France – Asia relations France – Asia relations span a period of more than two millennia , starting in the 6th century BCE with the establishment of Marseille by Greeks from Asia Minor , and continuing in the 3rd century BCE with Gaulish invasions of Asia Minor to form the kingdom of Galatia . Since these early interactions , France has had a rich history of contacts with the Asian continent . Antiquity . The Phoenicians had an early presence around Marseille in southern France . Phoenician inscriptions have been found there . The oldest city of France , Marseille , was formally founded in [ 600 BCE by Greeks from the Asia Minor city of Phocaea ( as mentioned by Thucydides Bk1 , 13 , Strabo , Athenaeus and Justin ) as a trading port under the name Μασσαλία ( " Massalia " ) . These eastern Greeks , established on the shores of southern France , were in close relations with the Celtic inhabitants of France , and Greek influence and artifacts penetrated northwards along the Rhône valley . The site of Vix in northern Burgundy became an active trading center between Greeks and natives , testified to by the discovery of rich Greek artifacts of the period . The mother city of Phocaea would ultimately be destroyed by the Persians in 545 BCE , further reinforcing the exodus of the Phocaeans to their settlements of the Western Mediterranean . Populations intermixed , becoming half - Greek and half - indigenous . Trading links were extensive , in iron , spices , wheat and slaves , and with tin being imported to Marseille overland from Cornwall . The Greek settlements permitted cultural interaction between the Greeks and the Celts , and in particular helped develop an urban way of life in Celtic lands , contacts with sophisticated Greek methods , as well as regular East - West trade . Overland trade with Celtic countries declined around 500 however , with the troubles following the end of the Halstatt civilization . Because of demographic pressure , the Senones Gauls departed from Central France under Brennus to sack Rome in the Battle of the Allia c . 390 BCE . Expansion continued eastward , into the Aegean world , with a huge migration of Eastern Gauls appearing in Thrace , north of Greece , in 281 BCE in the Gallic invasion of the Balkans , favoured by the troubled rule of the Diadochi after Alexander the Great . A part of the invasion crossed over to Anatolia and eventually settled in the area that came to be named after them , Galatia . The invaders , led by Leonnorius and Lutarius , came at the invitation of Nicomedes I of Bithynia , who required help in a dynastic struggle against his brother Zipoites II . Three tribes crossed over from Thrace to Asia Minor . They numbered about 10 , 000 fighting men and about the same number of women and children , divided into three tribes , Trocmi , Tolistobogii and Tectosages ( from the area of Toulouse in southern France ) . They were eventually defeated by the Seleucid king Antiochus I , in a battle where the Seleucid war elephants shocked the Celts . While the momentum of the invasion was broken , the Galatians were by no means exterminated . Instead , the migration led to the establishment of a long - lived Celtic territory in central Anatolia , which included the eastern part of ancient Phrygia , a territory that became known as Galatia . There they ultimately settled , and being strengthened by fresh accessions of the same clan from Europe , they overran Bithynia and supported themselves by plundering neighbouring countries . In 189 BCE Rome sent Gnaeus Manlius Vulso on an expedition against the Galatians . He defeated them . Galatia was henceforth dominated by Rome through regional rulers from 189 BCE onward . Christianity , following its emergence in the Near - Eastern part of Asia , was traditionally introduced by Mary , Martha , Lazarus and some companions , who were expelled by persecutions from the Holy Land . They traversed the Mediterranean in a frail boat with neither rudder nor mast and landed at " Saintes - Maries - de - la - Mer " near Arles in 40 CE . Provençal tradition names Lazarus as the first bishop of Marseille , while Martha purportedly went on to tame a terrible beast in nearby Tarascon . Pilgrims visited their tombs at the abbey of Vézelay in Burgundy . In the Abbey of the Trinity at Vendôme , a phylactery was said to contain a tear shed by Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus . The cathedral of Autun , not far away , is dedicated to Lazarus as " Saint Lazaire " . The first written records of Christians in France date from the 2nd century when Irenaeus detailed the deaths of ninety - year old bishop Pothinus of Lugdunum ( Lyon ) and other martyrs of the 177 persecution in Lyon . In 496 Remigius baptized Clovis I , who was converted from paganism to Catholicism . Clovis I , considered the founder of France , made himself the ally and protector of the papacy and his predominantly Catholic subjects . In the beginning of the 5th century , various Asian nomadic tribes of Iranian origin , especially the Taifals and Sarmatian s , were settled in Gaul by the Romans as " coloni " . They settled in the regions of Aquitaine and Poitou , which at one point was even called " Thifalia " or " Theiphalia " ( Theofalgicus ) in the 6th century , with remaining place names such as Tiffauges . Some Sarmatians had also been settled in the Rodez – Velay region . From 414 , Alans who had allied and then split with the Visigoths , entered into an agreement with the Romans which allowed them to settle in the area between Toulouse and the Mediterranean where they played a defensive role against the Visigoth in Spain . A bit later , the Roman general Aetius settled Alans in Gaul for military purposes , first in the region of Valence in 440 to control the lower Isère valley , and in 442 in the area around Orléans apparently to counter the Armorica n " Bacaudae " . Some cities have been named after them , such as Allaines or Allainville . In 450 Attila proclaimed his intent to attack the powerful Visigoth kingdom of Toulouse , making an alliance with Emperor Valentinian III in order to do so . Attila gathered his vassals — Gepids , Ostrogoths , Rugians , Scirians , Heruls , Thuringians , Alans , Burgundians , among others and began his march west . In 451 he arrived in Belgica with an army exaggerated by Jordanes to half a million strong . J . B . Bury believes that Attila ' s intent , by the time he marched west , was to extend his kingdom – already the strongest on the continent – across Gaul to the Atlantic Ocean . On April 7 , Attila captured Metz . Saint Genevieve is to have saved Paris . The Romans under Aëtius allied with troops from among the Franks , the Burgundians , the Celts , the Goths and the Alans and finally stopped the Hunnic advance in the Battle of Châlons . Middle Ages . Exchanges with the Arab world ( 8th – 13th centuries ) . Following the rise of Islam in the Arabian peninsula in the 7th century , the Arabs invaded northern Africa , then the Iberian peninsula and France . They were finally repelled at the Battle of Poitiers in 732 , but thereafter remained a presence to be taken into account in southern France and Spain . Various exchanges are known around that time as when Arculf , a Frankish Bishop , visited the Holy Land in the 670s . Abbasid - Carolingian alliance . An Abbasid - Carolingian alliance was attempted and partially formed during the 8th to 9th century through a series of embassies , rapprochements and combined military operations between the Frankish Carolingian Empire and the Abbasid Caliphate or the pro - Abbasid Muslim rulers in Spain . These contacts followed the intense conflict between the Carolingians and the Umayyads , marked by the landslide Battle of Tours in 732 , and were aimed at establishing a counter - alliance with the faraway Abbasid Empire . There were numerous embassies between Charlemagne and the Abbasid caliph Harun al - Rashid from 797 , apparently in view of a Carolingian - Abbasid alliance against Byzantium , or with a view to gaining an alliance against the Umayyads of Spain . Cultural and scientific exchanges . From the 10th to the 13th century , Islamic contributions to Medieval Europe , including France as well , were numerous , affecting such varied areas as art , architecture , medicine , agriculture , music , language , education , law , and technology . Over the course of several centuries Europe absorbed knowledge from the Islamic civilization , but also knowledge from India or lost knowledge from the ancient Greeks which was being retransmitted by the Arabs . The French scientist Gerbert of Aurillac , future Pope Sylvester II , who had spent some time in Catalonia in the 960s , was instrumental in the transfer and adoption of Arabic numerals , as well as the abacus in France and Christian Europe . Franco - Ottoman alliance ( 16th – 18th centuries ) . Under the reign of Francis I , France became the first country in Europe to establish formal relations with the Ottoman Empire , and to set up instruction in the Arabic language , through the instruction of Guillaume Postel at the Collège de France . A Franco - Ottoman alliance was established in 1536 between the king of France Francis I and the Turkish ruler of the Ottoman Empire Suleiman the Magnificent following the critical setbakcs Francis has encountered in Europe against Charles V . The alliance has been called " the first nonideological diplomatic alliance of its kind between a Christian and non - Christian empire " . It did however cause quite a scandal in the Christian world , and was designated as " the impious alliance " , or " the sacrilegious union of the Lily and the Crescent " ; nevertheless , it endured since it served the objective interests of both parties . Most notably , the French forces , led by François de Bourbon and the Ottoman forces , led by Barbarossa , joined at Marseille in August 1543 , and collaborated to bombard the city of Nice in the Siege of Nice . In this action 110 Ottoman galleys , amounting to 30 , 000 men , combined with 50 French galleys . The Franco - Ottomans laid waste to the city of Nice , but were confronted by a stiff resistance which gave rise to the story of Catherine Ségurane . Afterwards , the Ottomans were offered by Francis to winter at Toulon . The strategic and sometimes tactical alliance lasted for about three centuries , until the Napoleonic Campaign in Egypt , an Ottoman territory , in 1798 – 1801 . Commercial , religious and military expansion ( 16th - 18th century ) . Early - modern contacts with East - Asia ( 1527 - ) . France started to trade with Eastern Asia from the early 16th century . In 1526 , a sailor from Honfleur named Pierre Caunay sailed to Sumatra . He lost his ship on the return leg between Africa and Madagascar , where the crew was imprisoned by the Portuguese . In July 1527 , a French Norman trading ship from the city of Rouen is recorded by the Portuguese João de Barros to have arrived in the Indian city of Diu . The next year , a ship under Jean de Breuilly also arrived in Diu , but this time was seized by the Portuguese . In 1529 , Jean Parmentier , on board the " Sacre " and the " Pensée " , reached Sumatra . Upon its return , the expedition triggered the development of the Dieppe maps , influencing the work of Dieppe cartographers , such as Jean Rotz . Following the Portuguese and Spanish forays into Asia after 1500 , a few Frenchmen participated to the activities of Catholic religious orders in these countries during the 16th century . The first instance of France - Thailand relations occurred according to the Jesuit Giovanni Pietro Maffei when about 1550 a French Franciscan , Bonferre , hearing of the great kingdom of the Peguans and the Siamese in the East , went on a Portuguese ship from Goa to Cosme ( Pegu ) , where for three years he preached the Gospel , but without any result . François Pyrard and François Martin ( 1601 - 1611 ) . In December 1600 a company was formed through the association of Saint - Malo , Laval and Vitré , to trade with the Moluccas and Japan . Two ships , the " Croissant " and the " Corbin " , were sent around the Cape in May 1601 . One was wrecked in the Maldives , leading to the adventure of François Pyrard de Laval who managed to return to France in 1611 . The second ship , onboard which was François Martin de Vitré , reached Ceylon and traded with Acheh in Sumatra , but was captured by the Dutch on the return leg at Cape Finisterre . François Martin de Vitré was the first Frenchman to write an account of travels to the Far East in 1604 , at the request of Henry IV , and from that time numerous account on Asia would be published . From 1604 to 1609 , following the return of François Martin de Vitré , Henry IV developed a strong enthusiasm for travel to Asia , and attempted to set up a French East India Company on the model of England and The Netherlands . On 1 June 1604 , he issued letter patents to Dieppe merchants to form the Dieppe Company , giving them exclusive rights to Asian trade for 15 years , but no ships were finally sent . In 1606 , Henri de Feynes left for China , which he became the first Frenchman to visit . On 1609 , another adventurer , Pierre - Olivier Malherbe returned from a circumnavigation , and informed Henry IV of his adventures . He visited China , and in India had an encounter with Akbar . On the missionary front , Nicolas Trigault resumed France - China relations when he left Europe to do missionary work in Asia around 1610 , eventually arriving at Nanjing , China in 1611 . Hasekura Tsunenaga ( 1615 ) . France - Japan relations started in 1615 when Hasekura Tsunenaga , a Japanese samurai and ambassador , sent to Rome by Date Masamune , landed at Saint - Tropez for a few days . In 1636 , Guillaume Courtet , a French Dominican priest , would reciprocate when he set foot in Japan . He penetrated into Japan in clandestinity , against the 1613 interdiction of Christianity . He was caught , tortured , and died in Nagasaki on September 29 , 1637 . Company of the Moluccas ( 1615 ) . In 1615 , the regent Marie de Médicis incorporated the merchants of Dieppe and other harbours to found the Company of the Moluccas . In 1616 , two expeditions were to Asia from Honfleur in Normandy : three ships left for India , and two ships for Bantam . One ship returned from Bantam in 1617 with a small cargo , and letters from the Dutch expressing their hostility towards French ships in the East Indies . Also in 1616 , two ships were sent from Saint - Malo to Java . One was captured by the Dutch , but the other obtained an agreement from the ruler of Pondicherry to build a fortress and a factory there , and came back with a rich cargo . In 1619 , an armed expedition composed of three ships ( 275 crews , 106 cannons ) and called the " Fleet of Montmorency " under General Augustin de Beaulieu was sent from Honfleur , with the objective of fighting the Dutch in the Far East . They encountered the Dutch fleet off Sumatra . One ship was captured , another remained in Asia for inter - country trade , and the third returned to Le Havre in 1622 . Finally in 1624 , with the Treaty of Compiègne , Richelieu obtained that the Dutch would stop fighting the French in the East . Isaac de Razilly commented however : However , trade further developed , with the activities of people such as Jean de Thévenot and Jean - Baptiste Tavernier in 17th century Asia . Gilles de Régimont travelled to Persia and India in 1630 and came back in 1632 with a rich cargo . He formed a trading company at Dieppe in 1633 , and then sent ships every year to the Indian Ocean . In 1638 , the Honfleur sailor Pierre Berthelot , after becoming a Carmelite in Goa in the mission of Francis Xavier , was martyred in Aceh . Expansion under Louis XIV . France started to take a more structured approach to its expansion in Asia during the 17th century during the rule of Louis XIV , in an organized attempt to establish a mercantile empire in the East by taking a share of the lucrative market of the Indian Ocean . On the religious plane , the Paris Foreign Missions Society was formed from 1658 in order to provide for missionary work in Asia mainly , under French control . Soon after , the French East India Company was established in 1664 . In 1664 a first mission was sent to Madagascar under François Caron , formerly in the service of the Dutch East India Company . The Madagascar mission failed , but soon after , Caron succeeded in founding French ouposts at Surat ( 1668 ) and at Masulipatam ( 1669 ) in India ; . Caron became " Commissaire " at Pondicherry between 1668 and 1672 . The French East India Company formally set up a trading centre at Pondicherry in 1673 . This outpost eventually became the chief French settlement in India . In 1672 , Caron helped lead French forces in Ceylon , where the strategic bay at Trincomalee was captured and St . Thomé ( also known as Meilâpûr ) on the Coromandel coast was also taken . However , the consequences of his military success was short - lived . The French were driven out these modest conquests while Caron was en route to Europe in 1673 . During the reign of Louis XIV France further developed France – Thailand relations and sent numerous embassies to Siam , led by Chevalier de Chaumont in 1685 and later by Simon de la Loubère in 1687 , until French troops were finally ousted from the country following the 1688 Siege of Bangkok . Around the same time France actively participated to the Jesuit China missions , as Louis XIV sent in 1685 a mission of five Jesuits " mathematicians " to China in an attempt to break the Portuguese predominance : Jean de Fontaney ( 1643 – 1710 ) , Joachim Bouvet ( 1656 – 1730 ) , Jean - François Gerbillon ( 1654 – 1707 ) , Louis Le Comte ( 1655 – 1728 ) and Claude de Visdelou ( 1656 – 1737 ) . While French Jesuits were found at the court of the Manchu Kangxi Emperor in China , Louis received the visit of a Chinese Jesuit , Michael Shen Fu - Tsung , by 1684 . Furthermore , several years later , he had at his court a Chinese librarian and translator — Arcadio Huang . Louis XV / Louis XVI . After these first experiences , France came take a more active role in Asia from its base in India . France was able to establish the beginnings of a commercial and territorial empire in India , leading to the formation of French India . Active Franco - Indian alliances were established to reinforce French influence and counter British efforts on the country . Suffren had a considerable role in upholding French naval power in the Indian Ocean . Burma – France relations started in 1727 with approaches by Joseph François Dupleix , and were concretized in 1729 with the building of a shipyard in the city of Syriam . France allied with the Mon and participated in the Burman - Mon conflict in 1751 – 1756 under Sieur de Bruno and Pierre de Milard . The geographical exploration of Asia was expanded thanks to the efforts of Bougainville and La Pérouse . Following the development of France - Vietnam relations through early trade and religious contacts , France intervened militarily in Vietnam at the end of the 18th century through the French assistance to Nguyễn Ánh under Mgr Pigneau de Behaine . France thus managed to gain strong positions in South Asia and Southeastern Asia , but these efforts were essentially wrecked with the outcome of the French revolution and Napoleonic wars . Trade also developed , with the activities of people such as Pierre Poivre who dealt with Vietnam from the 1720s . Asia in 17th - 18th - century French art . The discovery of Asia led to a strong cultural interest in Asian arts . France especially developed a taste for artistic forms derived from Chinese art and narratives , called Chinoiserie , as well as for Turkish scenes , called Turquerie . French textile industry was also strongly influenced by Asian style , with the development of the silk and tapestry industries . A carpet industry " façon de Turquie " ( " in the manner of Turkey " ) was developed in France in the reign of Henry IV by Pierre Dupont , who was returning from the Levant , and especially rose to prominence during the reign of Louis XIV . The Tapis de Savonnerie especially exemplify this tradition ( " the superb carpets of the Savonnerie , which long rivalled the carpets of Turkey , and latterly have far surpassed them " ) which was further adapted to local taste and developed with the Gobelins carpets . This tradition also spread to Great Britain where it revived the British carpet industry in the 18th century . Napoleon ' s Asian ventures . Napoleon attempted to establish a decisive French presence in Asia , by first launching the Campaign of Egypt in 1798 . He wished to establish a French presence in the Middle East , and was then planning to make a junction with Tippu Sahib in India , against the British . Napoleon assured to the Directoire that " " as soon as he had conquered Egypt , he will establish relations with the Indian princes and , together with them , attack the English in their possessions . " " According to a 13 February 1798 report by Talleyrand : " " Having occupied and fortified Egypt , we shall send a force of 15 , 000 men from Suez to India , to join the forces of Tipu - Sahib and drive away the English . " " The Directory , though troubled by the scope and cost of the enterprise , agreed so the popular general would be absent from the centre of power . Following his victory at Austerlitz in 1805 , Napoleon later managed to establish a short - lived Franco - Ottoman alliance and a Franco - Persian alliance formulised in the Treaty of Finckenstein in 1807 in order to obtain strategic support in his fight against the Russian Empire , and also to threaten British India . For a brief period in 1806 - 1815 , France had an intense role in Indonesia , since the Netherlands became a province of France . The islands of Java and Bali were thus in contact with a Franco - Dutch administration . Napoleon handpicked a new Governor - General , the " Iron Marshall " Willem Daendels , sent ships and troops to reinforce the East Indies against British attacks , and had military fortifications built through the length of Java . A treaty of alliance was signed in 1808 between the new administration and the Balinese king of Badung , to provide workers and soldiers for the Franco - Dutch defensive effort , but Java fell to the British in 1811 , and the agreement was not implemented . After the end of the Napoleonic era , some former soldiers of Napoleon left France to be employed as mercenaries in Asian countries . One of them Jean - François Allard , became the leader of the European officer corps in the Punjab , in the Maharaja Ranjit Singh ' s service . Another mercenary of Ranjit Singh , Claude Auguste Court was an early student of Kushan coinage , whose coin rubbings books are now visible at the British Museum . Colonial era . Following the defeat in the Napoleonic war France had lost most of their possessions colonial possessions , but the 19th century brought an era of Industrial revolution combined with European expansionism that saw France expand anew to form a second colonial empire in Asia . French Indochina . In the 1820s , France tried to reestablish contacts with Vietnam . On 12 January 1825 , an embassy led by Captain Hyacinthe de Bougainville attempted to obtain a meeting with emperor Minh Mạng but failed . Instead , Christian missionaries were smuggled onshore in the person of Father Regéreau of the Paris Foreign Missions Society . These actions triggered edicts of persecution against Christianity by Minh Mạng . Using these persecutions as a pretext , in 1843 , the French Foreign Minister , François Guizot , sent a fleet to the East under Admiral Jean - Baptiste Cécille and Captain Charner , together with the diplomat Lagrene . The move responded to the successes of the British in China in 1842 , and France hoped to counterbalance these successes by accessing China from the south . The pretext however was to support British efforts in China , and to fight the persecution of French missionaries in Vietnam . New religious persecutions again triggered the Cochinchina Campaign ( 1858 – 1862 ) which marked the real beginning of territorial expansion in Vietnam . Northern Vietnam would then be disputed to China , leading to the Tonkin campaign ( 1883 – 1886 ) , and most importantly to the French victory in the Sino - French War ( 1884 – 1885 ) . France would also expand westward from its Vietnamese basis to dispute territory with Siam , leading to the Franco - Siamese War in 1893 . French Indochina was formed in October 1887 from Annam , Tonkin , Cochinchina ( which together form modern Vietnam ) and the Kingdom of Cambodia and Laos was added after the Franco - Siamese War . China campaigns . France intervened several times in China , together with other Western powers , in order to expand Western influence there . France participated actively to the Second Opium War in 1860 , also using religious persecutions as a pretext . In 1900 , the Boxer Rebellion led to massive French and Western intervention . Korea . France also had an interventionist role in northeastern Asia throughout the second half of the 19th century . In Korea , religious persecutions again motivated the French Campaign against Korea in 1866 . Although there were no territorial gains , these events would progressively lead to the opening of the " Hermit kingdom " to the rest of the world . Japan . In Japan , France had a key role in fighting anti - foreign forces and supporting the Late Tokugawa Shogunate . In 1863 – 64 , France battled against anti - forces at the Bombardment of Shimonoseki . In 1867 , a French military mission to Japan was sent by Napoleon III to support the Shogun . French soldiers such as Jules Brunet even fought on the side of the Shogun against pro - Imperial forces during the Boshin war . Even though the Shogun was defeated in the Boshin war , France continued to take an active role in supporting Japan military through the 1872 – 1880 mission , the 1884 – 89 mission , the 1918 – 19 mission , and had a key role in the development of the Imperial Japanese Navy with the mission of Emile Bertin . Asia in 19th - century French art . Asia influenced Western authors , and especially French ones , in an artistic school known as Orientalism . Asian scenes were typically depicted in an idealistic and voluptuous manner . Impressionism also was strongly influenced by the vividness of Japanese painting through Japonism . French literature was also strongly influenced by Asia , as in the works of Pierre Loti . Decolonization and modern collaboration . The 20th century was marked by the French difficulties during the Second World War , and the general decolonization that followed . In particular , the Indochina War ( 1946 – 1954 ) marked the end of French military presence in southeast Asia . Since then , contacts have resumed , and France has remained a strong economic partners to Asian countries . French exports include nuclear power technologies , or advanced transportation technologies such as Airbus or TGV , as well as exports in food products and consumer industries . Asia in turn finds in France a receptive market for its manufactured goods .