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The Vietnamese Monarchy under French Colonial Rule 1884–1945

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Nguyên Thê Anh
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Extract

In the epilogue to his memoirs, Bao-Dai, the last sovereign of the Nguyên Dynasty, wrote:

In ancient Vietnamese society, the social system is embodied in the person of the emperor, through whom everything religious is done, down to the lowest village level. But, if he sanctifies this act by prescribing or controlling it, he does not assume it. On the contrary, the Vietnamese ideal is that of a sovereign wise enough to reign without stirring, ‘with his hands hanging and his clothes loose…’.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , February 1985 , pp. 147 - 162
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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References

Paper delivered at the Symposium on the Western Presence in South-East Asia (Manila, January 25–28, 1982). The author is indebted to the British Institute in South-East Asia for its generous assistance.

1 Le Dragon d'Annam (Paris, Plon, 1980), p. 359–60Google Scholar. The former emperor of Vietnam has been living in self-imposed exile in France since 1954.

2 It should be noted that the 1884 protectorate treaty concerned only Trung Ky (Annam) and Bac Ky (Tonkin). Nam Ky (Cochinchina) had been ceded to France—as a colony under direct French rule—by the treaties of 1862 and 1874.

3 Cf. Pinto, Roger, Aspects de l'évolution gouvernementale de l'Indochine française (Saigon-Paris, 1946).Google Scholar

4 See Doumer, Paul, Situation de l'Indochine (1897–1901) (Hanoi, 1902Google Scholar); Salaun, Louis, L'Indochine (Paris, 1903).Google Scholar

5 Dépôt des Archives d'Outre-Mer (Aix-en-Provence), Gouvernement Général de l'Indochine, dossier 15038.

6 Mus, Paul, Le destin de L'Union française. De l'Indochine à l'Afrique (Paris, 1954), p. 317.Google Scholar

7 Archives Nationales, Section Outre-Mer (Paris), Indochine A.F., carton 6, dossier A 20(26).

8 Anh, Nguyên Thê, ‘L'abdication de Thanh-Thai’, Bulletin de l'Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient, vol. LXIV (1977), pp. 257–64.Google Scholar

9 Dépôt des Archives d'Outre-Mer, Gouvernement Général de l'Indochine, dossier 53452.

10 Marr, David G., Vietnamese Anticolonialism, 1885–1925 (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1971), p. 233.Google Scholar

11 Dépôt des Archives d'Outre-Mer, Gouvernement General de l'Indochine, dossier 9588.

12 Mus, Paul, Le destin de L'Union française, pp. 321–51.Google Scholar

13 Lyautey, , Lettres du Tonkin et de Madagascar (1894–1899) (Paris, 4th edn, 1942), p. 419.Google Scholar

14 For Pasquier's analysis of traditional Vietnamese civilization see L'Annam d'autrefois (Paris, 1907).Google Scholar

15 Archives Nationales, Section Outre-Mer, Indochine N.F., carton 331, dossier 2675.

16 Anh, Nguyên Thê, The Withering Days of the Nguyên Dynasty, Singapore, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (Research Notes and Discussions No. 7), 05 1978, p. 33.Google Scholar

17 For his opposition to the monarchy, Phan Chu Trinh was exiled from 1908 to 1910 to the prison island of Poulo Condore. Cf. Anh, Nguyên Thê, Phong trâo khang thuê miên Trung qua cac Chân ban triêu Duy-Tân (The Anti-taxation movement in Central Vietnam through the Red Documents of Duy-Tân's reign) (Saigon, 1973), pp. 50–2.Google Scholar

18 Le petit journal, 23 February 1922.Google Scholar

19 See, for instance, Hémery, Daniel, ‘Ta Thu Thâu: l'itinéraire politique d'un révolutionnaire vietnamien pendant les années 1930’, in Histoire de l'Asie du Sud-Est. Révoltes, réformes, révolutions (Lille, Presses Universitaires de Lille, 1981), pp. 193–222.Google Scholar

20 Pham Quynh demanded the loyal application of the protectorate treaty as the basis for a long-lasting collaboration between the French and the Vietnamese. According to him, France's role had been determined by the 1884 treaty; a policy of close association could be implemented through the grant of autonomy to the Vietnamese and the establishment of a genuine government, in which executive power would be in the king's hands, but performed by ministers responsible to him, to the colonial authorities and to a national assembly (‘Vers une constitution’, Nam Phong, no. 151, June 1930).

21 Brocheux, Pierre, ‘L'implantation du mouvement communiste en Indochine française: Le cas du Nghê Tinh, 1930–1931’, Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine (01–03 1977), pp. 49–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22 Quoted by Hémery, Daniel, ‘Aux origines des guerres d'indépendance vietnamiennes: pouvoir colonial et phénomène communiste en Indochine avant la seconde guerre mondiale’, Le mouvement social, no. 101 (10–12 1977), p. 10.Google Scholar

23 This policy was detailed in: Gouvernement Général de l'Indochine. Direction des Affaires Politiques. Continuité de la politique française du protectorat en Annam- Tonkin avant et après l'avènement de Sa Majesté Bao-Dai (N.d.), p. 152.

24 Cf. Xa, Dang Trân, Les réformes de Sa Majesté Bao-Dai en Annam (Paris, 1939), p. 157.Google Scholar

25 In November 1931, when Paul Reynaud, Minister of Colonies, visited Vietnam, he declared that dominion status was out of the question. In Reynaud's view, it would be dangerous to give so much liberty to a population which had no middle class, but only an immense mass of illiterate peasants behind a thin layer of intellectuals.

26 Archives Nationales, Section Outre-Mer, Indochine N.F., carton 330, dossier 2664.

27 Archives Nationales, Section Outre-Mer, Papiers d'agents 28, carton 4, dossier 125.

28 Quoted by Hammer, Ellen J., The Struggle for Indochina, 1940–1955 (Stanford, 1966), p. 92.Google Scholar

29 Archives Nationales, Section Outre-Mer, Affairs politiques, dossier 366.

30 Le dragon d'Annam, p. 240.