The Sino–French War (Chinese: 中法戰争; pinyin: Zhōng fǎ Zhànzhēng, French: Guerre franco-chinoise, Vietnamese: Chiến tranh Pháp-Thanh) was a limited conflict fought between August 1884 and April 1885 to decide whether France should replace China in control of Tonkin (northern Vietnam). Because the French achieved their war aims, they are usually considered to have won the war. Nevertheless, the Chinese armies performed better than they had in other ...
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The Sino–French War (Chinese: 中法戰争; pinyin: Zhōng fǎ Zhànzhēng, French: Guerre franco-chinoise, Vietnamese: Chiến tranh Pháp-Thanh) was a limited conflict fought between August 1884 and April 1885 to decide whether France should replace China in control of Tonkin (northern Vietnam). Because the French achieved their war aims, they are usually considered to have won the war. Nevertheless, the Chinese armies performed better than they had in other nineteenth-century foreign wars, resulting in a number of French defeats in individual battles. In Taiwan and in some quarters near Guangxi, the war is even regarded as a Chinese victory.
French interest in northern Vietnam dated from the late 18th-century, when the political Catholic priest Pigneau de Behaine recruited French volunteers to fight for Nguyễn Ánh to start the Nguyễn Dynasty in an attempt to gain privileges for France and the Roman Catholic Church. In 1858, France began their colonial campaign and in 1862 annexed several southern...
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