| Franco-Siamese crisis (1893) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 French shipsInconstant andComète under fire in the Paknam incident, 13 July 1893.The Graphic. | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Kingdom of Siam | |||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
 Auguste PavieJean de Lanessan | ChulalongkornDevavongseBhanurangsiAndreas du Plessis | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 3 killed 3 wounded | 16 killed 20 wounded | ||||||||
TheFranco-Siamese crisis of 1893, known in Thailand as theIncident of Rattanakosin Era 112 (Thai:วิกฤตการณ์ ร.ศ. 112,RTGS: wikrittakan roso-roisipsong,[wíkríttàʔkaːnrɔːsɔ̌ːrɔ́ːjsìpsɔ̌ːŋ]) was a conflict between theFrench Third Republic and theKingdom of Siam.Auguste Pavie, French vice-consul inLuang Prabang in 1886, was the chief agent in furthering French interests inLaos. His intrigues, which took advantage of Siamese weakness in the region and periodic invasions byVietnamese rebels fromTonkin, increased tensions betweenBangkok andParis. The conflict concluded with thePaknam Incident, in which French gunboats sailed up the Chao Phraya River to blockadeBangkok. The Siamese subsequently agreed to cede the area that constitutes most of present-day Laos to France, an act that led to the significant expansion ofFrench Indochina.
This conflict succeeded theHaw wars (1865–1890), in which the Siamese attempted to pacify northern Siam and Tonkin.
The conflict started whenFrench Indochina's governor-generalJean de Lanessan sentAuguste Pavie as consul to Bangkok to bring Laos under French rule. The government in Bangkok, mistakenly believing that they would be supported by theBritish government, refused to concede territory east of theMekong and instead reinforced their military and administrative presence.[1]
Events were brought to a head by two separate incidents when Siamese governors inKhammuan andNong Khai expelled three French merchants from the middle Mekong in September 1892, two of them, Champenois and Esquilot, on suspicion ofopium smuggling.[1][2] Shortly afterward, the French consul inLuang Prabang,Victor-Alphonse Massie, feverish and discouraged, committed suicide on his way back toSaigon.[1][2] Back in France, these incidents were used by the colonial lobby (Parti Colonial) to stir up nationalistic anti-Siamese sentiment, as a pretext for intervention.[2][3]
The death of Massie left Auguste Pavie as the new French Consul. In March 1893, Pavie demanded that the Siamese evacuate all military posts on the east side of the Mekong River south of Khammuan, claiming that the land belonged to Vietnam. To back up these demands, the French sent the gunboatLutin toBangkok, where it was moored on theChao Phraya next to theFrench legation.
When Siam rejected the French demands, Lanessan sent three military columns into the disputed region to assert French control in April 1893. Eight small Siamese garrisons west of the Mekong withdrew upon the arrival of the central column, but the advance of the other columns met with resistance. In the north, the French came under siege on theisland of Khoung, with the capture of an officer, Thoreaux. In the south the occupation proceeded smoothly until an ambush by the Siamese on the village ofKeng Kert resulted in the killing of French police inspectorGrosgurin.[4]
Inspector Grosgurin was a French inspector and commander of a Vietnamese militia inLaos. LikeAuguste Pavie, he had been engaged in several exploratory expeditions in the region.[4]: 18 [5] He was a member of one of the French armed columns dispatched in April 1893 by Lassenan to cross theAnnamite Range into the Lao area ofKhammuan (modernThakhek)[2] and to occupy the disputed territory. The column was at first successful in evicting the Siamese commissioner at Khammuan by 25 May.[4][5]
Shortly afterward on 5 June, the Siamese commissioner organized a surprise ambush on the village ofKien Ket, where Grosgurin, confined to his sickbed, had encamped with his militia.[4][5] The commissioner had apparently been instructed by Siamese government representatives to "compel their [French troops] retirement, by fighting, if necessary, to the utmost of their strength".[2][6] The ambush resulted in the razing of the village and the killing of Grosgurin and 17 Vietnamese.[6]
The incident and the death of Grosgurin became known as the "Affair of Kham Muon (Kien Chek)" and was ultimately used as a pretext for strong French intervention.[2][7]
As a result, France demanded reparations and tensions with the British over control of Siam came to a peak.[8] The British sent three navy ships to the mouth of theChao Phraya, in case evacuation of British citizens became necessary.[1] In turn the French went one step further in July 1893 by ordering two of their ships, the sloopInconstant and the gunboatComète, to sail up the Chao Phraya toward Bangkok, without the permission of the Siamese. They came under fire from the fort atPaknam on 13 July 1893.
[9] The French returned fire and forced their way to Bangkok.[2]: 209–210
With guns trained on theGrand Palace in Bangkok, the French delivered an ultimatum to the Siamese on 20 July to hand over the territory east of the Mekong and withdraw their garrisons there, to pay an indemnity of three million francs in reparation for the fighting at Paknam, and to punish those responsible for the killings in the disputed territory.[2] When Siam did not immediately comply unconditionally to the ultimatum, the French blockaded the Siamese coast.[2]
In the end the Siamese submitted fully to the French conditions after finding no support from the British.[3] In addition, the French demanded as guarantees the temporary occupation ofChantaburi and thedemilitarization ofBattambang,Siem Reap and a 25-kilometer (16 mi)-wide zone on the west bank of the Mekong.[2] The conflict led to the signature of the Franco-Siamese Treaty, on 3 October 1893.[2]
Following the killing of Grosgurin, the Commissioner of the Khammuan District,Phra Yot, was acknowledged by his government to have been the responsible official, although he was initially acquitted of wrongdoing in a trial in March 1894.[6][10] A "Franco-Siamese Mixed Court" was subsequently convened in June 1894.[6] The court determined that Phra Yot had brought extra forces to surround the house in Kien Ket occupied by the ill Grosgurin, outnumbering his small Vietnamese militia; that Grosgurin and those Vietnamese who had not managed to escape had been killed and the house subsequently set on fire on the orders of Phra Yot.[7][11]
In a joint agreement between the Siamese and the French, Phra Yot was condemned to 20 years of penal servitude.[6] The solicitor for the defense was theCeylonese lawyerWilliam Alfred Tilleke, who was later appointedAttorney General of Siam and granted a peerage by the king.[7][12][13] TheRoyal Thai Army fort Phra Yot Muang Khwan inNakhon Phanom Province on the border between Thailand and Laos commemorates Phra Yot.[13]
The Siamese agreed to cedeLaos to France, significantly expandingFrench Indochina. In 1896, France signed a treaty with Britain defining the border between Laos and British territory in Upper Burma. The Kingdom of Laos became a protectorate, initially placed under the Governor General of Indochina in Hanoi. Pavie, who almost single-handedly brought Laos under French rule, saw to the officialization inHanoi.
The French and British both had strong interests in controlling parts of Indochina. Twice in the 1890s, they were on the verge of war over two different routes leading toYunnan.[citation needed] But several difficulties discouraged them from war. The geography of the land made troop movements difficult, making warfare more costly and less effective. Both countries were fighting a difficult conflict within their respective colonies.[citation needed]Malaria was common and deadly. Ultimately, the imagined trade routes never really came into use. In 1904, the French and the British put aside their many differences with theEntente Cordiale, ending this dispute in southeastern Asia.
France continued to occupy Chanthaburi and Trat upuntil 1907, when Siam ceded to it the provinces of Battambang, Siem Reap and Banteay Meanchey.
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