Quote: (09-01-2018 04:26 AM)Bienvenuto Wrote:
Quote: (09-01-2018 03:05 AM)Pride male Wrote:
How bad was it for the Vietnamese during French occupation? Did the French abuse and exploit the locals?
The little that I know.. the French went in for Corvee - forced labour.
I believe that it was there before the French arrived but its one thing for a local head man to negotiate to give so many villagers for a certain amount of time to an emperor of the same race's great works..
Its another thing to be on a Khmer or a Viet chain gang breaking rocks in the midday sun whilst French overseers strut around you.
I would be surprised if there was a pasty Frenchmen sipping a lemonade watching coolies build ditches and roads.
My impression of French Indochina was it had a lot of similarities to British Raj. They tolerated the Emperor staying in power, there were various princes all over, some weird Cult in the South and tribal leaders / Chieftains. The French pretty much left most of those people to their devices and only cared about getting money and getting free laborers.
There were probably Vietnamese bureaucrats that became filthy rich but I don't know any off the top of my head.
I do know in the British Empire the wealthiest man on the planet at the time was just some random Indian Prince.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir_Osman_Ali_Khan