Tonkin

As Tonkin, also Tonkin, Vietnamese Bắc Bo ( northern boundary ), the northernmost part of Vietnam is called. The name was never officially used by Vietnam. Dong Kinh ( Eastern Capital ) was in the Gents Lê Dynasty around 1430 the name for the now called Hanoi capital. When the Dutch East India Company (VOC ) established a trading post here in the 17th century, the name Tonkin input found in the European literature.

Geography

Tonkin is bordered to the north by the Chinese province of Guangxi, is on the west by Laos, on the south Annam, the central part of Vietnam, and to the east by the Gulf of Tonkin, the part of the South China Sea. The river forms the border with Ma Annam.

Essentially Tonkin is formed from the lower reaches and delta of the Red River. The fertile plain mainly serves rice cultivation. The region is rich in mineral resources such as coal and ore

Major cities in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi Tonkin are and the port city of Haiphong. Tonkin covers the three northern regions of Vietnam, with these two cities and 23 provinces. The total area covers 114,690 km ² and 27.9417 million inhabitants.

The 56th Statistical Yearbook of France for the period 1940-45 are an area of ​​115,700 km ² in (Vietnam total 328,000 km ²). The population in 1936 was 8.7 million (from 18.972 million for Vietnam in total).

Off the coast of Tonkin lies Halong Bay, one of the most famous attractions of the area and World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

The boundary line of the Vietnamese- Chinese border has long been controversial. Historically, they went to the Treaty of Tianjin in 1858 back ( with additions in 1896 ), in which renounce the former Imperial China, among others, on the protectorate of Tonkin and had to acknowledge this as a French protectorate. The disputed boundary line has been discussed several times in negotiations between China and Vietnam (including 1957). From the early 1970s, however, there were frequent border incidents for which both states gave each other the blame. These boundary disputes were finally one of the reasons for the Chinese -Vietnamese War in 1979.

In 1999 the limit was set by contract.