French Indochina

American  

[french in-doh-chahy-nuh] / ˈfrɛntʃ ˌɪn doʊˈtʃaɪ nə /

noun

1. a former French colonial federation in Southeast Asia comprising principally what are now the independent states of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Hanoi.

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French Indochina British  

noun

1. the territories of SE Asia that were colonized by France and held mostly until 1954: included Cochin China, Annam, and Tonkin (now largely Vietnam), Cambodia, Laos, and Kuang-Chou Wan (returned to China in 1945, now Zhanjiang)

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Example Sentences

In the late 1800s, long before the start of the Cold War, France took control of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, ruling the three countries as a colony known as French Indochina.

From Literature

In 1891 a French archaeological team uncovered a stone stele near the village of Sambor on the banks of the Mekong River, in what was then French Indochina, later to become Cambodia/Kampuchea.

From Scientific American

The piece emerged from Yang’s fascination with the novelist Marguerite Duras and her “childhood naïveté towards the colonialism that she lived through” in French Indochina, said Joo, who met Yang in 2004.

From New York Times

The women in my family, they’ve had to endure this as witnesses to the French Indochina War, as witnesses to the American war in Vietnam, and they deal with it in their own ways.

From Seattle Times

Zineb’s tale is set in 1950s French Indochina, where she tells a client about her fateful past as well as her piteous fantasy of becoming a film star in India.

From New York Times