Franco-Chinese War
The Franco-Chinese War lasted from September 1881 to June 1885. Its underlying cause was the French desire for control of the Red River, which linked Hanoi to resource-wealthy Yunnan province in China. Although the 1874 Treaty of Saigon opened the river to navigation, harassment by the Black Flag bandit group in the early 1880s impeded French traders. Consequently, the French government dispatched a small expeditionary force to clear the Black Flags from the Red River valley. The Qing court viewed a European army in Tonkin as a threat to its security and began to prepare for war.
Hanoi was seized by French forces under Captain Henri Rivière in April 1882. Rivière was killed while clearing Black Flags from the Red River delta in the spring of 1883.
On August 25, 1883 the Hué treaty was signed between the emperor of Annam and France. China rejected this treaty and moved forces in Tonkin province. Although neither China nor France declared war on the other, combat operations began in the autumn of 1883.
In the 11 May and 9 June 1884 Treaties of Tien Tsin China acknolwedged the Hué treaty but the same month attacked, in the hamlet of Bac Le, a French column sent to occupy the country in accordance with this treaty. This resulted in the creation of a larger expeditionary force which captured Lang Son in February 1885. Following an unsuccessful attack across the Chinese border at Bang Bo, Lang Son was hastily abandoned by the French, which brought about the fall of the Jules Ferry government in France.
In 1884, the French blocked the Keelung and Tamsui harbors of Taiwan.
In August 1884, during the battle of Foochow, the navy recently built by China was utterly destroyed while at anchor by the forces of France in a brief battle lasting a little over thirty minutes.
The treaty ending the war was signed on June 9, 1885, China giving up its sovereignty over Annam and Tonkin.
These territories were later included into French Indochina.
See also
Categories: Military stubs