Franco-Siamese War of 1893

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Territorial claims abandoned by Siam in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

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.

The conflict started when French Indochina’s Governor-General Jean de Lanessan sent Auguste Pavie as consul to Bangkok to bring the city of Laos under French rule. A Siamese Governor expelled two French opium smugglers from the middle Mekong in September of 1892, leading some to believe that the French were motivated by some of the financial benefits that opium can bring. Soon after, the ill French vice consul committed suicide. This left Auguste Pavie as the new French Vice Consul. Pavie then 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.

On March 14, 1893, the French sent a gunboat Le Lutin to Bangkok, which was moored in the Chao Phraya by the French legation, maintaining an armed threat throughout the crisis. Fighting broke out as French and Vietnamese forces encountered Siamese forces in Laos in April 1893.

French ships Inconstant and Comete under fire in the Paknam incident, July 13, 1893.

In July of 1893 two French ships, the sloop Inconstant and the gunboat Comete, were fired upon by the Paknam Fort, while on the way up the Chaophraya River.^[1] The French threatened the palace at Bangkok, and on July 20th the French gave Siam an ultimatum to turn over the territory and also the indemnity of two million francs. As a guarantee for the compensation, Siam was to deposit three million francs. When Siam did not immediately comply unconditionally, the French blockaded the Siamese coast. Finally, the Siamese agreed unconditionally to the treaty and it was signed on October 3rd. In addition, the French demanded as guarantees the temporary occupation of Chantaboon and the demilitarisation of Battambang, Siemreap and a 25 kilometre-wide zone on the western bank of the Mekong.

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.