Moscow, Nauka Publishing House. 1975. 224 p. Circulation 1800. Price 1 rub. 24 kopecks.
The monograph of Yu.P. Dementiev, a researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Candidate of Historical Sciences, is devoted to an important stage of France's colonial policy on the Indochina Peninsula. The author's attention to the colonial policy of imperialist powers at this "world crossroads", to the identification of political, strategic, and economic interests of states is justified, since in the second half of the XIX - early XX centuries, colonial empires were formed, and the division of the world into spheres of influence was completed. During these years, the areas of domination of the colonial powers in Asia were clearly revealed and defined, which developed forms and methods of plundering the oppressed peoples who rose up to fight for freedom and independence.
The author aims to highlight the colonial expansion of France on the Indochina Peninsula and the consolidation of these seizures in the form of an Indochina Alliance. The chronological framework of the study is based on the study of colonial policy and the transformation of France into a Pacific power (pp. 16-17). In other publications, including the works of Vietnamese scholars who approach the study of this period in the history of their people from the standpoint of the struggle against foreign intervention, there is a different periodization. They identify 1858-1897 as the period of the loss of national independence and the subsequent period (1897-1918) as the time of the creation of the colonial administration 2. Yu. P. Dementyev proceeds from the desire to outline the stages of the colonial policy of France, and in this respect 1907 can be taken abroad, but if we proceed from the analysis of internal processes, taking place in different countries
1 See his earlier works: "France's Colonial Policy in China and Indochina (1844-1862)", Moscow, 1958; " France's Policy in Cambodia and Laos (1852-1907)", Moscow, 1960.
2 Nguyen Khac Vien. The Long Resistance (1858 - 1975). Hanoi. 1975, pp. 9 - 46.
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In the case of the Indochina Peninsula, as well as world-historical ones that are touched upon in the work, it is possible to make some adjustments to the periodization proposed by the author.
The monograph examines the socio-economic and political situation of the states of the Indochina Peninsula before the French invasion, the beginning and development of French expansion in this region of Asia, and inter-imperialist contradictions, especially Franco-English as dominant at that time. Along with the foreign policy aspect of the French colonization of the Indochina Peninsula, the paper reveals the methods and forms of economic, social and political enslavement of the peoples of this region of Asia, and notes the rise of resistance to colonialism. The wide range of problems presented, both international and domestic, often leaves no room for the author to elaborate on some important issues in detail.
Among such problems is the nature of Franco-Chinese relations on the issue of Vietnam, the formation of the Indochina Alliance put the French colonialists in front of the need to solve a twofold task-to ensure favorable external conditions for the creation of an alliance, or rather, a colonial empire, that is, to reach an agreement with England on spheres of influence in Asia and to ensure a benevolent attitude of China as the" patron " of Vietnam in the internal political plan of France, it was necessary to reach an understanding with the local feudal rulers. France's first steps were aimed at reaching an agreement with the Qing rulers on the admission of the French to the Indochina Peninsula. Bourgeois historiography and propaganda try to present the case in such a way that China was just as much a victim of the aggression of imperialist powers as Vietnam and other Asian countries. Meanwhile, the Qing rulers sought to enter into collusion with the colonial powers at the expense of the interests of other peoples and States, which they were obliged to protect by virtue of the relations that existed between them. The paper reveals the nature of Franco-Chinese relations in 1884-1885, which led to the transfer of suzerainty rights in Vietnam by the Qing colonizers, but, unfortunately, the Sino-French negotiations on Vietnam, which lasted until 1911, remained unenlightened.
Yu. P. Dementiev shows the essence of the Anglo-French contradictions on the Indochina Peninsula, the colonial nature of the division of this region of Asia into spheres of influence. In this part of the monograph, new, previously unknown archival materials (mainly French) are introduced into scientific circulation, sources and literature are carefully studied. The author describes in detail the course of delineation of spheres of influence between Britain and France on the Indochina Peninsula, analyzes the motivations of the Anglo - French agreement in Asia. But despite this achievement, the struggle between the two powers to expand their spheres of influence continued, and Yu. P. Dementyev concludes that French diplomacy managed, using the Anglo-Russian and Anglo-German contradictions, to acquire new territories on the Indochina Peninsula, in particular, to capture Luan Prabant and start organizing a single colonial administration of all the occupied territories. land plots (p. 116-117).
The monograph says that France used the "favorable international situation" (p.118) to expand its sphere of influence in the Indochina Peninsula, but what exactly these favorable international conditions were, is not explained. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the politics of the leading colonial powers were already clearly marked by the aggravation of inter-imperialist contradictions, the struggle for the redivision of the world-factors that led to the First World War. The analysis of these processes is beyond the scope of the paper, but in the part related to the Indochina Peninsula countries, it seemed appropriate as an example of reflecting world problems on a regional scale.
Along with the external forces that hindered French colonial expansion, the Indochina Peninsula was actively affected by internal forces that forced the colonialists to make decisions based on local conditions. The question arises why France was faced with the task of creating an Indochina Union, while its entire policy was characterized by the slogan "divide and rule". Apparently, the answer to this question is that the colonialists took into account the deep internal processes that took place in the state.-
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vakh of the Indochina Peninsula, in the relations that developed between them. Even before the French invasion, the peoples of this region of Asia had close economic, cultural and political ties. These peoples tended towards mutual rapprochement, as evidenced by the data presented in the work on the high level of intraregional trade (p. 24-25), on the mutual influence of cultures. Colonial expansion disrupted the course of this natural-historical process, but it could not completely slow it down. The French administration tried to use the nascent connections to its advantage for the purposes of colonial exploitation. However, objectively, French colonialism helped to unite the peoples of the Indochina Peninsula in a united front of the struggle for national liberation.
The French administration understood the danger of bringing the peoples of this colony closer together and tried to maintain and strengthen disunity between them under the guise of the Indochina Union. The unchanging, special statute of Cochinchina, which the colonialists sought to preserve even after the formation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on September 2, 1945, testified that the Indochina Union was conceived primarily as a convenient form of colonial administration, as something unified primarily in relation to external forces, while its internal structure prevented the rapprochement of peoples and peoples. the transformation of this French colony into a single economic and political whole. Under the flag of the Indochina Union, the author rightly emphasizes (p. 140), a colonial policy was pursued to separate peoples and already established states, to prevent the strengthening of national consolidation, to incite hostility and distrust between the numerous nations and nationalities that were part of this colonial empire of France. The formation of the Indochina Union allowed the colonialists to centralize government, create an apparatus of violence and oppression, and, while pursuing a policy of dividing peoples, at the same time preserve the integrity of their possessions and seek their expansion through new acquisitions. Despite the apparent inconsistency of the conclusion that the creation of the Indochina Union reflected a policy of "divide and rule", it seems natural and correct, since the essence of the colonial policy of France and other imperialist powers did not differ much, regardless of the forms in which it was implemented.
A significant place in the monograph is given to showing the colonial exploitation of the peoples of the Indochina Peninsula, as well as their struggle for national liberation. Yu.P. Dementiev made an attempt to show the features of French capitalism as financial and trade - usurious, which left a peculiar imprint on its activities in the colonies. Education in 1875 The Indochina Bank was an important milestone in the comprehensive development of the resources of the first Asian and then the rest of the French colonial possessions; the bank's activities spread far beyond the Indochina Peninsula, and it was one of the leading inspirers of colonial expansion.
The conclusion that France did not resort to capital export at the initial stages of colonial expansion, but concentrated its efforts mainly on administrative and bureaucratic methods of domination, on turning colonies into markets for goods and sources of raw materials (p. 156), reflects a common feature of the policy of all colonial powers during the creation of the apparatus of oppression, which was already followed by It is in this respect that we can note the differences in the methods and forms of exploitation, in the introduction of capitalism in the colonies, depending on the national characteristics and peculiarities of the mother country. French colonialism had its own peculiarities, specifics not only in the economic plunder of the colony considered by the author and in the state-legal construction, but also in the socio-political course, which was expressed in restraining the development of the national bourgeoisie, which later made it easier to establish the hegemony of the working class in the Vietnamese revolution.
One should probably not deny the fact that the economic development of Indochina took place already in the period of the formation of the French colonial apparatus and in parallel with it, although it was ugly, one-sided, depending on the needs of the mother country. The author writes about the" development " of the Indochina colonies, about the extensive railway construction, for which
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substantial funds were released by French banks, about the construction of the Trans-Indochina Railway, etc. (pp. 169-173). In other words, a well-developed infrastructure was created, which was a necessary and material prerequisite for more efficient exploitation of the natural resources of this region of Asia.
The section on the struggle of the peoples of the Indochina Peninsula against French aggression and colonial oppression is interesting because it considers the national liberation movement in all countries of the Indochina Peninsula as an interconnected whole. Initially, the movements for national liberation had a monarchical connotation; at subsequent stages, significant sections of the people joined them, and they acquired a national character.
Not all aspects of the multi-dimensional problem considered by the author are fully disclosed. Such issues as the Franco-Chinese negotiations on Indochina, the creation of the Entente and the imperialist division of spheres of domination in Asia, the socio-political activities of French colonialism in the Indochina Peninsula, and others are still waiting to be explored.
At the same time, the monograph significantly expands our understanding of the history of colonialism in Southeast Asia, which left a noticeable imprint on the entire subsequent fate of the peoples of the Indochina Peninsula. Their long struggle against colonial rule, which began in the middle of the XIX century, was successfully completed only in the 70s of the XX century. The study of this struggle, the analysis of the colonial policies of the French, British, Japanese, and American aggressors in this region of Asia is the most important direction for further studying the history of these peoples and exposing colonialism.
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