Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-30T21:17:51.421Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The ‘Last’ Friendship Exchanges between Siam and Vietnam, 1879–1882: Siam between Vietnam and France—and Beyond

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2015

Junko Koizumi
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Studies of Siam's diplomatic relations from the mid-nineteenth century have been focussed on its troubled relations with Western colonial powers, often within a bilateral framework. While highlighting issues such as territorial losses and treaty revisions, scholarly interest tends to have overlooked Siam's relations with its neighbouring countries. Based on archival records at the National Archives of Thailand, this article aims to fill this gap by examining diplomatic exchanges between the Siamese and Vietnamese courts that took place between 1879 and 1882. In April 1879, a royal mission from the Vietnamese court bearing gifts and a royal letter from Tự Đức to Chulalongkorn arrived in Bangkok. It was allegedly the first formal mission from the Vietnamese court in almost half a century after the two countries had come into conflict in the 1830s. By examining how Siam and Vietnam sought to maintain and manipulate ‘traditional’ interstate relations in the face of treaty arrangements that France enforced upon Vietnam, this article reveals complex issues involved in the process of negotiations, such as the questions of maintaining the equality between the two monarchies and of the ‘translation’ of the concepts of sovereignty between Thai and Sino-Vietnamese languages, and suggests the necessity to pay more attention to historical and broader regional contexts in Asia.

Keywords

SiamVietnamFranceChinainterstate relations
Type
Articles
Information
TRaNS: Trans-Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia , Volume 4 , Special Issue 1: Student Mobility within Southeast Asia , January 2016 , pp. 131 - 164
Copyright
Copyright © Institute of East Asian Studies, Sogang University 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aurousseau, L. 1922. Jules Harmand. Bulletin de l'Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient 22, 402–404.Google Scholar
Bangkok Calendar . 1871.Google Scholar
Bradley, D. B. 1971 (1873). Nangsue akkharaphithansap/Dictionary of the Siamese Language. Bangkok: Khurusapha.Google Scholar
Breazeale, Kennon. 1975. The Integration of the Lao States into the Thai Kingdom. Unpublished PhD Thesis. University of Oxford.Google Scholar
Brocheux, Pierre and Hémery, Daniel (translated by Dill-Klein, Ly Lan, with Jennings, Eric, Taylor, Nora, and Tousignant, Noémi). 2009. Indochina: An Ambiguous Colonization, 1858–1954. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Chandler, David Porter. 1973. Cambodia before the French: Politics in a Tributary Kingdom, 1794–1848. Unpublished PhD Thesis. University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Chang, Chi-Hsiung (Translated by Chen Si, ). 2007. Conflict between the Eastern and Western principles of international order: Negotiations over status and order between China and Siam in the last years of the Qing Dynasty and the early Republican period. Social Sciences in China 28(4), 62–85.Google Scholar
Choi, Byung Wook. 2004. Southern Vietnam under the Reign of Minh Mạng (1820–1841): Central Policies and Local Response. Ithaca, NY.: Southeast Asia Program Publications, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Chulalongkorn (Phrabat Somdet Phra Chunlachomklao Chaoyuhua). 1935. Chotmaihet phraratchakit raiwan, phraratchaniphon nai Phrabat Somdet Phra Chunlachomklao Chaoyuhua (Diary of Chulalongkorn) phak 9. Cremation volume for Phrachao Borommawongthoe Phraongchao Yaowaphaphongsanit. Bangkok: Phrachan.Google Scholar
Cordier, Henri. 1902. Histoire des Relations de la Chine avec les Puissances Occidentales, 1860–1900, l'Empereur Kouang-Siu (Première partie, 1875–1887). Paris: Félix Alcan.Google Scholar
Đại Nam Thực Lục Chính Biên (大南寔録正編) (abbreviated as DNTL) II (the Period of Minh Mạng). 1975. Tokyo: The Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies, Keio University.Google Scholar
Đại Nam Thực Lục Chính Biên (大南寔録正編) (abbreviated as DNTL) IV (the Period of Tự Đức). 1980. Tokyo: The Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies, Keio University.Google Scholar
Damrong Rachanuphap, Prince. 1931. Rueng tamnan phra Yuan (Chronicle of Vietnamese monks). In Tamra phithi phra Yuan (Ritual manual of Vietnamese monks), pp. 1–17. Cremation volume for Phrakhru Khananamsamanachan. Bangkok: Sophonphiphatthanakon.Google Scholar
Davis, Bradley C. 2014. Rebellion and rule under consular optics: changing ways of seeing the China-Vietnam borderlands, 1874–1879. Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review 11, 59–91.Google Scholar
Eiland, Michael Dent. 1989. Dragon and Elephant: Relations Between Viet Nam and Siam, 1782–1847. Unpublished PhD Thesis. George Washington University.Google Scholar
Flood, Chadin. 1990. The Dynastic Chronicles, Bangkok Era, the First Reign B.E. 2325–2352 (A.D. 1782–1809), Chaophraya Thiphakorawong edition, vol.2, Annotations and Commentary. Tokyo: The Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies.Google Scholar
Goddard, Josiah. 1883. A Chinese and English Vocabulary in the Tie-Chiu Dialect (Second Edition) Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press.Google Scholar
Koizumi, Junko. 2008a. Siamese inter-state relations in the late nineteenth century: from an Asian regional perspective. Taiwan Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 5(1), 65–92.Google Scholar
Koizumi, Junko. 2008b. Ratanakōshin-chō isseiōki shamu no taigai kankei: Kōiki chiikizō no kentō ni muketa yobiteki kōsatsu (Siamese inter-state relations from a regional perspective: a note on the letters exchanged between Siam and her neighboring states in the first reign of the Rattnakosin period). Tōyōbunka Kenkyūjo Kiyō 154, 142(71)–109(104).Google Scholar
Koizumi, Junko. 2009. Between tribute and treaty: Sino-Siamese relations from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. In Reid, Anthony and Yangwen, Zheng (eds.), Negotiating Asymmetry: China's Place in Asia, pp.47–72. Singapore: National University of Singapore Press.Google Scholar
Koizumi, Junko. 2011. 1880 nendai chūyō ni okeru shamu no tai futsu tai shin kankei (The diplomatic relations of Siam with France and Qing China in the mid-1880s). Tōyōshi Kenkyū 70(1), 67–99.Google Scholar
Krom Praisani lae Thoralek. 1998 (1883). Sarabanchi suan thi 1, khue tamnaeng ratchakan samrap chaophanakngan, Krom Praisani Krungthep Mahanakhon tangtae chamnuan pi mamae benchasok chunlasakarat 1245 (Postal census of Bangkok, Part 1, Register of civil service). 2nd edition. Bangkok: Tonchabap.Google Scholar
Sinlapakon, Krom (ed.) 1985. Tamra kongtek lae tamra kathin khong phrasong Anam nikai (Manual for the kongtek and kathin ceremonies of Annamese school of Mahayana Buddhism). Bangkok: Krom Sinlapakon. 7th print. Cremation volume for Ramphaiphanni, Queen, consort of Prajadhipok, King of Siam.Google Scholar
Liu, Lydia H. 2004. The Clash of Empires: The Invention of China in Modern World Making. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lockhart, Bruce McFarland. 1993. The End of the Vietnamese Monarchy. New Haven, CT.: Council on Southeast Asia Studies; Yale Center for International and Area Studies.Google Scholar
Macgowan, J. 1883. English and Chinese Dictionary of the Amoy Dialect. Amoy: A. A. Marcal; London: Trubner & Co.Google Scholar
Maclay, R. S. and Baldwin, C. C.. 1870. An Alphabetic Dictionary of the Chinese Language in the Foochow Dialect. Foochow: Methodist Episcopal Mission Press.Google Scholar
Manich Jumsai, M. L. 1977. Prince Prisdang's Files on His Diplomatic Activities in Europe, 1880–1886. Bangkok: Chalermnit.Google Scholar
Marr, David G. 1971. Vietnamese Anticolonialism, 1885–1925. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California, and London: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Masuda, Erika. 1995. Rāma issei no tai shin gaikō (Foreign policy toward Ch'ing by Rama I). Tōnan Ajia: Rekishi to Bunka 24, 25–48.Google Scholar
Mochizuki, Naoto. 2009. Furansu tai shinchō Saigon jōyaku tsūkoku to betonamu shuppei mondai: 1870 nendai kōhan, betonamu wo meguru shinfutsu kankei no saikō (The French notification to China of the Saigon treaty and the Chinese military expeditions in Tonking: A consideration of Sino-French relations regarding Vietnam in the latter half of the 1870s). Tōyōshi Kenkyū 68(3), 418–450.Google Scholar
Morita, Yoshihiko. 2004. Bakumatsu ishinki no taishin seisaku to nisshin shūkō jōki (Sino-Japanese Amity Treaty and the East Asian world order: The triangle relationship and dual visions, 1862–1871). Kokusai Seiji 139, 29–44.Google Scholar
Munholland, Kim. 1979. Admiral Jauréguiberry and the French scramble for Tonkin, 1879–83. French Historical Studies 11(1), 81–107.Google Scholar
Ngoại Quốc Thư Trát (外國書札).Google Scholar
Nguyễn Thế Anh. 1992. Monarchie et Fait Colonial au Việt-Nam, 1875–1925: Le Crépuscule d'un Ordre Traditionnel. Paris: Editions l'Harmattan.Google Scholar
Okamoto, Takashi. 2004. Zokkoku to jishu no aida. Nagoya: Nagoya University Press.Google Scholar
Okamoto, Takashi. 2007. Zokkoku to hogo no aida: 1880nendai shotō vetonamu wo meguru shinfutsu kōshō (Between vassalité and protectorat: the Sino-French controversy on the Tonkin Affair, 1880–1883) Tōyōshi Kenkyū, 66 (1), 1–31.Google Scholar
Pensri (Suvanij) Duke., 1962. Les Relations entre la France et la Thaïlande (Siam) au XIXè Siècle d'après les Archives des Affaires Étrangères. Bangkok: Librairie Chalermnit.Google Scholar
Lailak, Sathian (ed.). 1935. Prachum Kotmai Pracham Sok (Annual collection of laws) (abbreviated as PKPS). Bangkok: Rongphim Delime.Google Scholar
Schmid, Andre. 2002. Korea between Empires, 1895–1919. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Smuckarn, Snit and Breazeale, Kennon. 1988. A Culture in Search of Survival: The Phuan of Thailand and Laos. New Haven, CT.: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies.Google Scholar
Taboulet, Georges (ed.). 1956. La Geste Française en Indochine: Histoire par les Textes de la France en Indochine des Origines à 1914, t. 2 . Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve.Google Scholar
Takeda, Ryōji. 1975. Genchō shoki no shin to no kankei (Vietnam's relations with the Ch'ing in the early period of Nguyễn dynasty (1802–1870)). In Tatsurō, Yamamoto (ed.), Betonamu chūgoku kankeishi (History of International Relations between Vietnam and China), pp. 493–550. Tokyo: Yamakawa.Google Scholar
Tarling, Nicholas. 1966. British Policy Towards Siam, Cambodia, and Vietnam, 1842–1858. Asian Studies 4(2), 240–258.Google Scholar
Thomas, David. 1974. A note on “Yuan”. Journal of the American Oriental Society 94(1), 123.Google Scholar
Tsuboi, Yoshiharu. 1991. Kindai Vetonamu seiji shakaishi: Genchō Shitokutei tōchika no Vetonamu 1847–1883 (Socio-political history of modern Vietnam: Vietnam under the Tự Đức reign). Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press.Google Scholar
Tuck, Patrick. 1995. The French Wolf and the Siamese Lamb: The French Threat to Siamese Independence, 1858–1907. Bangkok: White Lotus.Google Scholar
Wilson, Constance M. 1970. State and Society in the Reign of Mongkut, 1851–1868: Thailand on the Eve of Modernization. Unpublished PhD Thesis. Cornell University.Google Scholar
Woodside, Alexander. 1971. Vietnam and the Chinese Model: A Comparative Study of Nguyễn and Chʾing Civil Government in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar