page_title: French Cochinchina
section_title: French conquest
hierarchical_section_title: French Cochinchina / French conquest
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: La prise de Saïgon, par l'escadre française du vice-amiral Rigault de Genouilly le 16 février 1859.English: Capture of Saigon by France, 18th February 1859.
context_page_description: French Cochinchina was a colony of French Indochina, encompassing the whole region of Lower Cochinchina or Southern Vietnam from 1867 to early 1945. In 1946, it was established as the Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina, a controversial decision that helped trigger the First Indochina War. In 1948, the autonomous republic, whose legal status had never been formalized, was renamed as the Provisional Government of Southern Vietnam, not to be confused with the 1969–76 Viet Cong government. It was reunited with the rest of Vietnam in 1949.
  Nam Kỳ originated from the reign of Minh Mạng of the Nguyễn dynasty, but became a name associated with the French colonial period and so Vietnamese, especially nationalists, prefer the term Nam Bộ to refer to Southern Vietnam.
context_section_description: For a series of complex reasons, the Second French Empire of Napoleon III, with the help of Spanish troops arriving from the Spanish East Indies, attacked Đà Nẵng (Tourane) of Nguyen Dynasty Vietnam in September 1858. Unable to occupy Đà Nẵng, the alliance moved to Lower Cochinchina in the South. On 17 February 1859, they captured Saigon. Later on, the French defeated the Nguyễn army at the Battle of Ky Hoa in 1861. The Vietnamese government was forced to cede the three southern Vietnamese provinces of Biên Hòa, Gia Định and Định Tường to France in June 1862 Treaty of Saigon.
caption: Capture of Saigon by France
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