Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/847

 INDOCHINA

767

INDOCHINA

thermore suzerain of Cambodia. Southern Annam and Cochin China formed one province, administered by a governor of the Nguyen family.

The last decades of the eighteenth century are nota- ble for the great insurrection called the Taij Shon Thong Tac (the War of the Great Mountains of the West), which has given the name of "Tay-shons" to its leaders — two lirothers of the Nguyen family, Nguyen van Nhac and Nguyen van Hue. The reliel- lion was at first entirely successful, the last member of the royal family of Le being forced to take refuge in China. Subsequently Nguyen-an, hereditary governor (chua) of the southern province, succeeded in eliciting French assistance, seized Saigon in 1789 from the Tay- shons, and Hue in 1801. In 1802 he entered Ke-so (Hanoi), the capital of Tong-king, and had himself declared emperor under the title of Gia-long — a name he was tlestined to make famous.

Now imdisputeil master of all the territories (except Laos) embraced in the present French Indo-China, Cia-long devoted his whole energy to the organization of the country. To him the peninsula is indebted for numbers of its canals and roads, esjiecially for the great road, which, starting from Saigon, traverses Annam and Tong-king, and, passing through Hue and Hanoi, terminates at Lang-son on the Chinese fron- tier. Minh-mang (1S20— 11), Gia-long's successor, was as notalile for hatred of, as his father had been for benevolence towards Europeans. During Minh-mang's reign (1834) Siam snatched Cambodia from Annam, and made it tributary to the Siamese government, annexing the provinces of Battambang and Siem-reap (see below under Cambodia) to Siamese territories. It was the policy initiated by Minh-mang that led finally to French intervention, the history of which is so closely bound up with Christianity that it may be more properly considered under that heading.

The centre of the Indo-Chinese peninsula had mean- while been the theatre of a third invasion. Whether the Thais or Shans (both terms signify the "Free"), the last of the great invading races, came originally from the north-east of China or the plateaux of South- ern China is still disputed: they first appear in history about the beginning of our era, when they occupied the upper basin of the Irawadi. As in the case of the other invading races, our information concerning the history of the Thais is very meagre. Having estab- lished themselves in the territories known to-day as Laos and the Shan States, they began their march southwards about the end of the sixth century, and before 1160 — a date established by an inscription — ■ had extended their dominion to ithe Gulf of Siam. They early split up into two branches: The Thai- nyai — the " Great Thai " or Shans proper, of whom the Laotines are the direct descendants — and the Thai- noi — the " Little Thai " or Siamese, whose history w-ill be more fully treated under Siam. The Shans were the first to found a powerful empire. According to their own historians, all the early conquests of the Thais until the end of the thirteenth century are to be attributed to the Shans. Later their power began to wane, while that of the Siamese increased. Incessant wars with Burmah and China between the fourteenth and the sixteenth centuries resulted in a great diminu- tion of the Shan territories, and at the close of the seventeenth century Shan power was represented mainly by the Laotine kingdom with Vien-tian as its capital. Enfeebled by protracted quarrels with the hill-tribes, the Laotines were so unfortunate as to in- voke the aid of Siam. From this moment Siam gradually extended its dominion over the Laos states, and by the middle of the eighteenth century Laos was a Siamese dependency. The Laotines made an at- tempt to shake off the Siamese yoke in 1767, after the Burmese had sacked Ayuthia, but their effort was un- successful. In 1820, exasperated by the merciless pillaging of the Siamese officers connived at by Siam,

the King of Vien-tian made a final attempt to break the fetters which bound his nation. The Siamese general, Praya Mitop (to this day the bugbear of Laotine children), was at once despatched against Vien-tian, .seized anil tlestroyetl the town, burnt num- bers of the people ali\c, an<I, in obedience to true Oriental ethics of warfare, performed e\'ery imaginable barbarity to impress upon the peojile the awfulness of Siamese wrath. Luang Praliang, after Vien-tian the principal Laotine centre, showed more prudence on this occasion, antl, though having to suLimit to the numerous indignities always heaped by Orientals on subject native races, is still the principal centre of the Laotine nation. Eastern Laos (see below) became a French protectorate in 1S93.

Neglecting the wikl trilies which occup.v the moun- tainous districts the distribution of races at the present day is as follows: (1) the French Colony of Cochin China, for which alone proper statistics are forthcom- ing, includes in its population 1,968,000 Annamites, 232.000 Cambodians (Khniers), 02.000 Chinese, 7,800 Europeans (inclmling about 2,.'j00 French troops); (2) in .\nnam anil Tong-king the population is almost exclusively Annamile; (3) Caml)odia is peopled by the descendants of the ancient Khmers and Ciampas, and some Annamito and Chinese colonies; (4) the people of Laos (the Laotines) are probably the purest race in Indo-China, and the direct descendants of the Thai or Shan nation.

French Indo-China, which embraces the whole of the eastern and a large portion of the northern and southern sections of the peninsula, is bounded on the north and north-east by the Chinese provinces of Yun- nan and Kwang-si, on the east and south-east by the Gulf of Tong-king and the Sea of China; on the south- west by the Gulf of Siam; on the west by a conven- tional line between Siam and Camliodia and then by the right bank of the Me-kong, which separates it from Siam and Burmah. Its area has been estimated at 262,000 square miles, but this does not include (a) the provinces of Battambang and Siem-reap restored to Cambodia in accordance with the terms of the Franco-Siamese Treaty of 1907; (b) the neutral zone 25 kilometres wide (roughly 15% miles) on the right bank of the Me-kong, which is placed untler French control; (c) the new region between the basins of the Me-kong and Me-nan, estimated approximately at 77,000 square miles, lately conceded to French influ- ence. The Annamite Range extends from the ex- treme north, where it branches out into numerous steep and rugged ranges, to Cape St. Jacques in the south. It is covered for the most part with thick forests, and towards the centre and south approaches so close to the sea that it seems at times to rise abrupt from the waters. This range separates the basin of the Me-kong from the river systems of Tong-king and Annam. French Indo-China has a coast-line of about 1,500 miles. Beginning from the north, the first 375 miles of its shores are washed by the Gulf of Tong- king. For about 100 miles the sea is studded with islands — Ke-bao, Kak-ba, and the Pirate Islands, long the haunt of Chinese corsairs, being the most notable. To the south of Kak-lia, the coast is low-lying and marshy, and characterized by the numeroas mouths of the rivers Thai-bing, Song-koi, Song-ma, Song-ka, whose alluvium has formed the delta of Tong-king as well as the fertile plains of Thanh-hoa and Nghe-an. From Cape Bung-kwiua to Cape St. Jacques steep promontories — the termination of minorchains thrown off by the Annamite Range — alternate with low sandy plains formed by the numberless short rivers which rush down from the mountains into the Sea of China. The principal harljours are that formed by the River of Hue (at Thuan-an), the Bay of Turan, the Ports of Kwi-nhon and Song-kau, the Bays of Van-fong, Nha- trang, Kam-rang, and Fan-thiet.

From Cape St. Jacques to Ha^tien the coasts are again