Treaty of Huế (1884)

The Treaty of Huế or Protectorate Treaty (Vietnamese: Hòa ước Giáp Thân 1884, or Hòa ước Patenotre, or Hòa ước Patơnốt) was concluded on 6 June 1884 between France and Đại Nam (Vietnam/Nguyễn dynasty). It restated the main tenets of the punitive Harmand Treaty of 25 August 1883, but softened some of the harsher provisions of this treaty. The treaty created the protectorates of Annam (central Vietnam) and Tonkin (northern Vietnam). It formed the basis of French colonial rule in Vietnam during the next seven decades and was negotiated by Jules Patenôtre, France's minister to China; it is often known as the Patenôtre Treaty. The treaty was signed on the Vietnamese side by Phạm Thận Duật and Tôn Thất Phan, representatives of the emperor Tự Đức’s court. The treaty marked the Nguyễn dynasty's second acceptance of French protectorate in central and northern Vietnam, but it was canceled when the Élysée Accords was signed on 8 March 1949.

Despite the government of the Nguyễn dynasty canceling the treaty with the Japanese help in 1945, the French didn't recognise the end of the protectorates until the signing of the Élysée Accords on 8 March 1949. The treaty officially transferred sovereignty over Vietnam to former emperor Bảo Đại and the Provisional Central Government of Vietnam. The treaty also recognized Vietnamese sovereignty over Cochinchina in the South, which would return to Vietnam on June 4. The formal end of the Patenôtre Treaty was proclaimed during a ceremony at the Saigon-Cholon City Hall attended by the high commissioner of French Indochina Léon Pignon, Chief of State Emperor Bảo Đại, and delegates of the government of the State of Vietnam. During this ceremony Pignon officially renounced French sovereignty over Vietnam and recognised the independence of Vietnam, as an associated state within the French Union on June 14. The treaty led to the establishment of the State of Vietnam and would be completed on 2 February 1950.