Indochinese Revolution

The **Indochinese Revolution** was a time period of armed insurrection, beginning with the Indochinese Revolt and ending with the Singapore Accords. Years of unrest and a rise of anti-colonial sentiment culminated in a successful uprising, occurring spontaneously alongside the French Revolution. With the 3rd Republic losing fast support all over the mainland, the French garrisons stationed would not be able to hold the colony, resulting in the surrender of French forces by 1934.

The Revolution would drastically switch the balance of power in East Asia. With the evacuation of British forces from India and the intervention of the Kingdom of Siam, a new balance of power remains, between that of the absolutist Siamese government and the socialist states of Vietnam and Laos.

## Before: unstable ruling in Indochina

Starting with in the mid-1920s, French rule in Indochina began to crack for the first time in decades, reflective of a weakened regime in Paris since the tumultuous time of the late 1910s and the early 1920s. To make matters worse, France saw the birth of the socialist German Union, which secretly began spreading socialist ideas across the world, and French Indochina was not immune. Underground the socialist movement prospered, secretly undermining French rule while Siam hungrily eyed Indochinese territory. Since their victory in the Cairo War they seeked to expand their borders to retake previously occupied territories, but knew they wouldn’t win a war against France alone. Instead, they unintentionally allied themselves with Berlin, also arming nationalist revolts and movements all over the colony.

In 1930, in a secret meeting in Hanoi, various nationalist and socialist leaders met together to discuss how to force France out of Indochina. The only thing that united the “rightists” with the far-left revolutionaries was their hatred of colonial France. But as they united (momentarily) to defeat the French, the Indochinese separatist movement grew to be bigger and stronger than ever. Their base of operations officially were in Hanoi, and it soon spread across the colony to prepare for a popular uprising. Secret arms were taken from China up north, and in 1932 in hesitation and secrecy the separatists, now known as the Indochinese Liberation Movement decided to cooperate with the Japanese for material aid, and thanks to this the ILM were given proper arms and weapons. The Japanese for their part, knew that if France was driven from the colony there would be little in the way of japan invading the peninsula, and so they forged relations with the ILM.

While gaining support from the Japanese, Siamese and Chinese (warlord) governments, various representatives reached out to several trade unions and agricultural communities present in Indochina, mostly in Northern Vietnam, so that in case of an uprising they would have the support of the working class. In total, 10 out of 25 trade unions that were consulted agreed to support the movement if it boiled to an outright revolution, which was always the plan for the ILM. Eventually, with enough supplies to form competent guerrillas from dozens of volunteers, they began organizing themselves for a possible date to attack, but they never could agree on a specific time.

## The War of Spontaneity

The uprising of the French CGT startled and rushed the Liberation Movement, seeing it as a perfect time to declare independence without the threat of being beaten by the Metropole.

In the early morning of February 8th, 1934 the insurgency officially began, although with less coordination than intended. Guerrillas armed with mainly infantry weapons began mass assaults on the local republican garrison in Hanoi. At first, the attacks were dismissed as nothing more than "individual radicals" harming their overlords, but by noon French authorities realized that this was a coordinated attack as these attacks became ever more frequent and deadly. Scattered reports filtered out of the city and into the wider colony, where the new also reached Paris. Local authorities began calling on soldiers to fire back and asked the French government to station more troops in Hanoi, to which they agreed later that night. By the afternoon colonial soldiers began firing back and casualties were ramping up. Hanoi was placed under curfew later that night after over 30 soldiers were ambushed and killed when they went after a false lead on a hideout of the rebels, placed by the guerrillas themselves.

Hanoi turned into a battle zone in just a few days while the French government placed the province of Hanoi under martial law after 5 days of low intensity skirmishes even with civil war in the mainland. Paranoia set in for the soldiers, unsure if they should continue in battle as so many were being slaughtered with low morale. The ILM used the terrain and layout of Indochina and Hanoi to their advantage, knowing when to attack and how to stay hidden effectively against the colonial forces. On the 7th day, France came out with an official statement on the violence, blaming the ILM for these attacks and promising to root out all traces of the organization. While the trade unions did not know yet that the ILM was in fact responsible, they took it as an attack upon the movement, and so hours later announced a citywide general strike. Factories and infrastructure were paralyzed as sympathy grew for the ILM, and those strikes escalated outside of Hanoi, reaching as far as Saigon. The French authorities, weary about how to address these strikes promised the people to grant more autonomy and special rights to the Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian populations once the violence was quelled.

The ILM, speaking for the first time and giving their statement on the 18th of February urged and pleaded to all of their readers to not give into France's deal. Their arguments, passed through newspapers and pamphlets across all of Indochina were enough to allow the strikes to continue, making it clear that the government's bargain was in vain.

Prominent separatist leaders were arrested all throughout Indochina and forcibly deported, hoping that in the absence of strong leadership the rebellion would fall apart but it did not. What France did not realize was that the ILM did not rely on a single leader or even a small group, but dozens of well disguised and hidden men that kept leadership running even with the absence of various politicians who harbored sympathy for the ILM. As the Battle for Hanoi escalated in its violence, guerrillas realized it was their time for a grand offensive to swiftly take control of the city and its surrounding land, or the Battle for Hanoi might drag out for weeks, even months on end. Reinforcements were called in, and on the 22nd the offensive began, overwhelming the exhausted and scared French army and 3 days later they were on the retreat as rebels captured all of Hanoi. The First Battle for Hanoi was over, while the ILM proclaimed the Indochinese Union. Unable to retake the city after 1 week of trying, France declared martial law under all of Indochina, not wanting the rebellion to spread. But, as thousands of troops clogged the port cities, all arriving to maintain control over the colony they soon found the job to be quite difficult. French soldiers often abused their power to the dismay of their superiors who frequently made it clear that "as little violence as possible should be used". Resentment was planted in the minds of the non-French Indochinese population, who began to take active roles in sabotaging the French garrisons, aided by the loss of northern France to the socialists.

Guerrilla forces in northern, rural Vietnam began attacking the French soldiers there, once again utilizing the terrain to their advantage. Across Indochina rural regions were in an uproar by March as insurgents, growing stronger in numbers began attacking the French, who retreated on mass as the republicans lost Paris back home. While large cities were secured, the large non-urban landscape wasn't. As several battles were ongoing, in May those guerrillas in Northern Vietnam managed to repulse the colonial soldiers entirely, being able to seize the railways that connected Hanoi with Lào Cai and Đồng Đăng. Unable to reinforce themselves with the takeover of the north railway lines, most of Northern Vietnam fell by the end of April, offering a unified front against the colonists.

Railways were extremely important in the Indochinese Revolution and the takeover of Northern Vietnam was the second major victory for the rebels in the war. Guerrillas especially concentrated on sabotaging railways in anyway they could, as French soldiers couldn't fight properly in foreign land a full continent away from their home land. Without the railways the war effort would be in shambles, and so beginning in June rebels attacked and destroyed those lines linking important cities with one and another. By May, Annam, Cochinchina and Tonkin were fully disconnected, and maintaining supplies for the loyalists became an excruciating job. Only Cambodia and Laos were still connected by railway, and the sea thus became the only main way for supplies to reach the soldiers.

On June 1st, Northern Vietnamese rebels penetrated deep into French held territory, entering into Laos and Vinh, which, like many cities relied on French sea support as the railways were unusable. Just one week later the offensive ended with great success, beginning again 2 days later as the colonialist hold in the nearby city of Tân Áp was in chaos, and the city was swiftly taken over.

In Inner Cambodia, a rebellion formed out of the peasants and railway workers who were loyal to the Indochinese cause. The last major rail network linked Phnom Penh, Kratie and Saigon together, a loyalist stronghold. However that came to an end as those peasants and workers seized the areas between Kratie and Phnom Penh, blocking all three cities from reaching each other and preventing the rest of Laos from receiving support. The reason why the French were unable to retake any major city or hold onto the rail networks was simple: they lost control of the mainland. The French government, now fully dedicated to wiping out the Fourth Republic, only relied on the small French troops and colonial garrisons still operating in Indochina to stamp out the revolt, to no help.

For the remainder of June, the rest of Laos and Cambodia quickly fell under Indochinese occupations, while the French navy had blockaded the revolutionaries. And while the Indochinese Revolution was succeeding, privately, cracks had been growing within the provisional government, which increasingly alienated socialist revolutionaries from far-right conservative nationalists. Ever since Hanoi was captured, the left-wing faction of the government and right-wing couldn’t find common ground on how trade unions would be treated, how to treat the peasants or what worker rights would be maintained. Even the question of how French civilians should be treated was controversial, and this divide had been growing for several months.

It wasn’t until August that the unified left and right-wings of the ILM finally collapsed alongside the 3rd Republic, when a bill was passed by the government that would limit the the power of the trade unions after those unions went on strike as their workers were being severely underpaid while also forced to work overtime to support the revolution. While the socialists bashed against this proposal, calling it “anti-democratic” and a violation of workers rights. However, while the socialists voted against this proposal, it eventually passed, though the left-wing and the Republic of Vietnam still claim fraud was used to over-emphasis the amount of people who voted in favor of the bill. And while it was passed, various leftist politicians who were a part of the provisional revolutionary council decided to conspire to revolt against the Indochinese Revolution, as they saw it turn increasingly toward the right, and feared that they would be sidelined until socialists wouldn’t have any power within the country.

## Communist counter-revolution

The counter-revolution, unlike the first Indochinese Revolution occurred unplanned, as in late September in response to the severe restrictions on trade unions hundreds of workers went on strike in Hanoi, while the military was given orders to suppress them. It wasn’t violent at first, but the strikers began assaulting soldiers who then fired back, resulting in 19 people dead from the strikes, with 12 of them being civilians. After the socialists in the government demanded those families that had workers killed be compensated shortly after the event, the right-wing faction of the government refused, which was the last straw for the alliance of the right and left in Indochina. The revolutionaries realized they needed to act fast, or possibly loose their influence in the region. Without the leftists in government the Indochinese Union now became a highly conservative country, while the socialists planned a comeback.

With help from the still influential radicalized trade unions present in Hanoi, alongside a population of growing discontent, on October 13th, Indochinese militias loyal to socialism broke from the ILM guerrilla forces and formed their own units. Outraged at the mass desertions by the men, the government cracked down on those leaving the military which pushed the people over the edge. On the 18th the guerrilla began coordinated attacks on the government base in Hanoi. As a lot of equipment was stolen and loyalists were still shaken from the hundreds deserting, they were unable to retaliate effectively. After 6 hours trade unions announced a new strike to freeze the union government and to expel them from Hanoi. After 2 days of fighting the government, now moved to Haiphong ordered an immediate removal of all their troops. Once Hanoi was effectively captured by the socialist militias, those leftist politicians that broke from the ILM proclaimed the Republic of Vietnam (secretly however, they wanted all of Indochina to turn communist, but for now they limited their efforts toward retaking all of Vietnam).

With Hanoi captured, the provisional “red” government called on all peasants, workers and Vietnamese citizens to rise up against the now conservative ILM. The peasants and workers swiftly did just that, and uprisings from Cochinchina to Tonkin began. Many citizens, especially lower class peasants felt increasingly alienated from the ILM and sided with the red government. Suffering from blockade the ILM found itself in a very difficult spot. The French were still unwilling to make peace in Indochina, something the “white” government had basically been begging for at this point, but the war was going to get much worse for the ILM.

## Siam enters the war, Indochina collapses

On the 10th of November, as uprising after uprising grew in Indochina, the white’s government was betrayed by their biggest ally: Siam, who promptly issued a declaration of war and immediately invaded Cambodia and Laos. While the Siamese always wanted Cambodia and Laos back they were willing to work with the Indochinese government, at first. After the Second Battle of Hanoi, the white government asked Bangkok to declare war and end the red insurgents. While Siam agreed, they also asked Indochina to back out of Cambodia, reducing Indochina to just Vietnam and Laos. Indochina obviously did not agree to this and tensions rose as talks broke down. But with the red insurgents, Siam saw an opportunity after all, to swiftly conquer their territories while making peace with Republican Vietnamese forces.

Siamese supported the ILM out of pragmatism for the first few years to force the French out, and then began supporting Vietnam out of pragmatism to regain Cambodia and Laos. While they wanted to regain Laos and began making plans to do so, on the 5th of November an uprising by nationalist Laotians took place in Vientiane, the capital of Laos and after 2 days the city was captured, thwarting Siamese ambitions as they did not want to interfere with other rebel movements as they wanted as little fighting as possible. In the end they had to reduce their ambitions to Cambodia and small parts of Laos but they still invaded Indochina nonetheless.

Siamese troops poured into Cambodia and parts of Laos as the ILM was forced to remove some of their troops in Vietnam to hold back the Siamese back. The French also invaded the southern coast of Cambodia in hopes of regaining their land, but Indochinese troops thwarted the French effort, now exhausted from this war. Without a large military present in Vietnam those uprisings grew everywhere. Most of Tonkin was under Vietnamese control by late November. On the 3rd Siamese troops entered Phnom Penh while Vietnamese troops in Annan connected with those in Tonkin and Cochinchina, uniting themselves together. The white government, now in Saigon was in shambles. While most of Laos was under the control of the ILM, it was swiftly taken over by Laotian separatists. On the 20th Saigon entered its first day of siege, and with the militias falling apart and unable to fight the Siamese, Laotians and Vietnamese all at once, the government abandoned Saigon, to live in exile in British Malaysia. There was never an official armistice by the ILM and due to this the war de-facto continues.

By January the last major outposts for anti-revolutionary (those against the Vietnamese, Laotians and Siamese) were finally crushed by a joint effort with all 3 nations involved. There were fears that border wars and disputes would break out in Indochina and because of this the Kingdom of Siam requested that Vietnam and Laos help finalize the borders in Singapore, to which both states gladly agreed.

## Peace reigns

Shortly after it was announced that Vietnam, Laos and Siam would meet in Singapore to finalize peace in Indochina, the new French Fourth Republic denounced previous attempts at retaking the colonies, and as a gesture of good faith representatives were sent to Singapore. There, the Fourth Republic would recognize the political situation that came out of the war, rescind all claims towards South Asia and recognize the new republics of Laos and Vietnam.