The Indochinese Collapse

The Indochinese Collapse, sometimes known as the Breakup of Indochina, were 2 events that hugely altered South East Asia. The first, being the French being quickly pushed out of French Indochina and the declaration of the Indochinese Republic, and the second being the collapse of the same republic.

## **Beginning of the Collapse**

In Saigon, French Indochina, a full scale revolution took place. The leaders of French Indochina quickly fled the country as violence took place, and once the French were fully and quickly pushed out, the Indochinese Republic was declared. The French were pushed out in 1 week, mostly due to how ineffective the French were and what a surprise this revolution brought. In Saigon once it was announced that the Indochinese revolted, thousands swarmed towns and cities against the French and claimed the captured territories as part of the Indochinese Republic. In a panic, the French fleet on the 7th day fled Saigon and left many French soldiers behind as thousands of French men hoping to escape the incoming revolution swarmed any remaining French docks. Many French soldiers surrendered but many were killed. Not to mention, any known French citizens in captured territories were almost immediately slaughtered. All in all, 10,000 soldiers and citizens were killed in 2 weeks. The French fleet retreated to French Polynesia to regroup and organize. Once all territories of indochina were under the revolution, the Indochinese council, the current provisional government proclaimed that new elections would be held for anyone over the age of 21 and who was literate.

The communists and syndicalist in the government agreed to work with the provisionals to push the French out, but the problem was that now that the French were out the communist and syndicalist relations with the provisionals broke down. Not to mention in the election result, many leftists declared the election to be rigged, and to be fair it was. Leftists won 63% of the vote, however due to meddling by the provisionals the result came out to be 30%. This greatly angered the leftists who proclaimed “a new revolution would come”. At the same time, the French fleet, desperately trying to regain their colony were bogged down by the brutality of the Indochinese forces. At one point, the French fleet actually landed in Saigon and retook the city. But as French soldiers spread out of the city, Indochinese forces caught them off guard and massacred the troops. The soldiers encircled Saigon and massacred any French soldier they saw outside of the city, resulting in the entire French division stationed there to surrender to avoid execution. Due to this, the French fleet sailed back to French pacific territories to reorganize once again, but the French would try 5 more times to land in indochina with no success, but for the time being the war would be a stalemate. As relations between the leftists and republicans broke down, northern Vietnam was a hotspot for leftism as well as Saigon, Nguyễn Sinh Cung and Ta Thu Thau organized a new revolution.

In the early months after France was driven back to the sea, Vietnamese syndicalists in Hanoi declared the Syndicalist Republic of Vietnam. Thanks to the sheer amount of syndicalist and leftist support within Indochina, northern Vietnam quickly came under leftist support. The Vietnamese syndicalists clashed with the Indochinese forces. Yet due to the amount of leftist influence in the nation, communist guerrillas rocked Saigon and southern Vietnam. Around the same time, Siam, wanting to expand their influence in Cambodia as well as expand their irredentist claim, invaded Indochina. Although the French had tried to retake Indochina, instead landing in north Vietnam hoping to get the syndicalists off guard, the Vietnamese were prepared and forced the French back out to sea. After 2 months of the Vietnamese invasion and Siamese invasion, the Indochinese Republic collapsed. Around the same time, communist guerillas began to confront Siamese troops and occasional clashes broke out. Not wanting to spark a new war, both sides agreed to peace, and France surrendered soon after that.