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
Occupied territory of France (1858–1862)
Colony of France (1862–1949)
Constituent territory of French Indochina (1887–1949)
Colonial administration (1858–1946)
Autonomous Republic (1946–1949)
Pierre Boyer De LaTour du Moulin
17 February 1859
5 June 1862
17 October 1887
28 July 1941
2 September 1945
1 June 1946
4 June 1949
3,800,000[2]
Vietnamese văn (1862–1945)
Cochinchina piastre (1878–1885)
French Indochinese piastre (1885–1949)
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.
Cochinchina in 1829 under Nguyễn Dynasty
Cochinchina in 1876
Cochinchina in 1878
Cochinchina in 1882
Cochinchina in 1906
Cochinchina in 1929
