ABSTRACT

The history of Indo-China is primarily the history of the two native kingdoms of Annam and Cambodia and also of a third-the realm of Champa-which formerly occupied most of what is now Annam. Annam, Cambodia and Champa corresponded to three distinct lowland peoples, namely, the Annamites, Khmers and Cham, and, though the kingdoms were sometimes split up between rival princely families, they never entirely lost their 'national' identities. The mountainous region of Indo-China, which now comprises northern Laos and north-western Tonkin, was, until the nineteenth century, loosely held by a number of small principalities, such as those centred on Luang Prabang and Vientiane, none of which has had an important influence upon the political development of the rest of the country.