The
Franco-Siamese War of 1893 was a conflict between the
French Third Republic and the
Kingdom of Siam.
Auguste Pavie, French vice consul in
Luang Prabang in
1886, was the chief agent in furthering French interests in Laos. His intrigues, which took advantage of Siamese weakness in the region and periodic invasions by
Vietnamese rebels from
Tonkin, increased tensions between
Bangkok and
Paris. Following the conflict, the Siamese agreed to cede
Laos to France, an act that led to the significant expansion of
French Indochina.
Context
The conflict started when
French Indochina’s Governor-General Jean de Lanessan sent Auguste Pavie as consul to Bangkok to bring Laos under French rule. The government in Bangkok, mistakenly believing that they would be supported by the British government, refused to concede territory east of the
Mekong and instead reinforced their military and administrative presence.
Events were brought to a head by two separate incidents when Siamese governors in
Khammuan and
Nongkhai expelled three French merchants from the middle Mekong in September 1892, two of them, Champenois and Esquilot, on suspicion of opium smuggling.
[The Kingdoms of Laos by Peter Simms, p.206-207 ] Shortly afterwards, the French consul in
Luang Prabang, Massie, feverish and discouraged, committed suicide on his way back to
Saigon.
Back in France, these incidents were used by the Colonial Party (
Parti Colonial) to stir up nationalistic anti-Siamese sentiment, as a pretext for intervention.
The death of Massie left
Auguste Pavie as the new French Consul. In March 1893 Pavie demanded that the Siamese evacuate all military posts on the east side of the Mekong River south of Khammuan, claiming that the land belonged to Vietnam. To back up these demands, the French sent the gunboat
Lutin to
Bangkok, where it was moored on the
Chao Phraya next to the French legation.
Conflict
French ships Inconstant and Comète under fire in the Paknam incident, July 13, 1893.
When Siam rejected the French demands, de Lanessan sent 3 military columns into the disputed region to assert French control in April 1893. 8 small Siamese garrisons west of the Mekong withdrew upon the arrival of the central column, but the advance of the other columns met with resistance: in the north, the French came under siege on the
island of Khoung, with the capture of an officer, Thoreaux; while in the south, the occupation proceeded smoothly until an ambush by the Siamese on the village of Keng Kert resulted in the killing of a French police inspector
Grosgurin, confined to his sickbed, together with most of the Vietnamese militia whom he commanded.As a result, relations between Bangkok and the West soured, with France demanding reparations. The British sent in 3 navy ships to the mouth of the
Chao Phraya, in case evacuation of British citizens became necessary.
In turn the French went one step further in July 1893 by ordering two of their ships, the sloop
Inconstant and the gunboat
Comète, to sail up the Chao Phraya towards Bangkok, without the permission of the Siamese: they came under fire from the fort at
Paknam on July 13, 1893. The French returned fire and forced their way to Bangkok.
[The Kingdoms of Laos by Peter Simms p.209-210 ]With the their guns trained on the royal palace in Bangkok, the French delivered an ultimatum to the Siamese on July 20 to hand over the territory, to withdraw their garrisons there, to pay an indemnity of two million francs in reparation for the fighting at Paknam, and to punish those responsible for the killings in the disputed territory.
When Siam did not immediately comply unconditionally to the ultimatum, the French blockaded the Siamese coast.
In the end the Siamese submitted fully to the French conditions, finding no support from the British. In addition, the French demanded as guarantees the temporary occupation of
Chantaburi and the demilitarisation of
Battambang,
Siemreap and a 25 kilometre-wide zone on the western bank of the Mekong.
The conflict led to the signature of the Franco-Siamese Treaty, on October 3, 1893.
Consequences
The Siamese agreed to cede
Laos to France, an act that led to the significant expansion of
French Indochina. In 1896, France signed a treaty with Britain that defined the border between Laos and the British territory in Upper Burma. The Kingdom of Laos became a protectorate and was initially placed under the Governor General of Indochina in Hanoi. Pavie, who almost single handedly brought Laos under French rule, saw to the officialization in
Hanoi.
The French and the British both had strong interests in controlling parts of Indochina. Twice in the 1890’s, the French and British were on the verge of war over two different routes leading to
Yunnan. Two major difficulties stopped these two powers from war. The first was the geography of the land made it difficult to move troops efficiently and therefore would have made waging a war very costly and most likely ineffective. The second factor that kept the two countries apart was that they were both fighting a very difficult battle within their respective countries.
Malaria was common and deadly. The routes that the two countries were interested in never really came into use. In 1904 the French and the British put aside their differences with the
Entente Cordiale of 1904, which ended their dispute over routes in southern Asia.
Gallery
See also
