The Sino-French war was an undeclared conflict between France and China that took place in 1884-1885 over the kingdom of Annam, and more specifically Tongking. This country existed in the territory now known as Vietnam. The French entered this war for several reasons. The most important reason was that France wanted to control the markets in the area for trade purposes. In France, there was also a high level of imperialist sentiment and after the first few skirmishes, the French people were hungry for a war to defend their national honor. China’s main reasons for entering the war were for the protection of a satellite country and for the expansion of the empire .

The war between China and France was basically over who would control the territory of Annam. The Annamese inhabitants of the area were treated as property during the war and were uninvolved with the outcome of the conflict. The Annamese did not even maintain a consistent position on one or the other side of the dispute, switching back and forth from allegiance to one side or the other during the war.

In 1874, The Franco-Annamese Philastre Treaty made Annam a protectorate of France and ended Annam’s ties to China. A previous treaty in 1862 established the same relationship, but unlike the 1862 treaty, the Philastre Treaty upset the Chinese. The treaty declared that Annam would conform her foreign policy to that of France, but otherwise would be an independent nation, in return France would turn control of the city of Hanoi over to the Annamese.

China denied recognition to the Philastre treaty and rejected the French claim that Annam was an independent nation. The Chinese stated that Annam would still have to conform her foreign policy to that of China, but a translation error lead the French to believe that the Chinese accepted the French control of Annam. The treaty also guaranteed the right of the French to trade in the Annam area and obstruction of that trade by local warlord Liu Yung-fu lead to the Sino-French War.

In 1882 The French sent naval officer Henri Riviere on an expedition to the Tongking province on the pretext of securing the Hanoi area for trade purposes. While there, Riviere was given the authority to capture the Hanoi. When he attempted to do this in 1883 with limited forces, he was defeated and killed. This caused a sensation in France and the French public cried for revenge. In response to the killing of Riviere, France sent Admiral Courbet and his fleet to Tongking to deal with the outlaws who had been responsible.

By this time, the Chinese had already started sending troops into Annam covertly

The Chinese also began demanding that the French evacuate Annam and recognize Chinese authority over the area. This puzzled the French because for eight years, the Chinese had said nothing new about the treaty or French presence in Annam. The Chinese tried to explain to the French that there had been a translation error in the Chinese reaction to the Philastre Treaty, but the French refused to accept the explanation.

While this was going on, the Chinese continually denied the presence of their own troops in Annam, even after it became obvious that China was sending troops to the territory. In order to avoid military conflict, a meeting was set up. Li Hung-chang, a leading Chinese diplomat, and the French minister to Peking, Frederic Albert Bouree, worked out an agreement that would allow France access to Annam and control over most of Tongking. China, on the other hand, was allowed to have a buffer zone that would eliminate the presence of a Franco-Chinese border in the area.

The French government was suffering through much turmoil at this time, however, and eventually the Li-Bouree agreement was rejected by the French. This rejection, combined with the actions of Riviere, increased the suspicions of the Chinese, who thought that the French had mislead them from the beginning of negotiations and that the French were preparing to annex Tongking.

Bouree at this point told Li Hung-chang that in order to avert war, the Chinese should make a strong show of their feelings about the area. This would show the French public why China was acting as it had been. Otherwise, the sentiments for war would continue to grow in France. The Chinese apparently took his suggestion to heart and acted.

China was placed in a state of emergency, imperial armies were transferred to the south, Chinese soldiers believed that war was inevitable. Chinese armies in Tongking were ordered to advance and the Cantonese navy was instructed to commence maneuvers near Annam.

This build-up was meant as a bluff to scare the French.

New negotiations were begun between Li Hung-chang and another French diplomat, Arthur Tricou, but the Chinese did not trust the French and the negotiations failed. At this point, China had between ten and twenty thousand men in Tongking. France had about nine thousand plus natives who had been conscripted into French service. It had become evident to both sides that peaceful settlement was impossible.

On August 1, 1883, France’s foreign minister, Challemel-Lacour, made one final demand that China vacate Tongking. When the Chinese weren’t quick with a reply, the French attacked. France’s two immediate goals were to capture the high court of Annam and force them to sign a treaty giving control of the area to the French and to capture Liu Yung-fu. The succeeded on the first count, but Liu Yung-fu was not captured in the battle at Dan-Phoung in early September.

Meanwhile, the French were facing threats on their own borders back home. This, combined with the failure to obtain a quick victory in Tongking led them to begin anew negotiations with China. Again, France offered to set up a buffer zone between Annam and China to separate the French and Chinese, but the Chinese flatly rejected the idea, and ordered the French out of Tongking. They also stated that any French attack on the imperial armies that China had moved into Tongking would be a declaration of war.

The French responded by launching a new offensive. Courbet’s forces attacked imperial forces in the city of Son-Tay and after two days of fighting, were victorious. For the next three months little fighting occurred between the French and Chinese. Meanwhile, the Chinese continued to send troops into Tongking, numbering more than 50 thousand by January of 1884. The French forces at that time were 16 thousand strong.

In the spring of 1884, while the Chinese were still hesitant to attack, the French resumed the offensive. In March, a French force attacked Bac-Ninh and again were successful in defeating the more numerous Chinese army.

For these early failures, the Chinese empress executed four members of the Grand Council and installed five replacements, in effect reshaping the heart of the Chinese government. This change, however, did not change the fact that the Chinese were still hesitant to engage in war with France. To this point, the Chinese had only fought defensive battles.

Captain Francois Fournier of the French Navy was then sent to meet with Li Hung-chang in order to work out a peace settlement. France demanded the territory surrounding the Red River be put under French control. China would retain all territory north of this zone. The French also wanted Southern China to be open to French trade. Finally, China was to pay an indemnity to France and the French would occupy a coastal region of China to insure payment. If these conditions were not met, France would attack China. Li Hung-chang was sent to negotiate with Fournier and a convention was agreed upon, stopping the war momentarily. Chinese forces were to retreat from Tongking. The so-called Li-Fournier convention was to be the framework for a future treaty to be signed by the two countries.

In June of 1884, a French force marching to occupy the city of Lang-Son were met by Chinese soldiers near the village of Bac-Le. The French soldiers ordered the Chinese to withdraw from the village. When they refused, a fight broke out and the French were repulsed. Again Li Hung-chang and Fournier met and negotiated the withdrawal of the Chinese troops from Tongking. This time, however, Li Hung-chang gambled that the odds were in the favor of the Chinese and ordered the troops not to withdraw, leaving the French to believe the Chinese were withdrawing.

Upon finding out that the Chinese had not left, the French issued an ultimatum that stipulated the withdrawal of Chinese troops from Tongking and that they must pay the French a 250 million franc indemnity within seven days or the French would use force to obtain these demands. The Chinese ordered the withdrawal of troops and set up negotiations for the final treaty. The French agreed. The Chinese then sought to have an impartial mediator decide the dispute, but the French rejected that idea.

On August 5, 1884, the French navy began bombarding Keelung and destroyed gun emplacements, but were unable to take the port city. In order to give China a chance to avoid war, a final demand for indemnity was made, but it also was rejected by the Chinese and the two sides began preparing for war.

Later in August, the French began bombarding the harbor of Foochow and caught the Chinese unprepared. Within fifteen minutes of the start of the attack, the Chinese navy was decimated. Throughout the day the French destroyed the dockyards around the harbor, killing more than three thousand Chinese soldiers. The Sino-French war had begun.

After the Foochow bombardment, the Chinese were unable to mount an effective counterattack. In October the French blockaded Taiwan, hoping to cut off the Chinese. The blockade was only partially successful but French ships were sent to blockade the port of Ningpo as well. A March, 1885 offensive against the island of Taiwan gave the French control over the river of Tamsui, although the Chinese were able to hold on to the city of the same name. The blockades were proved to be ineffective after that point and the French could gain no further ground.

The Chinese, meanwhile, launched a largely ineffectual counteroffensive against French troops in Tongking. The Chinese attack also met with limited success. In addition to thousands of casualties in combat, disease was rampant among the Chinese troops causing thousands of additional deaths.

The land battle consisted of a back-and-forth battle with the French and Chinese both claiming and reclaiming the same territory. At the end of March, the French commander at the front was seriously injured and replaced by a newcomer to the war. Finally on April 4, after seven months of undeclared war, an armistice was signed and the fighting stopped. In the end both sides agreed to the original stipulations of the Li-Fournier convention.

While neither side won or lost any territory in the war, casualties were heavy for China. The French had only 2100 soldiers killed while the Chinese lost 10 thousand. After the war was over, the French had gained the same rights that they had sought with the Philastre treaty they had signed in 1874. The Chinese not only lost any ties to Annam, but thousands of soldiers and national pride as well.