User:Donald Trung/World War I in French Indo-China (August 2022 expansion)

This page serves as "the editing history" of the English Wikipedia page "French Indochina" and is preserved for attribution.
 * https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/1105100294...1105776768 ✅. --Donald Trung (talk) 19:11, 21 August 2022 (UTC).

19th century
Beginning in the 1880s there was a rise of an explicitly anti-Catholic French administration in French Indochina. The administration would try to reduce Catholic missionary influence in French Indochinese society, as opposed to the earlier decades where missionaries played an important role in both administration and society in French Cochinchina.

Anti-French revolts in the early 20th century
While during the early 20th century calm was supposed to reign as the French had "pacified" the region, but constant uprisings contesting French rule characterised French Indochina this period. “There is ample evidence of the rural populations’ involvement in revolts against authority during the first 50 years of the French colonial presence in Cambodia.” The French Sûreté was worried about the Japanese victory during the Russo-Japanese War and its lasting impression on the East as it was considered to be the first victory of “a yellow people over the white”, as well as the fall of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty to the Xinhai Revolution which established the Republic of China. These events all had significant influence on nationalist sentiments in the territories of French Indochina.

The early 20th century saw a number of secret societies launch rebellions in Cochinchina, the Peace and Duty Society (Nghia Hoa Doan Hoi) was introduced to the region by the Minh Hương refugees following the Manchu conquest of China and the Vietnamese Heaven and Earth Society (天地會, Thiên Địa Hội). The Peace and Duty Society was also active supporting anti-Qing insurgents in China.

The majority of the traditional mandarin elites would continue to operate under the French protectorate being loyal to their new rulers, but as early period of the Pháp thuộc saw an influx of French enterprises significant changes to the social order of the day inspired new forms of resistance against French rule that differed from the earlier Cần Vương Movement. The new social circumstances in French Indochina were brought about by the establishment of industrial companies by the French such as the Union commerciale indochinoise, the Est Asiatique français shipping company, the Chemin de fer français de l’Indochine et du Yunan railway company, as well as the various coal exploitation companies operating in Tonkin, these modern companies were accompanied by an influx of French tea, coffee, and rubber plantation magnates.

Following the defeat of the Nguyễn loyalist Cần Vương Movement a new generation of anti-French resistance emerged, rather than being rooted in the traditional mandarin elites the new anti-French resistance leaders of the early 20th century were more influenced by international events and revolutions abroad to inspire their resistance and the issue of modernisation. Some Vietnamese revolutionaries like Phan Châu Trinh traveled to the Western World (Đi Tây) to obtain the “keys” to modernity and hope to bring these back to Vietnam. While others like the revolutionary leader Phan Bội Châu made the “Journey to the East” (Đông Du) to the Japanese Empire which they say as the other role-model of modernisation for Vietnam to follow. The Đông Du school of revoluties was supported by Prince Cường Để, a direct descendant of the Gia Long Emperor. Prince Cường Để hoped that by financing hundreds of young ambitious Vietnamese people to go get educated in Japan that this would contribute to the liberation of his country from French domination.

The Duy Tân Hội was founded in 1904 by Phan Bội Châu and Prince Cường Để. The group in a broader sense was also considered a Modernisation Movement. This new group of people was comprised only of a few hundred people, with most of its members being either students or nationalists. Notable members of the society included Gilbert Trần Chánh Chiêu. The members of the Duy Tân Hội would establish a network of commercial enterprises to both gain capital to finance their activities and to hide their true intentions. A number of other anti-French organisations would support the Duy Tân Hội such as the Peace and Duty Society and the Heaven and Earth Society.

The Tonkin Free School (Đông Kinh Nghĩa Thục), which was created in Hanoi in 1907 by the supporters of both Phan Châu Trinh and Phan Bội Châu was closed in the year of its founding by the French authorities because it was perceived as being anti-French. The Tonkin Free School stemmed from the movement of the same name, which aimed to modernise Vietnamese society by abandoning Confucianism and adopting new ideas from both the Western world and Japan. In particular, it promoted the Vietnamese version of the Latin script for writing Vietnamese in place of classical Chinese by publishing educational materials and newspapers using this script, as a new vehicle of instruction. The schools offered free courses to anyone who wanted to learn about the modern spirit. The teachers at the school at 59 Hàng Đàn included Phạm Duy Tốn.

in the years prior to World War I the French arrested thousands of people with some being sentenced to death and others being imprisoned at the Poulo Condore jail island (Côn Sơn Island). Because of this Côn Sơn Island would become the best school for political prisoners, nationalists, and communists, as they were gathered together in large, common cells which allowed them to exchange their ideas.

In March 1908, mass demonstrations took place against the authorities demanding a reduction of the high taxes took place in the French protectorates of Annam and Tonkin.

In June 1908, the Hanoi Poison Plot took place where a group of Tonkinese indigenous tirailleurs attempted to poison the entire French colonial army's garrison in the Citadel of Hanoi. The aim of the plot was to neutralise the French garrison and make way for Commander Đề Thám's rebel army to capture the city of Hanoi. The plot was disclosed, and then was suppressed by the French. In response the French proclaimed martial law. The French accused Phan Châu Trinh and Phan Bội Châu of the plot, Phan Châu Trinh was sent to Poulo Condor, and Phan Bội Châu fled to Japan and thence, in the year 1910, he went to China. In the years 1912 and 1913 Vietnamese nationalists organised attacks in Tonkin and Cochinchina.

Using diplomatic pressure the French persuaded the Japanese to banish the Duy Tân Hội in 1909 from its shores causing them to seek refuge in Qing China, here they would join the ranks of Sun Yat-Sen's Tongmenghui. While places like Guangdong, Guangxi, and Yunnan were earlier in the French sphere of influence in China, these places would now become hosts of anti-French revolutionary activities due to their borders with Tonkin and Laos, being the primary places of operation for both Chinese and Vietnamese revolutionaries. This allowed for members of the Duy Tân Hội to perform border raids on both Tonkin and Laos from their bases in China.

In March 1913 the mystic millenarist cult leader Phan Xích Long organised an independence demonstration in Cholon which was attended by 600 peasants dressed in white robes. Phan Xích Long claimed descent of the deposed Hàm Nghi Emperor and the Ming dynasty's emperor and declared himself to be the "Emperor of the Ming dynasty".

The year 1913 also saw the Duy Tân Hội's second insurrection campaign, this campaign resulted in the society's members murdering two French Hanoi police officers, attacks on both militia and the military, and the execution of a number of Nguyễn dynasty mandarins that were accused of working together with the French government. Another revolt also broke out in Cochinchina in 1913 where prisons and administrative hubs were attacked by crowds of hundreds of peasants using sticks and swords to fight the French, as the French were armed with firearms a large number of protesters ended up dying by gunshot wounds causing the protests to break up ending the revolt.

During the early 20th century the French protectorate over Cambodia was challenged by rebels, just before it saw three separate revolts during the early reign of King Norodom, who had little authority outside Phnom Penh.

During the early 20th century Laos was considered to be the most “docile” territory as it saw relatively little uprisings. The French attributed this to them being more stable rulers than the Siamese who had ruled over them for a century before the establishment of the French protectorate over their country. Both the traditional elite and the Laotian peasantry seemed largely content with French rule during this period. Despite this, sporadic revolts occurred in Laos during the late 19th century and early 20th century. During the late 19th century Southern Laos saw upland minority communities rising up in revolt, these were led by Bac My and Ong Ma on the Bolaven Plateau, who demanded the restoration of the “old order” and led an armed insurrection against the French until as late as 1936. The Phu Mi Bun Revolt revolt erupted in 1901 and was not suppressed until 1907. It was a “major rebellion by local Lao Theung tribes (the Alak, Nyaheun and Laven) against French domination". Though there is not extensive literature on these particular revolutionary revolts in the Bolaven Plateau, one can see that the native communities desired to rid the region of the extensive and overpowering influence of their colonisers.

World War I


The French entry into World War I saw thousands of volunteers, primarily from the French protectorates of Annam and Tonkin, enlist for service in Europe, around $7/8$ of all French Indochinese serving in Europe were Annamese and Tonkinese volunteers. This period also saw a number of uprisings in Tonkin and Cochinchina. French Indochina contributed significantly to the French war effort in terms of funds, products and human resources.

Prior to World War I the population of French Indochina stood at around 16,395,000 in 1913 with 14,165,000 being Vietnamese (Tonkinese, Annamese and Cochinchinese), 1,600,000 Cambodians, and 630,000 Laotians. These 16.4 million subjects were ruled over by only around 18,000 French civilians, militaries, and civil servants.

During this period Governor-General of French Indochina Albert Sarraut promised a new policy of association and a "Franco-Annamese Collaboration" (French: Collaboration franco-annamite; Vietnamese: Pháp-Việt Đề huề) for the wartime contribution by the French Indochinese to their colonial masters. However, beside some liberal reforms, the French administration actually increased economic exploitation and ruthless repression of nationalist movements which rapidly resulted in a disappointment of the promises made by Sarraut.

During the early days of the war around 6 million Frenchmen were drafted causing a severe labour shortage in France. In response, the Undersecretary of State for Artillery and Munitions proposed to hire women, European immigrants, and French colonial subjects, these people were later followed with Chinese immigrants. From 1915 onwards, the French war effort’s manpower needs started to rise significantly. Initially the French maintained a racial hierarchy where they believed in "martial races" making the early recruitment fall onus primarily on North Africa and French West Africa, but soon the need for additional manpower forced the French to recruit men from the Far East and Madagascar. Almost 100,000 Vietnamese were conscripts and went to Europe to fight and serve on the French battlefront, or work as labourers. Vietnamese troops also served in the Balkans and the Middle Eastern front. This exceptional human mobility offered the French Indochinese, mostly Vietnamese, the unique opportunity of directly access to social life and political debates that were occuring in contemporary France and this resulted in their aspirations to become “masters of their own destiny” to increase. Exposed to new political ideals and returning to a colonial occupation of their own country (by a ruler that many of them had fought and died for), resulted in some sour attitudes. Many of these troops sought out and joined the Vietnamese nationalist movement focused on overthrowing the French.

In 1925 Communist and anti-French activist Nguyễn Ái Quốc (later known as Hồ Chí Minh) wrote "taken in chains, confined in a school compound... Most of them will never again see the sun of their country" and a number of historians like Joseph Buttinger and Martin Murray, treated his statement by Nguyễn Ái Quốc as an article of faith and believed that the Vietnamese men who participated in World War I were "forcibly recruited" by means of "terrorism", later historians would claim that the recruitment enterprise employed during this period was only “ostensibly voluntary”. While there is some truth to these claims, the vast majority of the men who volunteered for service in Europe were indeed volunteers. Among the motivations of volunteering were both personal and economic ambitions, some French Indochinese volunteers wished to see what the world looked like "beyond the bamboo hedges in their villages" while others preferred the money and the opportunity to see what France actually looks like. Their service would expose them to the brutality of modern Warfare and many would change their perception about many social norms and beliefs at home because of their experiences abroad.

Of the 93,000 French Indochinese soldiers and workers who came to Europe, most were from the poorest parts of Annam and Tonkin, which had been badly hit by famine and cholera, a smaller number (1,150) of French Indochinese soldiers and workers came from Cambodia. In Northeast France around 44,000 Vietnamese troops served in direct combat functions at both the Battle of the Vosges and the Battle of Verdun. French Indochinese battalions were also used in various logistics functions such as serving as drivers to transport soldiers to the front lines, stretcher bearers (brancardiers), or road crews. Vietnamese soldiers were also used to "sanitise" battle fields at the end of the war, where they would perform these duties in the middle of the cold European winters without being provided with warm clothes, in order to let the (White) French soldiers return to their homes earlier.

The financial expenses of the 93,000 French Indochinese labourers and soldiers sent to France during the war – salaries, pensions, family allocations, the levy in kind (mostly rice), and even the functioning of the Indochinese hospital – were entirely financed from the budget of French Indochina itself and not from France.

One of the effects of World War I on French Indochinese society was the introduction of a vibrant political press both in French and in the indigenous languages that led to the political radicalisation of a new generation of nationalists. Because most of the indigenous people that served in France and the rest of Europe during the War were Vietnamese these social and political developments affected the Vietnamese more. Because French Cochinchina was a direct French colony it enjoyed favourable legislation concerning the press which fostered a public sphere of oppositional political activism. Although these developments occurred throughout French Indochina they were more strongly felt in Cochinchina due to its more open society.

The French Indochinese in Europe experienced much more egalitarian social relations which were strongly contrasted with the racial hierarchy they experienced at home. In France the French Indochinese serving often engaged in comradery with the French and many had romantic relationships with French women, the latter being unthinkable in their home countries.

During this period the French protectorates of Annam and Tonkin were initially ruled by the Duy Tân Emperor. However in 1916, the Duy Tân Emperor was accused by the French of calling for his subjects to resist French rule and after his deposition he and his father were exiled to the island of La Réunion in the Indian Ocean. Thereafter, the Khải Định Emperor became the new monarch of Annam and Tonkin and he closely collaborated with the French administration. At the same time Cambodia was ruled by King Sisowath who was crowned in 1904 and cooperated closely with the French administration in his territory. King Sisowath attended the colonial exhibition in Marseilles in 1906 and was the King af the time of the retrocession of the provinces of Battambang and Siem Reap to Cambodia by the Siamese in April 1907. During the reign of King Sisowath there was “an inexorable increase in French control” and the French residents gained executive authority to issue royal decrees, appoint officials, and collect taxes. The French protectorate of Laos at the time was ruled by King Sisavang Vong, who was crowned king in 1904. King Sisavang Vong was trained at the Lycée Chasseloup-Laubat in Saigon and at the Colonial School in Paris. In 1914, the French built a new palace in Luang Prabang for him, and a new agreement with the French administration signed in 1917 allowed him only formal signs of royal power with actual power over Laos being in the hands of the French.

The Great War presented a number of opportunities for the indigenous French Indochinese people serving in the West that didn't exist before, notably for some individuals to obtain levels of education that were simply unattainable at home by acquiring more advanced technical and professional skills. For example Dr. Nguyễn Xuân Mai, who in 1910 became one of the first indigenous auxiliaries to graduate the Hanoi medical school, hoped to gain his PhD in France so he enlisted to fight in the war. In 1921 he would acquire his doctorate and he became one of the first Vietnamese doctors to enjoy the same rights as his French colleagues.

While World War I saw a number of new economic sectors develop in French Indochina, namely rubber plantations, mines, and other forms of agriculture, these were all French owned and the local trade to the great export-import houses was in the hands of the Overseas Chinese communities. Only a handful of Vietnamese landlords, moneylenders, and middlemen benefitted from the new economic opportunities that arose during this period as the colonial economy of exportation was designed to enrich the French at the expense of the indigenous population. During this same period the average livelihood of the indigenous peasantry was drastically decreased due to both direct taxation and indirect taxes the French used to finance ambitious public works programmes constructed using the corvée system.

Prior to the year 1914, the mise en valeur (development and improvement) of French Indochina was primarily financed by European French public loans, French private capital, and higher taxes on the local populations. But during the war French Indochina became completely responsible both for financing itself and the people they sent to Europe to fight in the war as investment funds from Metropolitan France completely stopped. This meant that taxation increased, more rice was being exported, and the locals purchased war bonds. French Indochina provided a Metropolitan France with large financial aid; between the years 1915 and 1920 of the 600,000,000 francs that France received from its colonial empire 367,000,000 francs were sent by French Indochina. Though historian Patrice Morlat places the initial financial contribution of French Indochina at 381,000,000 gold francs (valued at 997,000,000 euros in 2017), roughly 60% of all financial contributions Metropolitan France received from its colonial empire (excluding Algeria). Morlat further noted that French Indochina supplied 340,000 tonnes of raw materials to France during the course of the war, which amounted to 34% of all raw supplies that Metropolitan France received from its colonies. The shipping of these materials was threatened by the presence of German submarines.

World War I also saw the colonial government of Cochinchina authorising the creation of Vietnamese-language newspapers in 1916, this was done to secure popular support for the war effort, the colonial authorities hoped that this would create a loyal indigenous group of politically active people. The Cochinchinese colonial government offered financial support to these loyalist newspapers, but kept close control on the contents written in them to ensure a prevailing pro-French narrative. The editors of these newspapers were often retours de France (people back from France) and were kept under close surveillance as they often had connections to anti-French dissidents and activists. Among these newspapers was La Tribune indigène (The Indigenous Forum) launched in 1917 by the agronomist Bùi Quang Chiêu working together with the lawyer Dương Văn Giáo and journalist Nguyễn Phan Long. Afterwards they created La Tribune indochinoise (The Indochinese Forum) and in 1919 these three men would found the Indochinese Constitutionalist Party in Saigon. Because of these activities the French Surêté regarded their nationalism as dangerous.

The French invoked a supposed "German connection" between the Vietnamese revolutionaries and the German Empire, alleging that Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Beijing were the sight of German agents hoping to help the Vietnamese revolutionaries as they shared the same goal, namely to defeat the French.

World War I also saw a number of rebellions throughout French Indochina, in 1914 3 major uprisings happened throughout Vietnam, followed by a number of revolts in Cochinchina. From 1914 to 1917 members of the Tai Lue people led by Prince Phra Ong Kham (Chao Fa) of Muang Sing organised a long anti-French campaign, Hmong independence movements in Laos also challenged French rule in the country. 1914 also saw bands of Yunnanese revolutionaries invade French Indochina, who crossed the border and started attacking French military posts parading Chinese Republican flags, these rebels were later joined by various Laotian ethnic minorities (Lao, Kha and Black Tai). The joint Yunnanese and Laotian ethnic minority rebels spread misinformation claiming that "Paris has been crushed by the German Army" to make the French seem weaker. The motivations of this revolt are disputed as contemporary French colonial officials attributed it to Chinese opium smugglers, while the Canadian historian Geoffrey C. Gunn thinks that it was a political revolt. In February 1916 in Cochinchina supporters of Phan Xích Long marched on the Saigonese penitentiary where he was held demanding his release, this coincided with other uprisings in the Mekong Delta. The mandarin Trần Cao Văn engaged with he Duy Tân Emperor to try and stage a large rebellion in Annam in 1916, but their conspiracy was discovered and foiled by the French. In 1916 the Kingdom of Cambodia saw a 3 month uprising organised by between 30,000 and 100,000 peasants against both the mandatory corvée and the increased taxes, Australian historian Milton Osborne refers to this uprising as "The 1916 Affair", the circumstances leading up to this large revolt were directly caused by the war. 30 August 1917 saw the beginning of the Thái Nguyên uprising, which lasted until 1918.

The large amount of uprisings and rebellions that occurred during the war would inspire the creation of a political security apparatus that was used to find and arrest political dissidents in the post-war period.

Relations with Japan during World War I
On 27 August 1914 Japan officially entered the war on the side of the allies (also known as the Entente Powers), Japan invaded and took the German colony of Tsingtao and the rest of the Kiautschou Bay Leased Territory. In November 1914 Japan would supplant the German sphere of influence in southern China with its own political and economic influence making putting it in direct competition with French Indochina. Even though the Japanese openly supported a number of anti-French secessionist movements, such as Prince Cường Để's Duy Tân Hội, the French situation in Europe was bad enough for prime minister Georges Clemenceau to ask the Japanese for their help.

The war situation in Europe so bad that in 1914 the French considered exchanging French Indochina with Japan for both financial and military support, but this idea was quickly abandoned.

Clemenceau asked the Empire of Japan to aid them with the transportation of the travailleurs et tirailleurs indochinois to Europe and by sending its own forces to help fight in Europe. Clemenceau also wanted the Japanese help intervene in Siberia to fight the Bolshevik forces during the Russian civil war to prevent the loss of the many French-Russian loans, which were important for the French post-war economy.

In 1918 the idea of selling French Indochina to Japan was raised again and like the first time that it was proposed it was abandoned again.

Both during and after the war the economic relations between France and Japan strengthened as Japan became a creditor of France following the latter's financial difficulties which came as a result of the war.

Expansion of the security apparatus


As Sarraut was determined to secure French rule over the country he created a strong political surveillance apparatus that functioned throughout French Indochina. He centralised all local police forces and developed an intelligence service, these policies would lead to the creation of the Sûreté générale indochinoise, which sought to monitor and police anti-French activities both inside and outside of French Indochina.

French security was expanded because of fears of German involvement with their enemies in the Far East, Gaston Ernest Liébert, the French consul in Hong Kong and a major player for the intelligence services coordinated by the political affairs bureau of French Indochina, noted that Vietnamese revolutionaries and Germany both shared the same interest (the defeat of the French). Liébert argued that French Indochinese who rebelled should be treated according or as traitors to France. Another reason for the expansion of the security state was that the French feared that such a large expulsion of French soldiers to fight against the Germans would inspire a general uprising similar to what the British experienced in Egypt.

In April 1916 the administrator of civil services at the Political Affairs Bureau in Hanoi launched two voluminous reports that went into great detail about the parallel histories of what he referred to as the "Annamese Revolutionary Party" (how he called the Duy Tân Hội) and of the secret societies of French Cochinchina. These two reports proved to be very important to the Political Affairs Bureau as they would trigger a full-scale reform of the organisation making it into an umbrella organisation. The reform policies were enacted to help control the narrative around French rule through policing and surveillance. The colonial police forces were connected with the "The general control of Indochinese workers and riflemen" (Contrôle général des travailleurs et tirailleurs indochinois), a political police force, as the military presence was reduced to allocate more soldiers to the home front. In Metropolitan France these nascent surveillance organisations were put in charge of policing the 100,000 French Indochinese present to help fight the Central Powers. Both domestically and internationally the French Indochinese police maintained a sizeable network of informants, countries where they operated included not only Metropolitan France, but also neighbouring countries like China and Siam as well as Japan, which was a common refuge for Vietnamese nationalists. The French Indochinese police often got foreign authorities to arrest anti-French activists, e.g. Phan Bội Châu who was hiding in China since 1909 was arrested there in 1917. Phan Bội Châu admitted to being in contact with German and Austro-Hungarian ministers, noting that the Germans and Austro-Hungarians promised his revolutionary activities financial support in the form of 10,000 Siamese ticals (approximately 55,000 euros in 2017). Phan would later be arrested abroad again in 1925, when he arrived in Shanghai on what he thought was a short trip on behalf of his movement. He was to meet with Hồ Chí Minh, who at that time used the name Lý Thụy, one of Hồ's many aliases. Hồ had invited Phan to come to Canton to discuss matters of common interest. Hồ was in Canton at the Soviet Embassy, purportedly as a Soviet citizen working as a secretary, translator, and interpreter. In exchange for money, Hồ allegedly informed the French police of Phan's imminent arrival. Phan was arrested by French agents and transported back to Hanoi.

Following Communist victory in the October Revolution the security apparatus of French Indochina was strengthened to fight the "Bolshevik danger" in the colonies. While the Sûreté générale was created during World War I, in 1922 it was expanded to become a better instrument to surveil and repress any potential Bolshevik elements, first in Metropolitan France and later in French Indochina. The activities of the Sûreté générale indochinoise were managed by the newly created Department of Political Affairs. The Sûreté générale indochinoise would be used as the paramount tool to gather intelligence of subversive elements within French Indochinese society and to conduct large-scale union-wide registration by the colonial police forces of suspects and convicts.

The increase in surveillance and repression was accompanied with a propaganda campaign aimed to convince the indigenous populations of the "enlightenment" of French colonialism. Both the indigenous peasantry and the elites had to be won over by being told of the many "advantages of colonialism". The Political Affairs Bureau assembled a a number of Vietnamese elites belonging to the indigenous intelligentsia through the French School of the Far East to aid in the pro-French propaganda effort.

While the French hoped to isolate political dissidents by locking them up in prisons, these prions would ironically turn into "schools" for nationalism and Communism as concentrating a large number of political enemies together would allow them to communicate with each other, which contributed to the growth of Communism within French Indochina.

1920s


As French Indochina was supposed to be a self-financed colonie d'exploitation économique (colony of economic exploitation) most of its budget during this period was financed through revenue collection, taxes on the local populations, and consumption quotas for monopolised goods such as opium, salt, and alcohol. In 1920 44% of the French Indochinese government budget came from opium, salt, and alcohol alone.

During the 1920s France allowed more Vietnamese to enter Metropolitan France for both studying and work purposes. Both legal and illegal immigrants entered France from French Indochina working various types of jobs, such as sailors, photographers, cooks, restaurant and shop owners and manual labourers. In France many Vietnamese immigrants and their organisations aligned themselves with the French Communist Party (PCF) who promised to represent them both in legal and political matters. As returnees from France were more skilled and spoke fluent French the French colonists in Indochina would hire them to perform better paying jobs and often brought ideas of the successful Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. In provinces like Thanh Hoá, Nghệ An, and Hà Tĩnh where around twenty thousand returnees lived pro-Bolshevik activities would increase during this decade and this region saw the creation of many pro-Bolshevik parties.

A number of Vietnamese men would serve in occupied parts of Weimar era Germany after the war. Seeing how devastated Germany was and how the French treated the German inhabitants of the occupied regions some Vietnamese soldiers would empathise with the German people. Official reports on the French Occupation of the Rhineland summarised the contents of the letters written by the soldiers during that period this way: "The French oppress the Germans in the same way they have the Annamites [sic]."

After the Great War former governor-general Albert Sarraut became the French Minister of the Colonies, Sarraut was the architect of the collaboration franco-annamite which characterised French colonial policy during the interwar period. Regarding the internal security of the French apparatus in the Far East Sarraut stated "I have always estimated that Indochina must be protected against the effects of a revolutionary propaganda that I have never underestimated, by carrying out a double action, one political, the other repressive." indicating that he saw repressing subversive elements as paramount to the continued French domination of the region. His policies benefited collaborators while they were instrumental in repressing dissidents. Sarraut boasted the image of himself as a liberal indigenophile who benefited the indigenous people of French Indochina.

Albert Sarraut presented the collaboration franco-annamite as a necessity of the French protectorate over their countries, the collaboration franco-annamite was attractive to the Westernised indigenous elites of French Indochina as it would build a framework of mutually beneficial partnership between France and the Vietnamese before full sovereignty for the latter could be restored. In the colony of Cochinchina a handful of indigenous people were involved in the decision-making processes through political bodies that were established to serve as representative assemblies (Cochinchina’s Colonial Council, Saigon Municipal Council, among other local bodies).

In 1920 the French established provincial advisory councils in the Kingdom of Laos. In 1923 this was followed by an indigenous consultative assembly, which served an advisory role. Despite the Laotian indigenous consultative assembly not having any real political power, it served as an organisation that brought people from all over Laos together and contributed to the later formation of a modern Laotian national consciousness where prior they associated themselves more with their region.

In Cochinchina 1923 saw the creation of the Parti Constitutionnaliste Indochinois led by Bui Quang Chiêu, which was founded to obtain the right of political participation for the indigenous people in Cochinchina. As a member of this party Nguyễn Phan Long was elected a member of Cochinchina's colonial council.

In Kopong Chang, Cambodia the French resident Félix Bardez was assassinated in the year 1925 by disgruntled indigenous people. Félix Bardez visited the village at a time when its inhabitants were frustrated with the colonial policies of the French in Cambodia as the French raised the taxes to finance the Bokor mountain resort, when Bardez visited he refused to free prisoners who were arrested for being unable to pay their debts, this agitated a crowd of around 700 angry peasants who then killed him, his interpreter, and the militiamen present during his visit. This assassination was a sign of the wider political unrest that characterised Cambodia during this decade.

In March 1925 the French built a war monument resting on two sculpted Asian elephants to commemorate those that died fighting in World War I in the Cambodian capital city of Phnom Penh, the opening ceremony brought together a crowd which contained "people of all races and all religions".

On 6 November 1925 a "Convention" (Quy ước) was established after Khải Định's death that stated that while the sovereign is abroad a council (Hội đồng phụ chính) had the power to run all affairs of the Southern court, with the signing of the convention only regulations related to custom, favours, amnesty, conferring titles, dignitaries, among others are given by the emperor. Everything else is up to the French protectorate government. This document also merges the budget of the Southern court with the budget of the French protectorate of Annam and that all the meetings of the Council of Ministers (Hội đồng thượng thư) must be chaired by the Resident-Superior of Annam. Thus, in this document, the French colonialists completely took over all the power of the government of the Southern dynasty, even in Trung Kỳ.

In 1927 Vietnamese World War I veterans staged an unsuccessful rebellion in Bắc Ninh province using vintage World War I era weapons and tactics.

According to American historian David G. Marr the 1920s marked the transition of what he termed the "traditional" to the "modern" nation-consciousness among the Vietnamese people, indicating a shift among both the elites and the peasants. Marr argues that the Vietnamese retours de France "urbanised" and "politicised" Vietnamese nationalism during the 1920s and 1930s, inspiring more "modern" movements to take up the struggle against French domination. This decade saw the emergence of the Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng (VNQDĐ) and the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP) which were often middle class in nature and proved to be more successful in transcending class and geographical divisions to mobilise against the French than earlier movements, relying on better and more organized communication structures than their predecessors.

During the 1920s the contestation of French colonial power in Cambodia and Laos was mostly aimed at the corvée and tax policies, continuing from the war period. The early years of this decade were characterised by widespread violence and a lack of order and security in rural Cambodia, as recorded by French residents in the provinces. Contemporarily Upper Laos was referred to as being "violently agitated" by the French administrator Paul Le Boulanger between the years 1914 and 1921. While the nature of Vietnamese resistance changed radically during the 1920s and the 1930s due to various major socio-cultural changes that were occurring at the time by a small, but growing, urbanised Vietnamese middle class, the rebellions in Cambodia and Laos remained to be "traditional" in their style and execution in contrast to the more "modern" political activism and radicalism that characterised what is now Vietnam during this period.

Protectorate status
Formally the four protectorates of French Indochina were ruled by their respective monarchs, but in fact the protectorates were all under the close control of the French senior residents. As the Governor-General of French Indochina Pierre Pasquier stated: “The King reigns but the Resident superior rules.” The effective power in the protectorate was in the hands of the resident-superior with both the monarch and the local high officials playing a subordinate role to his office.

Economy expansion
During the first 6 months of World Wer I the government-general would expell all German and Austro-Hungarian people living in French Indochina. The two pre-war import/export houses, Speidel & Co. and F. Engler & Co., were officially re-organised as French companies, however in reality they continued to operate under both German control and using German capital. During the 1910s Speidel & Co. was the largest importer of European goods into the country with Engler being one of its major competitors. After the German owners were expulsed from the company lower level employees tried to continue running these companies despite increasing push back from the French colonial authorities by means of arbitrary customs enforcement, freight interference, and regulatory aggravations. Later the French would seize all of the German Speidel Company's warehouses and would sell the seized goods at low prices both to Vietnamese consumers and Chinese exporters to try and increase revenue. These goods included rice, wine, and canned goods.

During World War I export regulations kept changing which the Chinese export businesses took advantage of by purchasing rice for minimal prices from the Vietnamese farmers who grew it and then deliberately passing along the risks of the export trade to those small Vietnamese farmers who were the least able to bear the losses involved.

As the war made both imports and exports from and to Europe more difficult French Indochina would increase trade with other Pacific countries. During the war period import businesses would import flour from the United States and dairy products from Australia, though at lower levels than during the pre-war period. Prior to World War I French Indochina had an annual flour import worth $950,000 and an annual condensed milk import worth $135,000, but during the war they would only import ½ this amount from the United States and about ⅕ the amount of condensed milk from Australia.

Civilising mission and education

 * Background.

The goals of the French "mission civilisatrice" (civilising mission) were to share the ideals of an egalitarian society and educate the indigenous populations of the French colonies through progress provided to them by education, culture, and science. This model saw the culture produced by French civilisation as "unique, universal, and superior". If the native population advanced to a certain level of civilisation they would be able to reach the French republican values of Liberté, égalité, fraternité (liberty, equality, and fraternity). However, in practice the French colonial educational and medical systems were primarily intended for the French colonists and a handful of indigenous elites residing in the main cities. In reality the vast majority of the indigenous populations of the Nguyễn dynasty would continue to be educated in Confucian village schools and a small number of some Catholic parish schools and seminaries.


 * Học Bộ.

Initially the French wanted to institute a programme of assimilation, but this was quickly abandoned and replaced with a new policy in favour of "association" rather than assimilation where the French would respect the local culture. The association programme was only intended for a small number of elites that had attended Franco-Indigenous schools and enjoyed a modern French education. The people educated in these Franco-Indigenous schools would become what was termed the "new collaborators" and they would help perpetuate the idea of a shared "Franco-Annamite community" of a more Westernised indigenous people.

Usually recurring sources

 * December 2022.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * November 2022.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * October 2022.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * September 2022.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * August 2022.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * July 2022.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * June 2022.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * May 2022.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * April 2022.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * March 2022.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * February 2022.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * January 2022.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * December 2021.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * November 2021.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * October 2021.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * September 2021.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * August 2021.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * July 2021.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * June 2021.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * May 2021.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * April 2021.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * February 2021.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * February 2021.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * January 2021.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * December 2020.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * October 2020.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * November 2020.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * September 2020.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * August 2020.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * July 2020.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.






 * June 2020.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.






 * May 2020.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.






 * April 2020.










 * March 2020.






 * February 2020.






 * January 2020.






 * December 2019.





To use














Sources to use

 * https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/indochina
 * ✅. --Donald Trung (talk) 18:28, 20 August 2022 (UTC).
 * ✅. --Donald Trung (talk) 18:28, 20 August 2022 (UTC).


 * https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/social_conflict_and_control_protest_and_repression_indochina#GND_114768765X
 * ✅. --Donald Trung (talk) 17:34, 21 August 2022 (UTC).
 * ✅. --Donald Trung (talk) 17:34, 21 August 2022 (UTC).


 * https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/colonial_society_indochina
 * ✅. --Donald Trung (talk) 17:34, 21 August 2022 (UTC).
 * ✅. --Donald Trung (talk) 17:34, 21 August 2022 (UTC).


 * https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/food_and_nutrition_indochina
 * ✅. --Donald Trung (talk) 19:00, 21 August 2022 (UTC).
 * ✅. --Donald Trung (talk) 19:00, 21 August 2022 (UTC).


 * https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/indochinese_workers_in_france_indochina
 * ✅. --Donald Trung (talk) 17:56, 21 August 2022 (UTC).
 * ✅. --Donald Trung (talk) 17:56, 21 August 2022 (UTC).


 * https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/between_acceptance_and_refusal_-_soldiers_attitudes_towards_war_indochina
 * ✅. --Donald Trung (talk) 18:31, 21 August 2022 (UTC).
 * ✅. --Donald Trung (talk) 18:31, 21 August 2022 (UTC).


 * https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/religious_missionaries_and_the_colonial_state_indochina
 * ✅. --Donald Trung (talk) 18:31, 21 August 2022 (UTC).
 * ✅. --Donald Trung (talk) 18:31, 21 August 2022 (UTC).


 * https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/commemoration_cult_of_the_fallen_indochina
 * ✅. --Donald Trung (talk) 19:02, 21 August 2022 (UTC).
 * ✅. --Donald Trung (talk) 19:02, 21 August 2022 (UTC).

User:Donald Trung/French Indochina in World War I

 * User:Donald Trung/French Indochina in World War I

There's waaaayyyyy too much information on this subject not to give it its own proper article in much more details than the above expansion of the main French Indo-China article.