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Cambodia

The French Presence in Cochinchina and Cambodia

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The French Presence in Cochinchina and Cambodia

Author: Milton E. Osborne
USD 31.00

Book's Description

The French Presence in Cochinchina and Cambodia : Rule and Response (1859-1905) was first published in 1969 and out of print for many years. Milton Osborne's pioneering study of the first five decades of the French colonial presence in southern Vietnam (Cochinchina) and Cambodia has been described as `indispensable' in relation to Cambodia's history and `fascinating' for its account of the rise of a French-backed Vietnamese elite in Cochinchina. Drawing on previously neglected archival sources in Paris , Phnom Penh and Saigon , the book shows that the effects of French policies were sharply different in these two regions. In southern Vietnam , France 's policy of direct rule created a new and important class of collaborateurs, men who were ready to work with the French and who gained materially from the colonial presence. In Cambodia , by contrast, France preserved the king's symbolic importance, despite stripping him of real power, a fact that was to be of great importance later in the twentieth century. Dealing with a broad range of issues, including administration, law and education, and providing vivid pen portraits of individuals of great interest, on both sides of the colonial divide, the book is important for the period it treats and as an introduction to the later troubled history of the Indochinese region.

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