FRANCE, ANNAM, AND CHINA. 



FROM 1787 TO 1887. 



The serious complications which arose in 1884 between France 

 and China, springing out of the Treaty between Annam and France, 

 signed at Hufe, on the 23rd of August, 1883, and which threatened 

 a war on a gigantic scale, in which not only France and China, 

 but Great Britain and other nations might have become involved, 

 naturally awakened in political and commercial circles the deepest 

 anxiety. 



In order, however, to arrive at a correct estimate, as well as a 

 sound judgment, upon the " miserable complications " which 

 led to this crisis, and also of the interests and position of China, 

 as affected by the terms of peace demanded by France, it will be 

 necessary that we should, in the first place, give a brief historic 

 account of Annam, and afterwards examine the position assumed 

 by France, upon which her policy was based. 



The Empire of Annam is situated in what is called the Indo- 

 Chinese Peninsula, and consists, or rather prior to the French 

 annexations of 1862 and 1874, consisted of Cochin-China, Tonquin, 

 Ciampa, and a portion of the province of Laos. 



Tonquin, which has been for many years the scene of wars and 

 insurrections, is a province which has never been exactly defined, 

 and is bounded on the north by China, on the east by the sea, on 

 the south by the province of Ciampa, and on the west by Annam. 



The capital is Hanoi or Kecho, or, to use the official language, 



