Cochinchina

Cochinchina, also Cochinchina, French Cochinchine, is an old name for the south of Vietnam and parts of eastern Cambodia, 1863-1954 especially for the French colony of that name.

Introduced the concept of the Portuguese Tomé Pires in 1515 as a Cauchy Chyna. Pires, who stayed back in Malacca, took the name from the Malay, where they described a land between Champa and China. The Malay word in turn came from the Chinese Zhi (Chinese交趾, Pinyin Jiāozhǐ, Vietnamese: Giao Chi ), which throughout Vietnam designated including the lower reaches and deltas of the Red River. China has been added to distinguish the country from the Indian Cochin. However, the inverse shape Chinacochim appears already 1502/3 on Genoese cards before the Europeans sailed the South China Sea and thus Malacca.

Later, in the 16th century so that the Nguyễn separate state was called the city of Hue, which in 1679, was the founding of the Apostolic Vicariate of Cochinchina, general European language. Thus a distinction was made in the 17th century between Tonkin and Cochin China in the north to the south. The southern part of Gia Định (1979 merged with Saigon to Ho Chi Minh City) and Dong Nai was then referred to only in the late 18th century as a low - Cochin.

1862 annexed the French Cochinchina as a colonial territory. The center and the North were as Annam and Tonkin French protectorate territories under the nominal rule of the Emperor of Hue.

After the Franco-German war 1870/71 was up for discussion whether Cochin China should not be ceded to the German Empire as a French reparation. This leaning Chancellor Bismarck from however.

Since the end of French colonial rule in Indochina in 1954, the name Cochin is used less and less, and is now uncommon. The current designation for the southern part of Vietnam is Nam Bo.

The 56th Statistical Yearbook of France for the period 1940-45 are an area of ​​64,700 km ² in (Vietnam total 328,000 km ²). The population in 1936 was 4.616 million (from 18.972 million for Vietnam in total).