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The Colonialism Of Vietnam By The French

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The colonialism of Vietnam by the French lasted for approximately six decades. In the late of 1880s, the French had the control of the Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, commonly known as the French Indochina (Indochine Francais) (Mason 7). As such, Indochina was able to assume the status of being the lucrative colonial possessions of the French. It became the French empire, which spanned the western and northern Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific empires. The French formulated the civilizing mission as a way of justifying their imperialism in the land. Such mission existed as a form of the “white man” burden for the English. The imperialists from France made claims that they had the responsibility of colonizing the regions in Asia and Africa, …show more content…

Such policy resulted into carving of the nation into three separate provinces, namely the Cochinchina in the South, Annam on the central coast, and Tonkin in the North. Each of the provinces had a separate administration since there was no national authority of identity.
Reason for Colonization:
Profit gains acted as the main factor triggering French colonization of Indochina to be in their presence. The French companies and the colonial officials engaged in the transformation of the Vietnam subsistence economy to a system that is proto-capitalist on the bases of low wages and exports, increased production, and land ownership (Kolko 7). Thus, the Vietnamese never worked for their profits, but for the benefit of the colonies of the French.
The French also had a chance of acquiring great tracks of land and reorganization of the same into plantations. The small landholders had the option of being laborers in the plantations or having to relocate to other places. In case shortfalls in labor were experienced, the farmers from Vietnam had to be recruited from other outlying villages (Mason 11). These farmers could even come to work voluntarily after being promised that they will have higher wages. In other cases, they were conscripted at gunpoint.
The plantations had cash crops, which were rubber and rice. The French also built mines of taping the deposits of zinc, tin, and coal,

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