French conquest of Vietnam

French conquest of Vietnam
Top: French and Spaniard armadas attacking Saigon, 18 February 1859. Bottom: French marines storm Vietnamese defenders on the shore of Thuận An (Huế) on 20 August 1883.
Date 1 September 1858 – 9 June 1885 (26 years, 9 months, 1 week and 1 day) Location Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Southern China, Fujian, Taiwan Result French victory Treaty of Huế Patenôtre Accords Treaty of Tientsin Vietnamese monarchy became a French vassal state Beginning of French Indochina
Belligerents
Second French Empire (1858–71)  French Third Republic (1871–85)  Kingdom of Spain (1858–62)	Đại Nam (1858–83)  Qing Empire (1883–85) Black Flag Army (1873–85)
Commanders and leaders
Napoleon III Charles Rigault de Genouilly François Page Léonard Charner Louis Adolphe Bonard Francis Garnier  † Jules Ferry Henri Rivière  † Amédée Courbet Sébastien Lespès Louis Brière de l'Isle Jacques Duchesne Isabella II of Spain Carlos Palanca y Gutierrez	Tự Đức Nguyễn Tri Phương Hoàng Diệu  † Hoàng Kế Viêm Tôn Thất Thuyết (exiled) Empress Dowager Cixi Prince Gong Zuo Zongtang Zhang Peilun Feng Zicai Su Yuanchun Liu Yongfu

The French conquest of Vietnam¹ (1858–1885) was a series of military expeditions that pitted the Second French Empire, later the French Third Republic, against the Vietnamese empire of Đại Nam in the mid-late 19th century. Its end and results were victories for the French as they defeated the Vietnamese and their Chinese allies in 1885, the incorporation of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, and finally established French rules over constituent territories of French Indochina over Mainland Southeast Asia in 1887.

A joint Franco-Spanish expedition was initiated in 1858 by invading Tourane (modern day Da Nang) in September 1858 and Saigon five months later. This four-year campaign resulted in King Tu Duc signing a treaty in June 1862, granting the French sovereignty over three provinces in the South. The French annexed the three southwestern provinces in 1867 to form Cochinchina. Having consolidated their power in Cochinchina, they conquered the rest of Vietnam through a series of campaigns in Tonkin between 1873 and 1886. French ambitions to subjugate Tonkin were opposed by the Qing dynasty, the region being part of the Chinese sphere of influence.

The French eventually drove most of the Chinese troops out of Vietnam, but remaining groups in some Vietnamese provinces continued to resist France's control over Tonkin. The French government sent Fournier to Tianjin to negotiate the Tianjin Accord, according to which China recognized the French authority over Annam and Tonkin, abandoning its claims to suzerainty over Vietnam. On June 6, 1884, Treaty of Huế was signed, dividing Vietnam into three regions: Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina, each under three different separate regimes. Cochinchina was a French colony, while Tonkin and Annam were protectorates, and the Nguyễn court was put under French supervision.