governors that Paris sent in the span of 45 years.
○ Each governor had different perspectives
and attitudes
The governors, officials and bureaucrats and more
that were French had a lot of authority, were
identified to have a lot more power than they actually
had.
○ Lead to a lot of corruption, and self-interest.
Nguyen emperors (Vietnamese in charge) were the
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figureheads, but they really didn’t have a lot of
political power.
“To minimise local resistance, the French employed
a ‘divide rule’ strategy.”
○ Nation separated in 3 provinces
■ Tonkin - north
■ Annam - Center
■ Cochinchina - south
(each were managed separately.)
No national identity
Using the name Vietnam, was illegal when france
was in control
Profit was reason of French Colonisation
Vietnam economy transformed to proto-capitalist
system
Vietnamese worked for the Benefit of the French
The french reorganized lands into plantations
Farmers from distant villages were taken to work for
the plantations
4 times more land in 20 years after 1880 only for rice
Southern vietnam had 25 plantations for rubber
○ 60,000 tonnes of rubber was supplied from
Indochina
Mines were built for coal, zinc and tin deposits
○ Coal and the others were sold to places
outside of Vietnam
Almost all of the profits went to the French
capitalists, officials and investors.
The workers in plantations worked really long hours
and wages were too small
Malnutrition and many diseases were factors of
working in plantation especially the ones working for
the plantation of rubber
○ “It was not uncommon for plantains to have
several workers die in a single day.”
The French manufacturer Michelin owner of some
plantation - had 17,000 deaths recorded.
Farmers, male farmers were required to complete 30
days of building government roads, and other
buildings unpaid.
Also (as expected) the french taxed the Vietnamese
with too much
○ Stamp duties - on many documents (similar
to the stamp act!)
○ Poll tax
○ Weighing agricultural goods
○ Rice wine and salt
Before the french invasion, the vietnamese made
their own rice, and took their own salt - but by 1990s,
they could ONLY be bought through the French
outlets with large prices
● ONLY from rice wine, opium and salt - there were
600 million + francs per year (equal to 5 million
dollars today)
Although, most things said were negative, there were some
benefits to the Vietnamese
● Education:
○ French missionaries opened primary schools
in both languages
○ University of Hanoi - opened by colonists
○ Some Viet students were given scholarships
to study abroad in France
■ Only available in cities
○ Children of farmers and peasants - “little or
no attempt to educate”
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Negative aspects
● Some historical buildings and temples were
destroyed because French styled buildings needed
to be built
● Banking, and trade was taught in french
The book (pg 363)
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French had an active participation in Southeast asia
since 17th century
Helped the Nguyen dynasty + power
In 1840s - rule of “an anti.Christian Vietnamese
Emperor, 7 french missionaries were killed. Church
leaders and capitalists who wanted a larger share of
the overseas market demanded military
intervention.” Then, Napoleon the 3rd demanded the
French army to take over Southern Vietnam. After
that, Laus, northern vietnam and Cambodia were
added to the territory.
French had important position in the government
bureaucracy
○ Didn’t encourage local industry
Peasants consumption in rice didn’t increase as
most of the rice was exported to other places in the
world.
https://infogram.com/fre
nch-imperialism-in-indo
china-vietnam-1gzxop4
8j3oy2wy
http://www.digitalhistory.
uh.edu/teachers/lesson
_plans/pdfs/unit12_1.pd
f
Benefits for Vietnamese Society:
Social Impact
1. Education - primary schools
2. Hanoi University - 1902 - but the education was
mostly focused on French culture
Timeline (Something needed)
1848 - French control on Vietnam
1882 - France lost the Franco Prussian war - unable to
manage Vietnam
1883 - regain control of Indochina
1939 - World war 2 begins - France was one of a few first
countries involved since the beginning of the war
One year later 1940 - Japan was in control of Vietnam
1941 - The Vietnamese form a communist party - for
Japan’s attacks in World war II
1945 - Nazi party surrenders - world war II ends
VIETNAM DECLARES INDEPENDENCE
1946 - Indochina war begins
1959 - 2nd war begins
1975 - France Surrenders! South Vietnam is back
connected to the North
Vietnam becomes its own country (nationalism!)
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France conquered Indochina gradually for 350 years
by extending little by little the control they had over
Vietnam Laos and Cambodia
Changes the French made to Vietnam:
They built railroads for vietnam to connect them with
major cities (Something both sides were proud of
was the railroad from northern capital, Hanoi to the
largest city in Southern Vietnam, Saignon
Trucks and Cars were imported from the French
Electricity to Vietnam
Hanoi and Saigon were more modern with parks and
wide streets, restaurants,(hotels as well, some are
still used today!)
Law and Medical schools and colleges for medicine
practice were built
“The French installed their own legal system in
Vietnam which was based on the famous
Napoleonic Codes.” That was something positive
because the old system was from hundreds of years
ago
Ex. “women accused of adultery were trampled to
death by elephants,” people guilty of robbery got
their head chopped off. The French introduced
reduction of penalties because their system was
more humane than the one of the Vietnamese. (That
meant that the French ran it, so there would be
French courts, French lawyers and judges.”
8. Schools in Vietnam after the French learned the
Roman Alphabet rather than the Chinese Characters
9. 20% of males were educated
https://youtu.be/NqCcD
J0ovCE
This was a concluding video which related to the third
source about chronological order of the Invasion of
French Indochina to Japan, for what happened after
it was Invaded by France.
Reflection:
I think what was better than the other investigation, and what went well overall was my research
skills. I was able to find 3 VERY strong sources,which were websites as they included a lot of
useful information. The book didn’t really include a lot, but it was still very helpful for the
background information on Indochina. I think that what also went well was improving from the
other investigation and only taking information I needed and I think are going to be helpful for
the essay, and helpful to know as ideas.
Although, there are a few things I should improve on. One thing, is to also, be more balanced in
terms of sources having around the same amount of information. Another thing is trying to make
notes on things that I found in the sources that were similar with each other, because then, I’ll
know that what the sources said are more credible.