Hô Chi Minh in Biarritz 1946

From the 12th of june to the 27th, Hô Chi Minh, the separatist leader of North Indochina made a plane stop in Biarritz.

Fast history of French Indochina colonie

Indochina colonie starts existing by the willing of the Emperor Napoleon the III rd (who made a palace for Eugénie, his wife, the Hotel du Palais of Biarritz) .

Napoleon III acted to increase the French presence in Indochina. An important factor in his decision was the belief that France risked becoming a second-rate power by not expanding its influence in East Asia. Deeper down was the sense that France owed the world a civilizing mission.

French missionaries had been active in Vietnam since the 17th century, when the Jesuit priest Alexandre de Rhodes opened a mission there. In 1858 the Vietnamese emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty felt threatened by the French influence and tried to expel the missionaries. Napoleon III sent a naval force of fourteen gunships, carrying three thousand French and three thousand Filipino troops provided by Spain, under Charles Rigault de Genouilly, to compel the government to accept the missionaries and to stop the persecution of Catholics. In September 1858 the expeditionary force captured and occupied the port of Da Nang, and then in February 1859 moved south and captured Saigon. The Vietnamese ruler was compelled to cede three provinces to France, and to offer protection to the Catholics. The French troops departed for a time to take part in the expedition to China, but in 1862, when the agreements were not fully followed by the Vietnamese emperor, they returned. The Emperor was forced to open treaty ports in Annam and Tonkin, and all of Cochinchina became a French territory in 1864.

In 1863, the ruler of Cambodia, King Norodom, who had been placed in power by the government of Thailand, rebelled against his sponsors and sought the protection of France. The Thai Emperor granted authority over Cambodia to France, in exchange for two provinces of Laos, which were ceded by Cambodia to Thailand. In 1867, Cambodia formally became a protectorate of France.

1945 is the beginning of Hô Chi Minh revolution in Indochina

Hô Chi Minh who worked and studied in France demands the independance of the Vietnam in early 1941 and founded the Viêt Minh independence movment.
He came back in Indochina in 1943 to start his revolution and to free the Indochinese people.

He proclaims the independence of the Republic Democratic of Việt-Nam the 2nd of september 1945 in Hanoi, the beginning of the first Indochina war.

From the 12th to the 27th of june 1946 in Biarritz

Facing political issues the French Gouvernment of Félix Gouin resigns forcing the Hô Chi Minh’s plane to stop in Biarritz waiting for new gouvernment elections. He arrived the 12th of june and stayed till the 27th.