Siam; the Haw & the Indochinese Federation

The widespread colonization in the Orient by the Dutch, French, Portuguese, British and Spanish Europeans, wasn't universal in practice as the different political maneuvers enacted in Thailand ensured sovereignty was maintained irrespective of the technological superiority Europeans exercised. The French were the primary antagonists for King Chulalongkornin through which his prince Maha Vajirunhis, Crown Prince of Siam would die of Typhoid fever. The Indochinese Union and after 1947 as the Indochinese Federation, was a grouping of French colonial territories in Southeast Asia until its demise in 1954. It comprised Cambodia, Laos (from 1899), the Chinese territory of Guangzhouwan (from 1898 until 1945), and the Vietnamese regions of Tonkin in the north, Annam in the centre, and Cochinchina in the south. The capital for most of its history (1902–45) was Hanoi; Saigon was the capital from 1887 to 1902 and again from 1945 to 1954.

King Chulalongkorn's coronation was in 1868 at age 16, as the 5th monarch of the House of Chakri. The King mitigated the Eastern threat by building three new forts on the Chao Phraya and bolstering the garrison at the gulf port of Chantaburi (Chantaboon). Also by forming a professional standing army and dismantling the feudal territories in favor of a constituted national government with strict borders. Additionally abolishing slavery (33% of Thai people), liberating free speech, religious practice, enshrining tax collection and generally aligning the nations administration with Europe and America. The young Chulalongkorn visited Singapore and Java in 1870 and British India during 1870–1872 to study the administration of British colonies. He toured the administrative centers of Calcutta, Delhi, Bombay, and back to Calcutta in early-1872. Chulalongkorn would provide aid to the British in their occupation of Burma.  

In the northern Laotian lands bordering China, insurgents of the Taiping Rebellion had taken refuge since the reign of King Mongkut. The Haw were generally bandits and pillagers, but had consolidated banners and drew a serious response from Chao Oun Kham, the ruling prince of Luang Prabang in 1874. The Prince appealed to Siam for aid when in 1875 Chulalongkorn sent troops from Bangkok to crush the rebellious Haw who had ravaged as far as Vientiane by the time. In 1868 Liu Yongfu abandoned Wu Yuanqing's rebels as new Chinese national forces were routing the nations rebels, and crossed into Vietnam with a force of 200 loyal soldiers. He feigned to be the famous 'General of the Black Tiger', and branded his Black Flag Army, heiqi jun (hei-ch'i chun, 黑旗軍). The Black Flags marched slowly through northern Tonkin, engaging the local montagnards after which attaining recognition and rank as a Vietnamese military governor. Recruiting men to their standard as they went, the Haw set up camp just outside Son Tay, on the northern bank of the Red River, before taking over Lao Cai and centralizing there as now forming the modern border of Vietnam and China.

In 1869, having conciliated the Vietnamese, Liu also won favor with the Chinese authorities by committing the Black Flag Army to a Chinese punitive campaign against the Yellow Flags, the other insurgent offshoot of the Yunan province. A Chinese expedition into the region was commanded by the veteran general Feng Zicai, who would later win fame during the Sino-French War (August 1884–April 1885) by defeating a French column at the Battle of Zhennan Pass (24 March 1885). 'The storming of the thirteen passes' ensued when Liu's Black Flags fought their way through the mountains and attacked Huang Chongying's headquarters at Hayang, a town on the Clear River near the border with Yunnan, forcing the Yellow Flag leader to take refuge with his montagnard allies. Although the Chinese and Black Flags failed to annihilate the Yellow Flags, they taught them a severe lesson, and Feng rewarded Liu for his help by offering him an honorary commission in the Chinese army.

In the next few years Liu Yongfu established a profitable protection racket on commerce on the Red River between Son Tay and Lao Cai. Traders were taxed at the rate of 10% of the value of their goods. The profits that accrued from this extortion were so great that Liu's army swelled in numbers during the 1870s, attracting to its ranks adventurers from all over the world. Although most of the soldiers were Chinese, many mercenaries were American or European expats, some of whom had fought in the Taiping Rebellion. Liu used their western expertise to transform the Black Flag Army into a formidable fighting force. Liu now commanded 7,000 Black Flag soldiers from Guangdong and Guangxi around Tonkin. 

What would be Thailand's last military expeditions into the region, Chulalongkorn's forces marched to capture a supposed Haw stronghold at Chiangkham in spring of 1875. Siamese forces crossed the River Mekong at Nong Khai, and after suffering losses against the proxy militia retreated all the way to Isan in 1885. New, modernized forces were next sent along with the British James McCarthy who accounted for the Haw's demoralizing tactics, trapping territories and guerilla warfare. This force was divided into two groups attacking the Haw from both Chiang Kam and Pichai. The Haw were defeated only as much as scattering into the hills and mountains, many taking to Vietnam.

In 1893 Auguste Pavie, the French vice-consul of Luang Prabang, requested the cession of all Laotian lands east of the Mekong River which was Siam's suzerain. Siam resented the demand, embarking on the Franco–Siamese War of 1893. Governor-General Jean de Lanessan sent three military columns into the disputed region to assert French control in April. Eight small Siamese garrisons west of the Mekong withdrew upon the arrival of the central column, but the advance of the other columns met with resistance. The French came under siege on the island of Khoung, with the capture of an officer, Thoreaux. The occupation proceeded smoothly until an ambush by the Siamese on the village of Keng Ker.

The column was at first successful in evicting the Siamese commissioner at Khammuan by 25 May. Shortly afterward on 5 June, the Siamese commissioner organized a surprise ambush on the village of Kien Ket, where Grosgurin, confined to his sickbed, had encamped with his militia. The commissioner had apparently been instructed by Siamese government representatives to "compel their [French troops] retirement, by fighting, if necessary, to the utmost of their strength". The ambush resulted in the razing of the village and the killing of Grosgurin and 17 Vietnamese.

Conflict climaxed when the French Navy aviso Inconstant and the gunboat Comete arrived on July 13 at Paknam with the intention of crossing the bar into the Chao Phraya River and join the French gunboat Lutin already anchored off the French embassy in Bangkok. Makut Ratchakuman and Coronation led the Siamese fleet but were ill-equipped with weaponry compared to the more modern French flotilla. 

The French gunboat Le Lutin entered the Chao Phraya en route for the French consulate to ready a full assault. Fighting between French and Siamese forces were underway on the Eastern frontier. The French Foreign Minister, Jules Develle, ordered Admiral Edgar Humann, the commander of the French Far Eastern Naval Division, to concentrate his nine warships off Saigon on Siam maintaining the need to "round off our Indochinese empire", with the most optimal means of technological superiority. The French in Bangkok believed that the Siamese were well-prepared for battle however in tutelage of the Dutch. Chulachomklao Fort had just been modernized with seven 6-inch Armstrong Whitworth disappearing guns and was under the command of Andreas du Plessis de Richelieu, a Danish naval officer granted the noble title of Phraya Chonlayutyothin. Further upriver at Paknam Island, the smaller Phi Seua Samut fortress had also been fitted with three of the same guns. The Siamese had placed a sorte of water traps from below the Fort to the center of the river. Above this, two chain and stake barrages plus several sunken vessels off both banks caused a bottle neck.

The Phra Chulachomklao Fort opened fire with two blank rounds but the French continued on, so a third, live, warning shot was fired and hit the water in front of the Jean Baptiste Say. When this warning was ignored, a fourth shot was fired so the gunboats Makhut Ratchakuman and Coronation opened up at 18:50. Inconstant returned fire on the fort while the Comete engaged the gunboats. At least two shots from the fortress hit the Inconstant but coordinated strikes lacked on both side. After firing two shots the carriage of the 70-pound gun aboard the Coronation broke through the deck and could no longer be fired. In the ensuing confusion the Coronation was nearly rammed by the Inconstant which fired two shells into the Coronation. The Jean Baptiste Say was hit several times by cannon fire and the Captain was forced to ground her on Laem Lamphu Rai. No shells hit the Phra Chulachomklao Fort. Within 25 minutes the Inconstant and the Comete had broken through the line of Siamese defenses at a cost of fifteen Siamese and two French lives. A short time later the ships passed the Phi Seua fortress at Paknam with ineffective retaliation, and one report of civilian casualties by the Port.

By the break of day the Siamese captured the steamer Jean Baptiste Say taking hostages, and were unable to sink the vessel. The French gunboat Forfait shortly arrived at Paknam but was repelled attempting to board Jean Baptiste Say. This was a minor victory for the Siamese since Captain Borey had anchored off the French Embassy in Bangkok at around 22:00 on July 13 his ships' guns were targeted on the Royal palace. Forced negotiations ensued when the French sent an ultimatum: an indemnity of three million francs, as well as the cession of and withdrawal from Laos, lest a full attack ensue on the capital Bangkok. Siam did not accept the ultimatum evacuating where required and setting course for prolonged war. French troops then blockaded the Gulf of Siam and occupied Chantaburi and Trat.

King Chulalongkorn sent Rolin-Jacquemyns to negotiate and appealed to Britain for assistance likewise. Britain proposed an agreement with France in arbitration guaranteeing the integrity of the rest of Siam. In exchange, Siam needed to surrender any territorial claim on the Thai-speaking Shan region as north-eastern Burma to the British, and cede Laos to France.

The Siamese agreed to cede Laos to France, significantly expanding French Indochina. In 1896, France signed a treaty with Britain defining the border between Laos and British territory in Upper Burma. The Kingdom of Laos became a protectorate, initially placed under the Governor General of Indochina in Hanoi. French vice-consul Pavie, who almost single-handedly brought Laos under French administration, saw to the officialization in Hanoi.

The French and British both had strong interests in controlling parts of Indochina and Thailand as a middle-ground bode well for the region. Twice in the 1890s, the two superpowers were on the verge of war over two different routes leading to Yunnan. But several difficulties discouraged them from war. The geography of the land made troop movements difficult, and any warfare far more costly and less effective. Both countries were fighting a difficult conflict within their respective colonies likewise and troop consignment was impossibly forthcoming. Malaria was common and deadly too. Ultimately, the imagined trade routes never really came into use and the economic results of the colonization in entirety remains dubious. In 1904, the French and the British put aside their many differences with the Entente Cordiale, ending their own disputes waged in southeastern Asia.