Indochina (geographical term)

Indochina is a geographical term used to describe the peninsular region of Southeast Asia consisting of Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. The name Indochina, which was also styled as Indochine in French, originated in the nineteenth century and reflects the fact that the area it describes lies between India and China. After the French entered Southeast Asia in the late nineteenth century, their colonial holdings in the region, which included Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and a small portion of China called Kwangchowan, came to be known as French Indochina. This name remained in use until France ceded its Southeast Asian colonial claims in the mid-twentieth century. Since that time, the use of Indochina as a geographical term has mostly fallen out of practice. When it is used in modern times, however, it is generally meant to describe only the portion of Southeast Asia that includes Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

Background

When the term Indochina was first coined as a geographical expression in the early nineteenth century, it described a region delineated by cultural differences rather than by political boundaries. The Europeans who first entered Southeast Asia perceived the region to be divided between the Indian and Chinese cultures. This was, in large part, because certain elements of each culture were prominent in different parts of the region. While people across much of the peninsula practiced Theravada Buddhism and used various Indic languages from the Indian subcontinent, those on the east coast were part of a Confucian kingdom with a language system based on Chinese characters. To unfamiliar outsiders, this certainly made it look as though the Southeast Asian peninsula had a dual Indian and Chinese cultural makeup. The reality, however, was quite different. At the time, the Southeast Asian mainland was actually home to about twelve different kingdoms and other territories inhabited by an ethnically diverse population of people descended from twenty-three different societies dating back as far as the fourteenth century. Because the French failed to properly recognize this ethnic diversity, however, they simply referred to the region as Indochina.

As the first French colonial expeditionary forces must have noted when they entered the region, Indochina features a predominantly mountainous natural environment. It also features an overall tropical climate noted for heavy monsoon rains in the summer months. Given its large size, however, the specific characteristics of this overall climate vary from place to place. Cambodia, which mostly consists of rolling plains and a few mountain fringes, typically has a tropical savannah climate. Vietnam has two distinct climates, including a humid subtropical climate in the north and a rainy tropical climate in the south. Likewise, Laos also has separate northern and southern climates. While northern Laos has a humid subtropical climate similar to that of North Vietnam, southern Laos has a tropical savannah climate like Cambodia. These unique environmental characteristics helped to make Indochina an inviting place for imperialist European superpowers to lay down roots and exploit the region's existing wealth and valuable natural resources. In the end, it was this lure that ultimately gave rise to the use of Indochina as a term to describe Southeast Asia.

Overview

Western imperialism began to reach its height in the eighteenth century, as several European powers moved to take control of various parts of Africa, Asia, and Oceania. The most successful of these widespread colonization efforts was that which led to the rise of the sprawling British Empire. Second only to that was the colonial empire built by France. While the British Empire's holdings in Asia were mostly confined to the Indian subcontinent, France turned its attention to the Southeast Asian peninsula, otherwise known as Indochina. France's presence in Indochina actually dated back to the early arrival of seventeenth-century Jesuit missionaries in the region. When France later began attempting to establish a more serious colonial foothold there in the nineteenth century, it did so on the premise of protecting the missionaries and the growing Catholic population they fostered.

Although its efforts to colonize Indochina began as early as 1858, it was not until 1887 that France officially laid claim to the region. Its new colony, which came to be known as French Indochina, included Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. In Vietnam, France's territory was divided into three different protectorates, or colonial provinces. These included Tonkin in the north, Annam in the middle, and Cochinchina in the south. For the first several decades of French Indochina's existence, France exploited the region economically by requiring locals to pay high taxes on things like salt, rice alcohol, and opium. While this approach provided the French with a plentiful source of revenue for some time, the local population's wealth eventually bottomed out and made it unworkable. As a result, France was forced to switch tactics starting in the 1930s. Rather than relying on taxation, France instead began exploiting French Indochina's natural resources through the export of cash crops such as tea, coffee, rice, pepper, and rubber. The export of French Indochina's abundant, high-quality rubber was particularly successful and led to the rise of Michelin and several other notable French tire companies.

The decline of France's control over Indochina began with the onset of World War II (1939–1945). In 1941, the Japanese empire invaded and took control of the region from the French Vichy government. When the Allied forces defeated Japan at the end of the war, France expected to retake control of Indochina, but locals put up a strong resistance to further colonial rule. This led directly to the First Indochina War (1946–1954) between France and a Vietnamese resistance group called the Viet Minh. This conflict continued until Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh emerged victorious at the critical Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and France gave up its claims on the region. This victory, however, left Vietnam divided into the Communist north and an anti-Communist south. The subsequent Vietnam War (1955–1975) was a failed attempt to prevent communism from spreading into South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. In the years after North Vietnam's victory, the use of the term Indochina to describe this region gradually fell from use in favor of the more politically correct Southeast Asia.

Bibliography

Brocheux, Pierre, and Daniel Hémery. Indochina: An Ambiguous Colonization, 1858–1954. U of California P, 2009.

Demay, Aline. Tourism and Colonization in Indochina (1898–1939). Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014.

Fall, Bernard B. Street without Joy: The French Debacle in Indochina. Stackpole Books, 1994.

"The French in Indochina." Digital History, www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/teachers/lesson‗plans/pdfs/unit12‗1.pdf. Accessed 6 July 2017.

"French Presence in Indochina." Chemins de Memoire, www.cheminsdememoire.gouv.fr/en/french-presence-indochina. Accessed 6 July 2017.

"Indochina: Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam." University of Nebraska Omaha, maps.unomaha.edu/peterson/geog1000/Notes/Notes‗Exam3/IndoChina.html. Accessed 6 July 2017.

Szczepanski, Kallie. "What Was French Indochina?" ThoughtCo., 28 Mar. 2017, www.thoughtco.com/what-was-french-indochina-195328. Accessed 6 July 2017.

"What Does Indochina Mean?" Insider Journeys, Sept. 2014, www.insider-journeys.com/blog/indochina-etymology. Accessed 6 July 2017.