The French NEVER get Indochina. What could be their colony in Asian instead? French Korea/hainan/Philippines?

French colony in Asia other than Vietnam/laos/Cambodia

  • Philippines

    Votes: 3 7.7%

  • Hainan Island

    Votes: 11 28.2%

  • Korea

    Votes: 13 33.3%

  • Other

    Votes: 5 12.8%

  • If the French can't get Indochina so they can't get anything

    Votes: 15 38.5%
  • Total voters
    39

zarathustra

Let's Imagine the French simply can't get Vietnam. Either because its Chinese, British, stronger idk. The point is there is never a "French Indochina". What could be their next colony instead? I've heard the French REALLY wanted a colony there, so I suppose that even if they never acquire Vietnam, they would still try to grab something.
I think the best candidates could be
- Philippines
- Hainan Island (Not sure if there is something worth there honesty) + a little of Guangdong?
- Korea (too strong?)
It heavily depends on witch type of colony the French try to stablish tho.


Also a mostly related question:
I know the French "acquired" Cambodia after the King "begged" for becoming a French protectorate in order to avoid total annexation by the Viet/Thai. But I don't get why the French also tried to hold Vietnam so soon. I'm my ignorance, it sounds better to hold a ""friendly"" Cambodia first, and try to expand against Siam( as they tried
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1893_Franco-Siamese_crisis ), forming a stronger southern dominion, than to ALSO hold North Vietnam - that AFAIK were way more aggressive against the french and overall stronger. tl;dr French Indochina but it's just big Cambodia
 

raharris1973

Gone Fishin'
Evil Crusader said:
This, plus "nothing". They did try for Korea, but without preliminary success in Indochina, they're going to face major logistical hurdles that may well prevent success there.
Click to expand...
If they fail in Cochinchina and Cambodia in early 1860s, their time window for Korea would be a couple decades narrow. If they fail in growing/completing Indochina in the 1880s, I don’t see how they could succeed, then or later, in the face of emerging Chinese, Russia, Japanese, British, or German competition.
 

raharris1973

Gone Fishin'
To me, a tandem British grab of Taiwan and French grab of Hainan during the 2nd opium war of the late 1850s has a certain appeal.

The Philippines - French ambitions for Spanish colonies like the PI and Cuba and Mexico were often rumored, but only ever actually succeeded for Hispaniola and Luisiana. Not sure why.
 
AsukaEMP

AsukaEMP

If not Indochina then the most likely answer is 'nothing'... Quite frankly France was lucky to get any major Asian colony at all in the 19th century. They came out of the 18th century as the obvious loser in Asia, holding nothing but a handful of ports and factories scattered across India. Throughout the period of 1815-1858 nobody would have expected France to rebound from that. They had no power base and didn't have the means to sustain any major campaign in East Asia, which is why the Vietnamese emperor could persecute French Catholic priests for decades without any repercussions from France. As things were going France would have ended up with just some concessions in China.
​
It's only because of a coincidental series of events between 1856-1858 (the execution of Chapdelaine, the Arrow Incident, the execution of two Spanish priests in Vietnam, etc.) that France all of a sudden found itself with both a cause and the means to carry out a campaign in the region.

zarathustra said:
wasn't Hainan integral part of China? Not a lease but just China
Or there it was mostly unorganized native lands?
Click to expand...
Hainan had been part of China since the Han Dynasty. So by the 1850s it'd have been part of China for just under two millennia.
Most of the island's inhabitants were descended from Han Chinese settlers, along with groups of both sinicised and non-sinicised natives.​
 

raharris1973

Gone Fishin'
AsukaEMP said:
Hainan had been part of China since the Han Dynasty. So by the 1850s it'd have been part of China for just under two millennia.
Most of the island's inhabitants were descended from Han Chinese settlers, along with groups of both sinicised and non-sinicised natives.
Click to expand...
It was still rough, rural, heavily forested, with a high minority content, and very peripheral to Chinese dynastic affairs however despite its long pedigree within the empire.
 

Strategos' Risk

I'm wondering if the French could've just grabbed the entire Leizhou peninsula, though now that I actually look at it on a map, there's no clear northern boundary, let alone a defensible border.
 
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