French Cochinchina
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 | 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) | Cochinchinese | ||||||||
| 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 | |||||||||
• 1946 | Nguyen Van Thinh | ||||||||
• 1947–1948 | Nguyễn Văn Xuân | ||||||||
• 1948-1949 | Trần Văn Hữu | ||||||||
| Historical era | New Imperialism | ||||||||
| 17 February 1859 | |||||||||
| 5 June 1862 | |||||||||
• Part of French Indochina | 17 October 1887 | ||||||||
| 28 July 1941 | |||||||||
| 2 September 1945 | |||||||||
• Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina | 1 June 1946 | ||||||||
• Merged to Vietnam | 4 June 1949 | ||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 1878 | 1,657,500 | ||||||||
• 1920 | 3,800,000 | ||||||||
| Currency | Vietnamese văn (1862–1945) Cochinchina piastre (1878–1885) French Indochinese piastre (1885–1949) | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Vietnam | ||||||||
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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 from 1862 to 1949, encompassing what is now Southern Vietnam. The French operated a plantation economy whose primary strategic product was rubber.
After the end of the Japanese occupation (1941–1945) and the expulsion from Saigon of the Communist-led, nationalist Viet Minh in 1946, the territory was reorganized as the Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina by the French, 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, Cochinchina was formally united with Annam and Tonkin in the State of Vietnam within the French Union on 4 June 1949, before the State of Vietnam was established when the Élysée Accords took effect 10 days later.
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.