The Franco– Viet Minh War (1946–1954) began following skirmishes between French and Viet Minh (Vietnamese Liberation League) troops in Haiphong and Hanoi. The war lasted eight years and marked the end of French colonial rule in Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos).
Although the war began in 1946, the conflict between France and Vietnam can be traced back to 1885, when France colonized Vietnam and divided it into three separate administrative areas: Cochin China, Annam, and Tonkin. Vietnamese resistance to French colonial rule was immediate and constant. In 1930 the Vietnamese independence movement reached a decisive turn, when Ho Chi Minh (1890–1969) helped create the Vietnamese Communist Party. The party later changed its name to the Indochinese Communist Party in order to include Laos and Cambodia.
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