French colonialism in Vietnam lasted more than six decades. By the late 1880s, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia were all controlled by France and collectively referred to as Indochine Français (French Indochina). Indochina became one of France’s most important colonial possessions. French colonialism was focussed largely on production, profit and labour. It had a profound impact on the lives of people in Vietnam.
To justify their imperialism, the French developed their own principle called the mission civilisatrice (or ‘civilising mission’).
This was, in effect, a French form of the English ‘white man’s burden’. Both were theories utilised by powerful European nations to justify their conquest and colonisation of people and places in Africa, Asia and South America.
