Annam (French protectorate)

Annam Protectorate An Nam
1874 - 1887
Flag
Status	Protectorate of France
Capital	Hue
Common languages	French, Vietnamese
Religion	Christianity, Buddhism
History
• Established	1874
• Disestablished	1887
Succeeded by French Indochina

Map of Vietnam showing the conquest of the South over 900 years

Annam (Vietnamese: An Nam) was a French protectorate in what is now the central area of Vietnam.

It was seized by the French by 1874 and was part of the French-ruled federation of French Indochina from 1887 until its collapse in 1954 as a result of the French defeat in the First Indochina War. The other two Vietnamese regions that were federated into French Indochina after the Sino-French War were Cochinchina (Nam Bộ), in the south; and Tonkin (also known as Tonking or Đông Kinh), in the north. The capital of Annam was Huế.

Before that, Annam was a Chinese term for what is now northern Vietnam. Because of the association of the word "Annam" with Chinese domination and subsequent French colonialism it is considered a derogatory term by many Vietnamese, who instead refer to the region as Trung Kỳ (literally "Central Vietnam"; Hán Tự: 中圻).

Etymology and pre-colonial usage

Old map of "Annam", a drawing by Alexandre de Rhodes (1651)

Annam means "Pacified South" in Sino-Vietnamese, the toponym being derived from the Chinese An Nan (安南; pinyin: Ānnán). In the History of Vietnam it is one of several names which the Chinese gave to the core territory of modern-day Vietnam. This territory surrounds the city of Hanoi and runs from the Gulf of Tonkin to the mountains which surround the plains of the Red River.

The French colonial definition was quite different. The Annam that the Chinese referred to never included the lands of Annam which the French defined. Annam, the French protectorate, was an essentially arbitrary creation of a colonial power.

The remainder of this article is largely based on the 1911 EB and is really only accurate as a description of the French protectorate circa 1890. For an accurate history and description of Annam see

• Vietnam

Postcard of the Annam Tower built in Marseilles (France) for the 1906 Colonial Exhibition.

Geography

Annam comprised a sinuous strip of territory measuring between 750 and 800 miles in length, with an approximate area of 52,000 square miles. It had a rich, well-watered soil which yields tropical crops, and was rich in naturally-occurring minerals.

The country consisted chiefly of a range of plateaus and wooded mountains, running north and south and declining on the coast to a narrow band of plains varying between 12 and 50 miles in breadth. The mountains are cut transversely by short narrow valleys, through which run rivers, most of which are dry in summer and torrential in winter. The Song Ma and the Song Ca in the north, and the Song Ba, Don Nai and Se Bang Khan in the south, are the only rivers of any size in the region. The chief harbour is that afforded by the bay of Tourane (also known as Đà Nẵng) at the centre of the coastline. South of this point, the coast curves outwards and is broken by peninsulas and indentations; to the north it is concave and bordered in many places by dunes and lagoons.

Climate

In Annam, the rainy season begins during September and lasts for three or four months, corresponding with the northeastern monsoon and also with a period of typhoons. During the rains the temperature varies from 59 degrees Fahrenheit (or even lower) to 75 °F (from 15 degrees Celsius to 24 °C). June, July and August are the hottest months, the thermometer often reaching 85 °F or 90 °F (30 °C or more), though the heat of the day is to some extent compensated by the freshness of the nights. The southwest monsoon which brings rain in Cochin China coincides with the dry season in Annam, the reason probably being that the mountains and lofty plateaus separating the two countries retain the precipitation.

Economy

Flag of Annam Protectorate

During the French period there was little industry. The economy was an agricultural one based on:

• the cultivation of rice, which grown mainly in the small deltas along the coast and in some districts gives two crops a year.
• fishing, fish-salting and the preparation of nước mắm

Silk spinning and weaving were carried on in what the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica called "antiquated lines ...silkworms [are] reared in a desultory fashion". Other crops were tea, tobacco, cotton, cinnamon, precious woods and rubber. Coffee, pepper, sugarcane and jute were also cultivated to a minor extent. The exports comprised tea, raw silk and small quantities of cotton, rice and sugarcane. The imports included rice, iron goods, flour, wine, opium and cotton goods. There were coal-mines at Nong Son, near Da Nang, and as well as mining of gold, silver, lead, iron and other metals which occur in the mountains. Trade, which was controlled by the Chinese, was mostly carried out on the sea, with the chief ports being Da Nang and Qui Nhon, open to European commerce.

Administration

Annam was ruled in theory by its emperor, assisted by the "comat" or secret council, composed of the heads of the six ministerial departments of the interior, finance, war, ritual, justice and public works, who were nominated by the emperor. The resident superior, stationed at Huế, was the representative of France and the virtual ruler of the country. He presided over a council (Conseil de Protectorat) composed of the chiefs of the French services in Annam, together with two members of the "comat"; this body deliberated on questions of taxation affecting the budget of Annam and on local public works. A native governor (Tong Doc or Tuan Phu), assisted by a native staff, administered each of the provinces into which the country was divided, and native officials of lower rank governed the areas into which these provinces were subdivided. The governors took their orders from the imperial government, but they were under the eye of French residents. Native officials were appointed by the court, but the resident superior had power to annul an appointment. The mandarinate or official class was recruited from all ranks of the people by competitive examination. In the province of Tourane (Da Nang), a French tribunal alone exercised jurisdiction, but it administered native law where natives were concerned. Outside this territory the native tribunals survived.

History

See also History of Vietnam.

Annam actually was the name of Giao Chỉ (Chinese: 交趾; pinyin: Jiāozhǐ), the region's Chinese name. The ancient tribe of the Giao Chi, who dwelt on the confines of south China, and in what is now Tongking and northern Annam, are regarded by the Annamese as their ancestors, and tradition ascribes to their first rulers descent from the Chinese imperial family. These sovereigns were succeeded by another dynasty, under which, at the end of the 3^rd century B.C., the Chinese invaded the country, and eventually established there a supremacy destined to last, with little intermission, until the 10^th century A.D.

In 968 Dinh Bo Linh succeeded in ousting the Chinese and founded an independent dynasty of Dinh. Till this period the greater part of Annam had been occupied by the Chams, a Hindu civilization, which has left many monuments to testify to its greatness, but the encroachment of the Annamese during the next six centuries at last left to it only a small territory in the south of the country. Three lines of sovereigns followed that of Dinh, under the last of which, about 1407, Annam again fell under the Chinese yoke.

The earliest printed book of Vietnam was published in 1335: the 20-volume An Nam Chí Lược (The Concise Records of Annam, 《安南志略》), written by Lê Tắc (黎崱 li4 ce4). In 1428, an Annamese general named Le Loi succeeded in freeing the country once more, and founded a dynasty which lasted till the end of the 18th century. During the greater part of this period, however, the titular sovereigns were mere puppets, the reality of power being in the hands of the family of Trinh in Tongking and that of Nguyễn in southern Annam, which in 1568 became a separate principality under the name of Cochinchina.

Towards the end of the 18th century a rebellion overthrew the Nguyễn, but one of its members, Emperor Gia Long, by the aid of a French force, in 1801 acquired sway over the whole of Annam, Tongking and Cochinchina. This force was procured for him by Pigneau de Béhaine, titular bishop of Adran, who saw in the political condition of Annam a means of establishing French influence in Indochina and counterbalancing the English power in India. Before this, in 1787, Gia Long had concluded a treaty with Louis XVI., whereby in return for a promise of aid he ceded Tourane and Pulo-Condore to the French. That treaty marks the beginning of French influence in Indochina. Michael J. Barboza, Lance Corporal.

The name gave rise to the Annamitic Chain (la Chaîne Annamitique), a 1,100-km mountain range with a height ranging up to 2958 metres, that divides Vietnam and Laos.

References

This section is out of date. There are many modern histories of Vietnam in English. See History of Vietnam#References

See also Legrand de la Liraye, Notes historiques sur la nation annamite (Paris, 1866?); C. Gosselin, L'Empire d'Annam (Paris, 1904); E. Sombsthay, Cours de législation et d' administration annamites (Paris, 1898).

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)