French Cochinchina
French Cochinchina (sometimes spelled Cochin-China; French: Cochinchine française; Vietnamese: Xứ thuộc địa Nam Kỳ, chữ Hán: 處屬地南圻) was a colony of French Indochina, encompassing the whole region of Lower Cochinchina or Southern Vietnam from 1862 to 1946. The French operated a plantation economy whose primary strategic product was rubber.
Colony of Cochinchina | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1862–1949 | |||||||||||||||
| Motto: Liberté, égalité, fraternité "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" | |||||||||||||||
| Anthem: "La Marseillaise" "Chinh phụ ngâm khúc" (1946-1949) | |||||||||||||||
| Localised version of the Great Seal of France: | |||||||||||||||
Cochinchina in 1920 | |||||||||||||||
| Status | Occupied territory of France (1858–1862) Colony of France (1862–1949) Constituent territory of French Indochina (1887–1949) | ||||||||||||||
| Capital | Saigon (1862–1931) Saigon–Cholon (1931–1949) | ||||||||||||||
| Common languages | French Vietnamese Khmer Chinese | ||||||||||||||
| Religion | Buddhism Confucianism Taoism Catholicism Animism Caodaism Hòa Hảo Islam | ||||||||||||||
| Demonym(s) | Vietnamese | ||||||||||||||
| Government | Colonial administration (1858–1946) Autonomous Republic (1946–1949) | ||||||||||||||
| Governor | |||||||||||||||
• 1858–1859 | Charles Rigault de Genouilly | ||||||||||||||
• 1947–1949 | Pierre Boyer De LaTour du Moulin | ||||||||||||||
| President of Government | |||||||||||||||
• 1946 | Nguyen Van Thinh | ||||||||||||||
• 1947-1948 | Nguyễn Văn Xuân | ||||||||||||||
| Historical era | New Imperialism | ||||||||||||||
• Capture of Saigon | 17 February 1859 | ||||||||||||||
• Ceded by Đại Nam | 5 June 1862 | ||||||||||||||
• Part of French Indochina | 17 October 1887 | ||||||||||||||
| 28 July 1941 | |||||||||||||||
• Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam | 2 September 1945 | ||||||||||||||
• "Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina" | 1 June 1946 | ||||||||||||||
• Merged to the Central Government | 4 June 1949 | ||||||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||||||
• 1920 | 3,800,000 | ||||||||||||||
| Currency | Vietnamese văn (1862–1945) Cochinchina piastre (1878–1885) French Indochinese piastre (1885–1949) | ||||||||||||||
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| Today part of | Vietnam | ||||||||||||||
After the end of Japanese occupation (1941–45) and the expulsion from Saigon of Communist-led nationalist Viet Minh in 1946, the territory was established by the French as the Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina, a controversial decision that helped trigger the First Indochina War. In a further move to deny the claims of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam declared in Hanoi by the Viet Minh in 1949, Cochinchina was formally united with Annam and Tonkin in the State of Vietnam within the French Union.
Nam Kỳ originated from the reign of Minh Mạng of the Nguyễn dynasty, but became a name associated with the French colonial period and so Vietnamese, especially nationalists, prefer the term Nam Phần to refer to Southern Vietnam.