Treaty of Huế (1884)

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The Treaty of Huế from 1884 (also known as the Patenôtre Treaty ) was an unequal treaty between the Nguyễn dynasty ruling Vietnam and France . The treaty was negotiated by Regent Nguyễn Văn Tường and the French diplomat Jules Patenôtre . It replaced the Harmand Treaty concluded in 1883 under military pressure from the French . The treaty confirmed the dynasty as the legitimate ruler of Vietnam, but granted France extensive protectorate rights and made the Empire of Vietnam the colonial territory of French Indochina .

background

After Henri Rivière's military expedition near Hanoi in 1883 had ended with his death, France ordered a fleet for a punitive expedition against the Empire of Vietnam. The treaty came into being under military pressure in August 1883 after the French fleet had bombed the coastal defense forts in front of the imperial city in the Battle of Thuận An .

As early as 1883, a contract had been signed for France under the leadership of Jules Harmand . The treaty granted France extensive protectorate rights in Tonkin and Annam . He also envisaged the addition of several imperial provinces to the French colony in Cochinchina . Meanwhile, France put the traditional hegemonic power China under pressure in the Sino-French War and, in the agreement of Tientsin in May 1884, achieved the abandonment of client status over Vietnam by the Empire of China .

Due to the continued war with China, the French government under Jules Ferry suspended the ratification of the treaty with Vietnam, as it feared that its own military forces would be fragmented in the event of the Vietnamese resistance.

Conclusion of contract

In June 1884, the French diplomat Jules Patenôtre and the Vietnamese regent Nguyen Van Tuong negotiated a new version of the Harmand Treaty. The main difference in the demands on Vietnam was that the demand for territorial expansion of the colony was dropped at the expense of the imperial provinces. The treaty reflected the end of China's hegemonic relationship over the Nguyen dynasty and made Vietnam a vassal state of the colonial power France. As already outlined in the Harmand Treaty, the Nguyen dynasty lost sovereignty over its foreign policy, and the emperor's army was formally subordinated to the French. The treaty assigned the function of the Nguyen dynasty to continue the internal administration of the protectorate. The treaty also explicitly granted an imperial governor for Tonkin, who was, however, controlled by a French resident. At the court of the emperor, the office of a French general resident was created, who was to control the imperial governance.

The treaty was celebrated with the burning of the Chinese investment seal at the court of the Vietnamese emperor. The seal was replaced by a French seal.

consequences

The treaty formed the legal basis for France's colonial rule in Indochina until it was interrupted by the Second World War and the August Revolution in 1945. The French side continued to assert new rights without consulting the imperial court, including an obligation to consent Succession to the Vietnamese monarch. Pro-French politicians like Prime Minister Phạm Quỳnh tried at the beginning of the 20th century to avert special French requests on the basis of the treaty.

The treaty signed by the Foreign Ministry also cemented the administrative order in French Indochina . The colony was administered by the Navy and Colonial Ministry. The Tonkin and Annam protectorates were administered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After the end of the armed resistance of the Cần Vương movement, France revised key provisions of the treaty without consulting the imperial court. With the abolition of the imperial governor in Tonkin, the imperial sphere of influence on Annam was pushed back.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Bruce L. Lockhart, William J. Duiker: Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Oxford 2006, p. 297
  2. ↑ Bruce L. Lockhart, William J. Duiker: Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Oxford 2006, p. 152 f.
  3. ↑ a b c d Christopher Goscha: Vietnam - A New History. New York 2016, p. 70, p. 83
  4. ↑ a b c Pierre Brocheux, Daniel Hémery: Indochina. An ambiguous colonization, 1858-1954. Berkeley 2009, pp. 45-46