IndoChina Colonisation
French Indochina was the part of the French colonial empire in Indochina in southeast Asia.
A federation of the three Vietnamese regions, Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina, as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887. Laos was added in 1893. The capital was moved from Saigon to Hanoi in 1902.
During World War II, the colony was administered by Vichy France and was under Japanese occupation. Beginning in 1945, Ho Chi Minh led a communist revolt against French rule known as the French Indochina War.
An anti-Communist Vietnamese government led by former Emperor Bao Dai was granted independence in 1949. The term of the last French high commissioner for Indochina, Jean Letourneau, expired in April 1953. Following the Geneva Accord of 1954, Ho's group became the government of North Vietnam, although the Bao Dai government continued to rule in the South.