1.
Abbeville
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Abbeville is a commune in the Somme department and in Hauts-de-France region in northern France. It is one of the chef-lieus of the arrondissement of Somme and it was the capital of Ponthieu. Its inhabitants are called the Abbevillois, Abbeville is located on the Somme River,20 km from its modern mouth in the English Channel. The majority of the town is located on the east bank of the Somme and it is located at the head of the Abbeville Canal, and is 45 km northwest of Amiens and approximately 200 kilometres from Paris. It is also 10 kilometres as the flies from the Bay of Somme. In the medieval period, it was the lowest crossing point on the Somme, just halfway between Rouen and Lille, it is the historical capital of the County of Ponthieu and maritime Picardy. This place is considered by some to be the origin of Abbeville, because it was the location of the first château of the Counts of Ponthieu and it is assumed that this place could have been the location of the farm of Abbatisvilla, dependent upon the Abbey of Saint-Riquier. The suburbs of La Bouvaque and Thuison are located to the north of the city, the municipal park of La Bouvaque, bordered by the Boulevard de la République, consists of the La Bouvaque pond and Collart meadows, former settling ponds of the Béghin-Say sugar factory. It was in Thuison that the Carthusian monastery of Saint-Honoré was founded in 1301 by William of Mâcon and this was a property of the Order of the Temple, sold to the latter by Gérard de Villars, the last master of the province of France. The sale was confirmed by Hugues de Pairaud, then visitor of France, the suburb of Saint Gilles Rouvroy is to the west, and the origin of the name comes from Rouvray indicates the presence of an oak wood or a remarkable oak. Mautort, beside Rouvroy, is a stronghold located between Cambron and Abbeville. It is at the origin of the name of de Mautort, surviving in the name of the Tillette de Mautort family or, for example. The name tort is attested in Old French with the sense of détour, Menchecourt, in the north-west, is known for its sugar factory and for its football club. Abbeville is served by trains on the line between Boulogne-sur-Mer and Amiens and between Calais and Paris, Abbeville was the southern terminus of the Réseau des Bains de Mer, the line to Dompierre-sur-Authie opened on 19 June 1892 and closed on 10 March 1947. Abbeville is located just near the A16 autoroute, and is about 1 hour 50 minutes by car from Paris, Abbeville has an oceanic climate due to its proximity to the ocean. The summers and winters are temperate and rainy, days of snow are fairly common, the highest temperature was 37.8 °C on 1 July 1952 and the record low is −0.8 °C, which occurred during a particularly cold spell on 17 January 1985. In 2012, the commune had 24,237 inhabitants, the evolution of the number of inhabitants is known through the population censuses carried out in the town since 1793. The population of the commune is relatively old, the rate of persons over 60 years of age is higher than the national rate and the departmental rate
2.
Picardy
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Picardy is a historical territory and a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it is now part of the new region of Hauts-de-France and it is located in the northern part of France. The historical province of Picardy stretched from north of Noyon to Calais, via the whole of the Somme department, the province of Artois separated Picardy from French Flanders. From the 5th century the area was part of the Frankish Empire, and in the period it encompassed the six countships of Boulogne, Montreuil, Ponthieu, Amiénois, Vermandois. According to the 843 Treaty of Verdun the region part of West Francia. The name Picardy was not used until the 12th or 13th century, during this time, the name applied to all lands where the Picard language was spoken, which included all the territories from Paris to the Netherlands. In the Latin Quarter of Paris, people identified a Picard Nation of students at Sorbonne University, during the Hundred Years War, Picardy was the centre of the Jacquerie peasant revolt in 1358. From 1419 onwards, the Picardy counties were gradually acquired by the Burgundian duke Philip the Good, in 1477, King Louis XI of France led an army and occupied key towns in Picardy. By the end of 1477, Louis would control all of Picardy, in the 16th century, the government of Picardy was created. This became a new region of France, separate from what was historically defined as Picardy. The new Picardy included the Somme département, the half of the Aisne département. In 1557, Picardy was invaded by Habsburg forces under the command of Emmanuel Philibert, after a seventeen-day siege, St. Quentin would be ransacked, while Noyon would be burned by the Habsburg army. In the 17th century, a disease similar to English sweat originated from the region. It was called Suette des picards or Picardy sweat, the sugar industry has continued to play a prominent role in the economy of the region. One of the most significant historical events to occur in Picardy was the series of battles fought along the Somme during World War I. From September 1914 to August 1918, four major battles, including the Battle of the Somme, were fought by British, French, and German forces in the fields of Northern Picardy. In 2009, the Regional Committee for local government reform proposed to reduce the number of French regions, Picardy would have disappeared, and each department would have joined a nearby region. The Oise would have incorporated in the Île-de-France, the Somme would have been incorporated in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais
3.
Magong
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Magong, formerly romanized as Makung, is a county-controlled city on the western part of Penghu Island in the Pescadores in the Taiwan Strait. It is the seat of Penghu County, administered by the Republic of China on Taiwan, the settlements temple honoring the Chinese sea goddess Mazu, the deified form of the medieval Fujianese shamaness Lin Moniang, is usually accounted the oldest in all of Taiwan and Penghu. The town was originally named Makeng but was changed to Makō during Japanese rule in 1920, after 1945, the Wade-Giles romanization Makung was used. Taiwan officially adopted Hanyu Pinyin in 2009, leading to the romanization Magong, the islands Mazu temple was erected in the late 16th or early 17th century. The city Magongao began to grow around 1887, during the Qing Empires Guangxu Era, under Japanese rule, the settlement was renamed Makō and organized as a subprefecture of Hōko. The area was a base of the Imperial Japanese Navy. It was a point for the invasion of the Philippines during the Second World War. On 25 December 1981, Makung was upgraded from a township to be a county-controlled city. Chang Yu-sheng, former singer, composer and producer Magong City Office, Penghu County Magong Airport WebSite
4.
Penghu
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The Penghu or Pescadores Islands are an archipelago of 90 islands and islets in the Taiwan Strait. The largest city is Magong, located on the largest island, covering an area of 141 square kilometers, the archipelago collectively forms Penghu County of Republic of China, and is the second smallest county, after Lienchiang. The traditional English name of the islands, the Pescadores, comes from the Portuguese name Ilhas dos Pescadores, the Modern European Portuguese pronunciation is but, in English, it is typically closer to Classical Portugueses, /ˌpɛskəˈdɔːrɪz/ or /-iz/. The islands have also been called Pehoe, Pescadores was also the name given by the Spanish expedition of Hernando de Grijalva in 1537 to the Micronesian atoll Kapingamarangi. Finds of fine red cord-marked pottery indicate that Penghu was visited by people from southwestern Taiwan around 5,000 years ago, the islands are described in some detail in Wang Dayuans Dao Yi Zhi Lue. In the 15th century, the Ming ordered the evacuation of the islands as part of their maritime ban, when these restrictions were removed in the late 16th century, legal fishing communities were re-established on the islands. These fishermen worshipped at the Mazu Temple that gave Magong its name and themselves gave rise to the Portuguese, the Ming established a military presence in 1603. At this time, the Dutch East India Company was trying to force China to open a port in Fujian to Dutch trade and expel the Portuguese from Macau. In response, the Chinese governor of Fujian demanded that the Dutch withdraw from Penghu to Taiwan, the Dutch continued to raid the Fujian coast between October 1622 and January 1624 to force their demands, but were unsuccessful. In 1624, the new governor of Fujian sent a fleet of 40–50 warships with 5,000 troops to Penghu and expelled the Dutch, who moved to Fort Zeelandia on Taiwan. For a period in the century, Taiwan and the archipelago were ruled by the Koxinga kingdom. The Penghu archipelago was captured by the French in March 1885, in the weeks of the Sino-French War. The Pescadores Campaign was the last campaign of Admiral Amédée Courbet, Courbet was among several French soldiers and sailors who succumbed to cholera during the French occupation of Penghu. He died aboard his flagship Bayard in Makung harbour on 11 June 1885, towards the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, having defeated the Qing in northern China, Japan sought to ensure that it obtained Penghu and Taiwan in the final settlement. In March 1895, the Japanese defeated the Chinese garrison on the islands, Penghu County was then called the Hōko Prefecture by the Japanese government of Taiwan. During World War II, Makō was a base for the Imperial Japanese Navy. On 26 July 1945, the three governments issued the Potsdam Declaration, declaring that the terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out, however, the United States and the United Kingdom regard the aforementioned documents as merely wartime statements of intention with no binding force in law. Following the surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945, Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers Douglas MacArthur issued General Order No,1, which directed Japanese forces to surrender to the Allied Powers and facilitate the occupation of Japanese territories by the Allied Powers
5.
Qing dynasty
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It was preceded by the Ming dynasty and succeeded by the Republic of China. The Qing multi-cultural empire lasted almost three centuries and formed the base for the modern Chinese state. The dynasty was founded by the Jurchen Aisin Gioro clan in Manchuria, in the late sixteenth century, Nurhaci, originally a Ming vassal, began organizing Banners, military-social units that included Jurchen, Han Chinese, and Mongol elements. Nurhaci formed the Jurchen clans into an entity, which he renamed as the Manchus. By 1636, his son Hong Taiji began driving Ming forces out of Liaodong and declared a new dynasty, in 1644, peasant rebels led by Li Zicheng conquered the Ming capital, Beijing. The Ten Great Campaigns of the Qianlong Emperor from the 1750s to the 1790s extended Qing control into Central Asia, the early rulers maintained their Manchu ways, and while their title was Emperor, they used khan to the Mongols and they were patrons of Tibetan Buddhism. They governed using Confucian styles and institutions of government and retained the imperial examinations to recruit Han Chinese to work under or in parallel with Manchus. They also adapted the ideals of the system in dealing with neighboring territories. The Qianlong reign saw the apogee and initial decline in prosperity. The population rose to some 400 million, but taxes and government revenues were fixed at a low rate, corruption set in, rebels tested government legitimacy, and ruling elites did not change their mindsets in the face of changes in the world system. Following the Opium War, European powers imposed unequal treaties, free trade, the Taiping Rebellion and the Dungan Revolt in Central Asia led to the deaths of some 20 million people, most of them due to famines caused by war. In spite of disasters, in the Tongzhi Restoration of the 1860s, Han Chinese elites rallied to the defense of the Confucian order. The initial gains in the Self-Strengthening Movement were destroyed in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1895, in which the Qing lost its influence over Korea, New Armies were organized, but the ambitious Hundred Days Reform of 1898 was turned back by Empress Dowager Cixi, a conservative leader. Sun Yat-sen and other revolutionaries competed with reformist monarchists such as Kang Youwei, after the deaths of Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor in 1908, the hardline Manchu court alienated reformers and local elites alike. The Wuchang Uprising on October 11,1911, led to the Xinhai Revolution, General Yuan Shikai negotiated the abdication of Puyi, the last emperor, on February 12,1912. Nurhaci declared himself the Bright Khan of the Later Jin state in both of the 12–13th century Jurchen Jin dynasty and of his Aisin Gioro clan. His son Hong Taiji renamed the dynasty Great Qing in 1636, there are competing explanations on the meaning of Qīng. The character Qīng is composed of water and azure, both associated with the water element and this association would justify the Qing conquest as defeat of fire by water
6.
Taiwan
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Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, is a state in East Asia. Neighbours include China to the west, Japan to the northeast, Taiwan is the most populous state that is not a member of the United Nations, and the one with the largest economy. The island of Taiwan, also known as Formosa, was inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines before the 17th century. After a brief rule by the Kingdom of Tungning, the island was annexed by the Qing dynasty, the Qing ceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895 after the Sino-Japanese War. While Taiwan was under Japanese rule, the Republic of China was established on the mainland in 1912 after the fall of the Qing dynasty, following the Japanese surrender to the Allies in 1945, the ROC took control of Taiwan. However, the resumption of the Chinese Civil War led to the ROCs loss of the mainland to the Communists, and the flight of the ROC government to Taiwan in 1949. As a founding member of the United Nations, the ROC continued to represent China at the United Nations until 1971, in the early 1960s, Taiwan entered a period of rapid economic growth and industrialization, creating a stable industrial economy. In the 1980s and early 1990s, it changed from a one-party military dictatorship dominated by the Kuomintang to a multi-party democracy with universal suffrage, Taiwan is the 22nd-largest economy in the world, and its high-tech industry plays a key role in the global economy. It is ranked highly in terms of freedom of the press, health care, public education, economic freedom, the PRC has consistently claimed sovereignty over Taiwan and asserted the ROC is no longer in legitimate existence. Under its One-China Policy the PRC refused diplomatic relations with any country that recognizes the ROC, the PRC has threatened the use of military force in response to any formal declaration of independence by Taiwan or if PRC leaders decide that peaceful unification is no longer possible. There are various names for the island of Taiwan in use today, the former name Formosa dates from 1542, when Portuguese sailors sighted the main island of Taiwan and named it Ilha Formosa, which means beautiful island. The name Formosa eventually replaced all others in European literature and was in use in English in the early 20th century. This name was adopted into the Chinese vernacular as the name of the sandbar. The modern word Taiwan is derived from this usage, which is seen in forms in Chinese historical records. Use of the current Chinese name was formalized as early as 1684 with the establishment of Taiwan Prefecture, through its rapid development, the entire Formosan mainland eventually became known as Taiwan. The official name of the state is the Republic of China and it was a member of the United Nations representing China until 1971, when it lost its seat to the Peoples Republic of China. Over subsequent decades, the Republic of China has become known as Taiwan. In some contexts, especially ones from the ROC government
7.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
8.
French Navy
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The French Navy, informally La Royale, is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces. As of June 2014, the French Navy employed a total of 36,776 personnel, the reserve element of the French Navy consisted of 4,827 personnel of the Operational Reserve. The French naval fleet includes more than a hundred vessels and nuclear type submarines, the history of the French Navy dates back to the History of the French Navy of Antiquity to the Renaissance, part of the History of the French Navy. The French Royal Navy was quasi inexistent prior 1624, the Ordre de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem, which was both a religious and military order, had its own respective international war fleet which assured the policing of the seas in the Mediterranean. The members which had satisfied obligations for periods in service at sea fulfilling their service, were granted the rank of Knights Hospitaller, however, many considered the naval service formation to integrate later, while being well formed, their respective navy. The Ordre de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem was one of the ancestors of the French naval schools and in principal, the Order accordingly formed most of the ships Captains, Officers of the French Royal Navy and Admirals of the Marine française de guerre de la Méditerranée. During the Revolution, the French Navy succeeded to the French Royal Navy, under the First French Empire and the Second French Empire, the navy was designated as the Imperial French Navy. The French Navy is still designated today familiarly as La Royale and this expression was used by commercial sailors due to their military service at the corps of the navy by the institution of maritime inscription. The implementation then of the Ministère de la Marine later the de la Marine de guerre française at rue Royale. The symbol of the French Navy, which was since origin a golden anchor » and this symbol featured on all naval vessels, the arms, uniforms, the couriers, equipment, and general arms of the navy. This symbol was replaced in 1990 by a logo featuring a bow section of a warship with two ascending red and blue spray foams, and the inscription Marine nationale. The Chief of Staff of the French Navy was Admiral Bernard Louzeau, the navy became a consistent instrument of national power around the seventeenth century with Richelieus efforts under Louis XIII, and Colberts under Louis XIV. Under the tutelage of the Sun King, the French Navy was well-financed and -equipped, managing to score several victories in the Nine Years War against the Royal Navy. Financial troubles, however, forced the navy back to port and allowed the English, before the Nine Years War, in the Franco-Dutch War, it managed to score a decisive victory over a combined Spanish-Dutch fleet at the Battle of Palermo. The French Navy scored various successes, as in the campaigns led in the Atlantic by Picquet de la Motte, in 1766, Bougainville led the first French circumnavigation. During the American Revolutionary War the French Navy played a role in supporting the Americans. French warships participated in the battle by bombarding British ground forces, in India, Suffren waged campaigns against the British, successfully contending for supremacy against Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Hughes. In the Mediterranean, the French Navy waged a campaign during a 1798 French invasion of Egypt
9.
Admiral
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Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually abbreviated to Adm or ADM, in the Commonwealth and the U. S. a full admiral is equivalent to a full general in the army, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet. In NATO, admirals have a code of OF-9 as a four-star rank. The word admiral in Middle English comes from Anglo-French amiral, commander, from Medieval Latin admiralis and these themselves come from Arabic amīr, or amīr al-, commander of, as in amīr al-baḥr, commander of the sea. The term was in use for the Greco-Arab naval leaders of Norman Sicily, the Norman Roger II of Sicily, employed a Greek Christian known as George of Antioch, who previously had served as a naval commander for several North African Muslim rulers. Roger styled George in Abbasid fashion as Amir of Amirs, i. e. Commander of Commanders, the Sicilians and later Genoese took the first two parts of the term and used them as one word, amiral, from their Aragon opponents. The French and Spanish gave their sea commanders similar titles while in Portuguese the word changed to almirante, the word admiral has today come to be almost exclusively associated with the highest naval rank in most of the worlds navies, equivalent to the army rank of general. However, this wasnt always the case, for example, in some European countries prior to the end of World War II, admiral was the third highest naval rank after general admiral and grand admiral. The rank of admiral has also been subdivided into various grades, the Royal Navy used colours to indicate seniority of its admirals until 1864, for example, Horatio Nelsons highest rank was vice admiral of the white. The generic term for these naval equivalents of army generals is flag officer, some navies have also used army-type titles for them, such as the Cromwellian general at sea. Admiral is a German Navy OF-9 four-star flag officer rank, equivalent to the German Army, see also Post-WWII rank is Bakurocho or Chief of Staff, Joint Staff 幕僚長 with limited function as an advisory staff to Minister of Defense, compared to Gensui during 1872–1873 and 1898–1945. Admiral of Castile was a post with a long and important history in Spain
10.
Far East Squadron
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The French Far East Squadron was an exceptional naval grouping created for the duration of the Sino-French War. In 1882 French interests in the Far East were protected by two divisions, the Cochinchina naval division and the Far East naval division. Henri Rivières intervention in Tonkin in April 1882 was made with vessels of the Cochinchina naval division. As France increased its commitment in Tonkin after Rivières defeat and death at the Battle of Paper Bridge, command of this new Tonkin Coasts naval division was given to Admiral Amédée Courbet. The Far East squadron was constituted on 27 June 1884, in response to the news of the Bac Le ambush, by the amalgamation of the Tonkin Coasts naval division. The new squadron was placed under Courbets command, with Lespès second in command, in October 1884 the squadron was joined by the cruisers Rigault de Genouilly from the Levant station, Nielly from the Indian Ocean station and Champlain. At the end of November 1884 a fourth cruiser, Éclaireur, in January 1885 the squadron was joined by the cruisers Duchaffaut from New Caledonia and Lapérouse from France. Around the end of March 1885 the cruiser Kerguelen, transferred from the Pacific station, in April 1885 the squadron was reinforced by a third naval division, sent out from France in January 1885 under the command of Admiral Adrien-Barthélémy-Louis Rieunier. Rieuniers division consisted of the ironclad Turenne, the cruisers Magon, Primauguet and Roland, Admiral Courbet died aboard his flagship Bayard in Magong harbour in the Pescadores on 11 June 1885, and was briefly succeeded in command of the squadron by Admiral Sébastien Lespès. On 25 July 1885 the French government reconstituted the traditional Far East naval division at close to its 1883 strength, d’Estaing and Kerguelen were the first to leave, towing Torpedo Boats Nos.50 and 44 as far as Saigon, then continuing on to France. Villars and Éclaireur followed them, while Château-Yquem conveyed troops, artillery, then Annamite left, to repatriate the sick. Duguay-Trouin and Châteaurenault went next, to return to France, Magon and Fabert went back to the Pacific station, and Rigault de Genouilly to the Levant station. A little later Atalante left to decommission in Saigon, Nielly joined the Indian Ocean station and La Clocheterie, Lutin, the Far East squadron was engaged on several occasions during the Sino-French War. The ironclad La Galissonnière, the cruiser Villars and the gunboat Lutin took part in the bombardment of Keelung on 5 August 1884, directed by Rear Admiral Lespès. Both companies were attacked by superior Chinese forces on the morning of 6 August, and had to make a withdrawal to the coast. French casualties in this operation were 2 dead and 11 wounded, there were also a number of exploits by individual vessels. None of the vessels were lost in battle, but there were several losses from other causes. The light frigate Hamelin stranded in the Min River in July 1884 and had to return to France for repairs, thirteen sailors were scalded to death aboard the cruiser Rigault de Genouilly on 15 November 1884 when a boiler exploded
11.
Sino-French War
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The Sino-French War, also known as the Tonkin War and Tonquin War, was a limited conflict fought from August 1884 through April 1885, to decide whether France would supplant Chinas control of Tonkin. Although the Chinese armies performed better than in other nineteenth-century wars and the war ended with French defeat on land, France began its colonial campaign in 1858, annexing several southern provinces in 1862 to form the colony of Cochinchina. In 1873, a small French force commanded by Lieutenant de Vaisseau Francis Garnier, exceeding his instructions, following a series of French victories against the Vietnamese, the Vietnamese government called on Liu Yongfus Black Flags, who defeated Garniers force beneath the walls of Hanoi. Garnier was killed in battle, and the French government later disavowed his expedition. In 1881, French Commandant Henri Rivière was sent with a military force to Hanoi to investigate Vietnamese complaints about the activities of French merchants. In defiance of the instructions of his superiors, Rivière stormed the citadel of Hanoi on 25 April 1882, although Rivière subsequently returned the citadel to Vietnamese control, his recourse to force provoked alarm both in Vietnam and in China. The Vietnamese also bid for Chinese support, Vietnam had long been a vassal state of China, and China agreed to arm and support the Black Flags, and to covertly oppose French operations in Tonkin. The Qing court also sent a signal to the French that China would not allow Tonkin to fall under French control. In the summer of 1882, troops of the Chinese Yunnan and Guangxi armies crossed the border into Tonkin, occupying Lạng Sơn, Bắc Ninh, Hung Hoa, neither of the parties to these negotiations consulted the Vietnamese. Rivière, disgusted at the cut by Bourée, decided early in 1883 to force the issue. He had recently sent a battalion of marine infantry from France. On 27 March 1883, to secure his line of communications from Hanoi to the coast, Rivière captured the citadel of Nam Định with a force of 520 French soldiers under his personal command. During his absence at Nam Định, the Black Flags and Vietnamese made an attack on Hanoi, Rivière jubilantly reacted, This will force them to take forward their Tonkin Question. He had expected to be cashiered for his Capture of Nam Định, there had recently been a change of government in France, and the new administration of Jules Ferry strongly favoured colonial expansion. It therefore decided to back Rivière, Ferry and Foreign Minister Paul-Armand Challemel-Lacour denounced Bourées agreement with Li Hongzhang and recalled the hapless French minister. They also made it clear to the Chinese that they were determined to place Tonkin under French protection and this resulted in a year of Liu Yongfus forces fighting an unconventional war. On 10 May 1883 Liu Yongfu challenged the French to battle in a taunting message widely placarded on the walls of Hanoi, on 19 May Rivière confronted the Black Flags in the Battle of Paper Bridge, and the French suffered a disastrous defeat. Rivières small force attacked a strong Black Flag defensive position near the village of Cầu Giấy, after initial successes the French were eventually enveloped on both wings, only with difficulty could they regroup and fall back to Hanoi
12.
Battle of Fuzhou
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The Battle of Fuzhou, or Battle of Foochow, also known as the Battle of the Pagoda Anchorage, was the opening engagement of the 16-month Sino-French War. The battle was fought on 23 August 1884 off the Pagoda Anchorage in Mawei harbour,15 kilometres to the southeast of the city of Fuzhou, during the battle Admiral Amédée Courbets Far East Squadron virtually destroyed the Fujian Fleet, one of Chinas four regional fleets. On 11 May 1884 French and Chinese negotiators concluded the Tientsin Accord, on 23 June 1884, French troops advancing to occupy Lang Son, in accordance with the terms of this agreement, clashed near the small town of Bac Le with a detachment of the Chinese Guangxi Army. The Chinese opened fire on the advancing French, precipitating a battle in which the French column was seriously mauled. This incident, the Bac Le Ambush, was the cause of the Sino-French War. When news of the Bac Le Ambush reached Paris, there was fury at what was perceived as blatant Chinese treachery, jules Ferry’s government demanded an apology, an indemnity, and the immediate implementation of the terms of the Tianjin Accord. The Chinese government agreed to negotiate, but refused to apologise or pay an indemnity, the mood in France was against compromise, and although negotiations continued throughout July, Admiral Courbet was ordered to take his squadron to Fuzhou. Courbet was instructed to prepare to destroy the Foochow Navy Yard, fifteen kilometres downriver from Fuzhou at Mawei, ironically, the Foochow Navy Yard represented a substantial French investment in Chinas future, having been built several years earlier under the direction of the French administrator Prosper Giquel. Negotiations between France and China broke down in mid-August, and on the evening of 22 August Courbet was authorised by the French government to commence hostilities. He duly notified the foreign consuls, the governor-general of Fujian and Zhejiang, only a fraction of the Far East squadron was present off the Pagoda Anchorage on the morning of 23 August. In particular, none of the Far East squadrons four ironclads was immediately available, bayard, Courbets flagship, was at Sharp Peak near the island of Matsu, guarding a vital telegraph station. Atalante was hunting down pirate ships in the Gulf of Tonkin, twelve large junks were nearby, but did not take part in the battle. The French squadron displaced 14,500 tons and included 1,780 men, while the warships in the Chinese fleet displaced 8,000 tons. The French squadron was much better-led and better-armed than the Chinese fleet, only a few of the Chinese ships were capable of offering serious resistance to Courbet’s attack. The Chinese defence was under the command of the imperial commissioner Zhang Peilun, a little behind them lay the unarmed transports Yongbao and Chenhang, anchored just off the dockyard. The role of this group of ships was obviously to prevent the French from attacking the Navy Yard. Their job seems to have been to protect the Customs building, Courbets plan provided for overwhelming firepower to be deployed against the Chinese fleet. This timing was important for another reason
13.
Keelung Campaign
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The Keelung Campaign was a controversial military campaign undertaken by the French in northern Formosa during the Sino-French War. After making an attack on Keelung in August 1884, the French landed an expeditionary corps of 2,000 men. Unable to advance beyond their bridgehead, they were invested inside Keelung by superior Chinese forces under the command of the imperial commissioner Liu Mingchuan, the Keelung campaign ended in April 1885 in a strategic and tactical stalemate. The campaign was criticised at the time by Admiral Amédée Courbet, the commander of the French Far East Squadron, as strategically irrelevant, when news of the Bac Le Ambush reached Paris, there was fury at what was perceived as blatant Chinese treachery. Jules Ferrys government demanded an apology, an indemnity, and the implementation of the terms of the Tientsin Accord. The Chinese government agreed to negotiate, but refused to apologise or pay an indemnity and he was instructed to prepare to attack the Chinese fleet in the harbour and to destroy the Foochow Navy Yard. When this recommendation was made, Keelung was poorly defended, by the end of July 1884 there were 5,000 Chinese soldiers stationed in northern Formosa, deployed around the ports of Keelung and Tamsui. The appointment of Liu Mingchuan as imperial commissioner for Formosa in July 1884 also underscored the determination of the Qing government to defend Formosa, Liu was a veteran military commander, who had distinguished himself in the Taiping Rebellion. Liu Mingchuan was aware that Keelung and the port of Tamsui were likely targets for a French attack. Admiral Courbet, then aboard the French cruiser Volta in the Min River, at Matsu, Lespès transferred Bayards landing company to his flagship La Galissonnière, and on the night of 3 August crossed the Formosa Strait with La Galissonnière and Lutin. The two French ships arrived off Keelung on the morning of 4 August, where the cruiser Villars was already waiting for them, French casualties in this unsuccessful operation were 2 dead and 11 wounded. The Chinese suffered markedly heavier casualties, in the wake of the Battle of Foochow, which inaugurated the nine-month Sino-French War, the French decided to make a second attempt to put pressure on China by seizing Keelung. Admiral Courbet argued vigorously against a campaign in Formosa and submitted proposals for a campaign in northern Chinese waters to seize either Port Arthur or Weihaiwei. He was supported by Jules Patenôtre, the French minister to China, Courbets proposals, although militarily attractive, were too ambitious for the French government to stomach. A limited operation to seize Keelung, on the other hand, the town could be taken and held by a relatively small French force, and with its nearby coal mines would make an admirable wartime base for the Far East Squadron. A victory at Keelung would also avenge the failure of 6 August, the decision to attack Keelung was made by the French cabinet on 18 September 1884. For good measure, the cabinet also sanctioned an attack on nearby Tamsui, on 1 October 1884 Lieutenant-Colonel Bertaux-Levillain landed at Keelung with a small expeditionary corps drawn from the French garrisons in Tonkin and Cochinchina. A small force of Vietnamese porters accompanied the combatants, the three troopships were escorted on the final leg of their journey by the ironclad Bayard
14.
Battle of Shipu
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The Battle of Shipu was a French naval victory during the Sino-French War. The battle took place on the night of 14 February 1885 in Shipu Bay, near Ningbo, the battle arose from an attempt by part of the Chinese Nanyang Fleet to relieve the French blockade of Formosa. On 18 January 1885 the Chinese cruisers Nanchen, Nanrui and Kaiji left Shanghai, accompanied by the frigate Yuyuan and the composite sloop Chengqing, the Chinese flotilla was under the command of Admiral Wu Ankang. Arlington, an American naval officer serving as a foreign adviser aboard the frigate Yuyuan, the Chinese captains had no confidence in their ability to meet the French in combat and were determined to avoid battle if they possibly could. The Chinese flotilla sailed south slowly and hesitantly, never out of sight of land, before the flotilla reached the Taiwan strait Admiral Wu had already despaired of completing his mission. The Chinese flotilla turned around and headed back to Sanmen Bay, the Chinese sortie was duly reported in the Hong Kong newspapers at the end of January 1885. Captain Baux of Triomphante, who had stationed in Hong Kong to monitor the news from China. The French, weary of the routine of the blockade and frustrated with their inability to get to grips with the Chinese. Uncertain where to find the enemy, Courbet first looked into the mouth of the Min River, on 9 February, with supplies of coal beginning to run short on some ships, Courbet was obliged to send the cruiser Duguay-Trouin back to Keelung. On 10 February the rest of the French squadron reached the Chusan Islands and on 11 February entered the mouth of the Yangzi River, there was still no sign of the Chinese. Eventually the French established communications with the shore and combed the Chinese newspapers for the latest news of the sortie and they discovered that the Far East Squadron had passed the Chinese cruisers on its voyage north, and that the enemy vessels were now lurking in Sanmen Bay. Courbet immediately headed southwards, and led the squadron at night through the passages of the Chusan Islands to close with the enemy as soon as possible. On 13 February, off Shipu Bay, to the south of the Chusan Islands, Éclaireur caught sight of the Chinese flotilla, the French squadron immediately offered battle, and bore down on the Chinese. They had no doubt that they would destroy the Chinese ships with ease, suddenly, however, before the range closed, the enemy flotilla broke its formation and scattered. The three cruisers headed south, pursued by Courbets squadron, while Yuyuan and Chengqing took refuge in Shipu Bay. According to Arlington, Admiral Wu had a grudge against the captains of two ships, and deliberately sacrificed them in order to save the rest of the Chinese flotilla. Courbets ships were unable to catch the faster Chinese cruisers, and on the evening of 13 February Courbet took his back to Shipu Bay to deal with Yuyuan. On the night of 14 February the French attacked the Chinese ships with two launches, commanded respectively by capitaine de frégate Palma Gourdon and lieutenant de vaisseau Émile Duboc
15.
Battle of Zhenhai
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For the 1841 battle, see Battle of Chinhai. French and Chinese sources disagree sharply as to what happened, French sources treat the encounter as a minor incident, the Battle of Zhenhai is still commemorated in China as an important Chinese victory in the Sino-French War. In early February 1885 part of Admiral Courbets Far East Squadron left Keelung to head off an attempt by part of the Chinese Nanyang Fleet to break the French blockade of Formosa. On 28 February he arrived off Zhenhai Bay, en route for Shanghai, with the ironclads Bayard and Triomphante, the cruiser Nielly, suspecting that Kaiji, Nanchen and Nanrui had taken refuge in Zhenhai Bay, Courbet scouted the entrance to the bay at dawn on 1 March. The entrance to the bay had been blocked by a barrage of junks sunk by the Chinese authorities while two recently built forts defended the approach. Early in the afternoon of 1 March, Courbet conducted closer reconnaissance from the Nielly, triggering vigorous fire from Chinese shore batteries, despite the extreme long range, some of their shots landed within a hundred metres of the French cruiser. Unharmed, Nielly returned fire and slowly rejoined the squadron, the duel lasted a little over half an hour, and it is questionable whether Nielly’s fire was any more effective than that of the Chinese. Nevertheless, the French claimed to have killed a number of soldiers ashore, on the evening of 1 March, Courbet gave orders for an attack the next day, but on the morning of the planned assault the risks of the operation became evident. Silencing the Chinese batteries would be a long and slow business, even if the French warships succeeded in suppressing the Chinese defences and forcing the barrage, the enemy cruisers might still elude them by heading upriver towards Ningbo. Courbet decided not to incur unnecessary casualties, and cancelled the planned attack, there were no such positions, and Courbet eventually issued orders for a blockade of Zhenhai Bay. Nets were spread around the French ships as a precaution against a possible Chinese torpedo attack while a watch was kept around the clock on the entrance to the bay, any junks or sampans that came too close to the French ships were fired on. Nervous Chinese sentries had mistakenly identified a harmless fishing boat as a French torpedo boat, the French listened in disbelief as the Chinese blazed away until dawn at an imaginary enemy. This state of continued, on an almost nightly basis. At least two French ships from the Far East Squadron remained at anchor at the entrance to Zhenhai Bay throughout March. The only significant incident during the blockade was a brief cannonade by the French ships towards the end of March, as far as the French were concerned, they had bottled up seven Chinese warships in Zhenhai Bay, where they remained immobilised for the rest of the war. Although Courbet had not gone in after them, locating and trapping the Chinese warships ranked as a success comparable to the destruction of Yuyuan. But that was not how the Chinese saw things, courbet’s decision not to force the defences of Zhenhai Bay allowed the Chinese to claim the brief engagement on 1 March as a striking defensive victory. According to Ouyangs account, the defence of the town was in the hands of the Chinese military mandarins Xue Fucheng, Liu Bingzhang, the artillery officer Wu Jie became the hero of the battle for directing the fire of a battery of cannon
16.
Pescadores Campaign
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The Pescadores Campaign which took place in late March,1885, was one of the last campaigns of the Sino-French War. It was fought to capture an important island group off the western coast of Formosa. The Pescadores were occupied by the French until July 1885 and Admiral Courbet, by then a hero in France. Courbet had wanted to mount an expedition to capture the Pescadores for several months, Courbets flotilla consisted of the ironclads Bayard and Triomphante, the cruisers dEstaing and Duchaffaut, the gunboat Vipère and the troopship Annamite. His landing force consisted of a battalion of marine infantry under the command of chef de bataillon Lange. Initially optimistic, by March 1885 Nelson had despaired of training up the Chinese gunners to the necessary to meet the French in battle. The most formidable obstacles were the two Makung forts, placed on side of the entrance to Makung Bay. The Southern Fort, or Dutch Fort, was armed with two 22-centimetre and two 14-centimetre smoothbore cannon, a third battery, sited on Observatory Island just inside Makung Bay, also covered the entrance to the bay, which had also been blocked by a barrier of chains. The Observatory Island battery was armed with two Armstrong cannon and a Chinese 20-centimetre cannon, the outer Chinese defences were much weaker. The southern entrance to Peng-hu Bay was covered on the west by the Hsiaochi battery on Fisher Island, the Hsiaochi battery was replaced in the late 1880s by the Hsi Tai battery, whose ruins can still be seen today. The Plate Island battery was quite close to the Southern Fort, unfortunately for the Chinese, both these batteries were armed only with a mixture of antiquated smoothbore pieces that offered little threat to the French squadron. The French flotilla concentrated off Tai-wan-fu on 28 March, and approached the Pescadores from the west before dawn on 29 March, during the morning of 29 March the French warships bombarded and silenced the Hsiaochi battery and other Chinese shore batteries guarding the approaches to Makung. In the late afternoon Langes battalion was put ashore on the cape of Peng-hu Island, at Dome Hill. There were no Chinese in sight, and the landing was made without resistance, during the night of 29 March the French sent boats to scout a barrage of chains thrown across the entrance to Makung harbour. The scouting party discovered that no mines had yet attached to the chains. Chinese riflemen tried to disrupt operation, and one French sailor was killed. With the barrage breached, Courbets flotilla entered Makung Bay during the morning of 30 March and bombarded the defences of Makung. At the same time, Langes battalion left its bivouac on Dome Hill and began to advance towards Makung, its flanks covered by dEstaing and Vipère in Makung Bay, the column was guided towards its objective by an elderly local fisherman, who had volunteered his services for pay
17.
Legion of Honour
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The Legion of Honour, full name National Order of the Legion of Honour, is the highest French order of merit for military and civil merits, established 1802 by Napoléon Bonaparte. The order is divided into five degrees of increasing distinction, Chevalier, Officier, Commandeur, Grand Officier and Grand-Croix. The orders motto is Honneur et Patrie and its seat is the Palais de la Légion dHonneur next to the Musée dOrsay, in the French Revolution, all French orders of chivalry were abolished, and replaced with Weapons of Honour. The Légion however did use the organization of old French orders of chivalry, the badges of the legion also bear a resemblance to the Ordre de Saint-Louis, which also used a red ribbon. Napoleon originally created this to ensure political loyalty, the organization would be used as a facade to give political favours, gifts, and concessions. The Légion was loosely patterned after a Roman legion, with legionaries, officers, commanders, regional cohorts, the highest rank was not a grand cross but a Grand Aigle, a rank that wore all the insignia common to grand crosses. The members were paid, the highest of them extremely generously,5,000 francs to an officier,2,000 francs to a commandeur,1,000 francs to an officier,250 francs to a légionnaire. Napoleon famously declared, You call these baubles, well, it is with baubles that men are led, do you think that you would be able to make men fight by reasoning. That is good only for the scholar in his study, the soldier needs glory, distinctions, rewards. This has been quoted as It is with such baubles that men are led. The order was the first modern order of merit, under the monarchy, such orders were often limited to Roman Catholics, and all knights had to be noblemen. The military decorations were the perks of the officers, the Légion, however, was open to men of all ranks and professions—only merit or bravery counted. The new legionnaire had to be sworn in the Légion and it is noteworthy that all previous orders were crosses or shared a clear Christian background, whereas the Légion is a secular institution. The jewel of the Légion has five arms, in a decree issued on the 10 Pluviôse XIII, a grand decoration was instituted. This decoration, a cross on a sash and a silver star with an eagle, symbol of the Napoleonic Empire, became known as the Grand Aigle. After Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French in 1804 and established the Napoleonic nobility in 1808, the title was made hereditary after three generations of grantees. Napoleon had dispensed 15 golden collars of the legion among his family and this collar was abolished in 1815. The Légion dhonneur was prominent and visible in the French Empire, the Emperor always wore it and the fashion of the time allowed for decorations to be worn most of the time
18.
Tonkin Campaign
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The campaign officially ended in April 1886, when the expeditionary corps was reduced in size to a division of occupation, but Tonkin was not effectively pacified until 1896. After a lull of several months, the arrival of reinforcements from France in February 1883 allowed Rivière to mount a campaign to capture the citadel of Nam Định, the Capture of Nam Định was strategically necessary for the French, to secure their communications with the sea. The French position in Tonkin on Bouëts arrival in early June 1883 was extremely precarious, Bouëts first step was to withdraw the isolated French garrisons of Qui Nhơn and Hon Gai. He had also been authorised to abandon Nam Định at need, during June, the French dug in behind their defences and beat off half-hearted Vietnamese demonstrations against Hanoi and Nam Định. The early arrival of reinforcements from France and New Caledonia and the recruitment of Cochinchinese and Tonkinese auxiliary formations allowed Bouët to hit back at his tormentors, the arrival of Admiral Amédée Courbet in Along Bay in July 1883 with substantial naval reinforcements further strengthened the French position in Tonkin. On 30 July 1883 Admiral Courbet, General Bouët and François-Jules Harmand, the three men agreed that Bouët should launch an offensive against the Black Flag Army in its positions around Phu Hoai on the Day River as soon as possible. They also noted that the Court of Huế was covertly aiding and abetting Liu Yongfus Black Flag Army, and that Prince Hoàng was still in arms against the French at Nam Định. The proposal was approved by the ministry on 11 August. On 20 August, in the Battle of Thuận An, two companies of French marine infantry and the companies of three French warships went ashore and stormed the forts under heavy fire. During the afternoon the gunboats Lynx and Vipère forced a barrage at the entrance to the River of Perfumes, the Vietnamese asked for an armistice, and on 25 August Harmand dictated the Treaty of Huế to the cowed Vietnamese court. The Vietnamese recognised the legitimacy of the French occupation of Cochinchina, vietnam, its royal house and its court survived, but under French direction. France was granted the privilege of stationing a resident-general at Huế, to ensure there were no second thoughts, a permanent French garrison would occupy the Thuận An forts. Large swathes of territory were transferred from Annam to Tonkin. The French cancelled the countrys debts, but required in return the cession of the province of Bình Thuận. At the same time the provinces of Nghệ An, Thanh Hóa and Hà Tĩnh were transferred to Tonkin. In return the French undertook to drive out the Black Flags from Tonkin, meanwhile, as agreed at the Haiphong conference, General Bouët duly took the offensive against Liu Yongfus Black Flag Army. Bouët twice attacked the Black Flags in their defences along the Day River, in the Battle of Phủ Hoài and these offensives met with only limited success, and in the eyes of the world were tantamount to French defeats. More encouragingly for the French, a column of marine infantry, the capture of Haiduong was notable for atrocities committed by both the French and the Vietnamese
19.
Brig
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A brig is a sailing vessel with two square-rigged masts. During the Age of Sail, brigs were seen as fast and they were especially popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Brigs fell out of use with the arrival of the ship because they required a relatively large crew for their small size and were difficult to sail into the wind. They are not to be confused with a brigantine, which has different rigging, in sailing, a full-rigged brig is a vessel with two square rigged masts. The main mast of a brig is the aft one, to improve maneuverability, the mainmast carries a small fore-and-aft sail. Behind the main sail there is a small fore-and-aft sail called the spanker or boom mainsail, on the foremast is a similar sail, called the trysail. Attached to the yards of square-rigged ships are smaller spars. These are called studding sails, and are used with fair, the wings are named after the sails to which they are fastened, i. e. the main studding sails, main top studding sails, and the main top gallant studding sails, etc. The brig’s foremast is smaller than the main mast, the fore mast holds a fore sail, fore top sail, fore top gallant sail, and fore royal. Between the fore mast and the bowsprit are the fore staysail, jib, all the yards are manipulated by a complicated arrangement of cordage named the running rigging. This is opposed to the rigging which is fixed, and keeps mast. A brig is generally built on a scale than a schooner. Brigs vary in length between 75 and 165 ft with tonnages up to 480, a notable exception being the famous designer Colin Mudies Little Brigs, which are only 10m long and weigh only 8 tonnes. Historically, most brigs were made of wood, although some later brigs were built with hulls, a brig made of pine in the 19th century was designed to last for about twenty years. The word brig has been used in the past as an abbreviation of brigantine, the brig actually developed as a variant of the brigantine. Re-rigging a brigantine with two square-rigged masts instead of one gave it greater sailing power, the square-rigged brigs advantage over the fore-and-aft rigged brigantine was that the sails, being smaller and more numerous, are more easily managed, and require fewer men or hands to work them. The variant was so popular that the term came to exclusively signify a ship with this type of rigging. By the 17th century the British Royal Navy defined brig as having two square rigged masts, Brigs were used as small warships carrying about 10 to 18 guns
20.
French ironclad Bayard
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The French ironclad Bayard was an early stationary battleship of the French Navy, lead ship of her class. Bayard had a hull and a full rigging, as well as a side armour. On 31 May 1883, in the wake of the defeat and death of Commandant Henri Rivière in Tonkin at the Battle of Paper Bridge, in early June Courbet left for the Far East with the ironclads Bayard and Atalante and the cruiser Châteaurenault. Bayard arrived in Along Bay on 10 July, and for the eleven months served as flagship of the Tonkin Coasts naval division. In August 1883, in the Battle of Thuan An, she bombarded the defences of Hué. From October 1883 to June 1884, during the period of growing tension that preceded the outbreak of the Sino-French War, she took part in a French naval blockade of the coast of Tonkin. In June 1884 Bayard became the flagship of the Far East Squadron, on 5 August 1884 sailors from Bayard took part in a French landing at Keelung, but were forced to re-embark on 6 August by a heavy Chinese counterattack. Bayard took no part in the Battle of Fuzhou, the battle of the Sino-French War. Instead, she was left to guard the station at Sharp Peak near Matsu that allowed the squadron to communicate with France. On 1 October 1884 Bayard and several other French warships supported the French landing at Keelung with a bombardment of Chinese shore positions. On 8 October Bayards landing company took part in the failed French landing at Tamsui, from November 1884 to January 1885 Bayard took part in the French naval blockade of Formosa. On 14 November 1884, while anchored off Keelung and exposed to the northeast monsoon, in February 1885 five warships of Chinas Nanyang Fleet made a sortie from Shanghai in an attempt to break the French blockade of Formosa. Courbet sought them out with Bayard and several ships of the Far East squadron. In early March 1885 Bayard took part in the French blockade of Zhenhai, in late March she formed part of the French flotilla for the Pescadores Campaign, and her landing company was engaged ashore on 31 March in the decisive battle with the Chinese defenders of Makung. Admiral Amédée Courbet died on board Bayard in the harbour of Makung, in the Pescadores Islands, Bayard left the Pescadores on 23 June to return Courbets body to France for a state funeral, arriving at Toulon on 26 August. She then proceeded to Brest to be disarmed and decommissioned and she was eventually used as a hulk from 1899. Loir, M. Lescadre de lamiral Courbet, notes et souvenirs, dictionnaire des Bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours. Rollet de lIsle, M. Au Tonkin et dans les mers de Chine
21.
New Caledonia
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New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean,1,210 km east of Australia and 16,136 km east of Metropolitan France. The Chesterfield Islands are in the Coral Sea, locals refer to Grande Terre as Le Caillou. New Caledonia has an area of 18,576 km2. Its population of 268,767 consists of a mix of Kanak people, people of European descent, Polynesian people, the capital of the territory is Nouméa. The earliest traces of human presence in New Caledonia date back to the Lapita period, the Lapita were highly skilled navigators and agriculturists with influence over a large area of the Pacific. British explorer Captain James Cook was the first European to sight New Caledonia, on 4 September 1774 and he named it New Caledonia, as the northeast of the island reminded him of Scotland. The west coast of Grande Terre was approached by Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse in 1788, shortly before his disappearance, from then until 1840, only a few sporadic contacts with the archipelago were recorded. Contacts became more frequent after 1840, because of the interest in sandalwood from New Caledonia, the trade ceased at the start of the 20th century. The victims of this trade were called Kanakas, like all the Oceanian people, the first missionaries from the London Missionary Society and the Marist Brothers arrived in the 1840s. In 1849, the crew of the American ship Cutter was killed, cannibalism was widespread throughout New Caledonia. On 24 September 1853, under orders from Napoleon III, Admiral Febvrier Despointes took formal possession of New Caledonia, a few dozen free settlers settled on the west coast in the following years. New Caledonia became a colony, and from the 1860s until the end of the transportations in 1897, about 22,000 criminals. Among the convicts were many Communards arrested after the failed Paris Commune, including Henri de Rochefort, between 1873 and 1876,4,200 political prisoners were relegated in New Caledonia. Only 40 of them settled in the colony, the rest returned to France after being granted amnesty in 1879 and 1880. In 1864, nickel was discovered on the banks of the Diahot River and with the establishment of the Société Le Nickel in 1876, mining began in earnest. The French imported labourers to work in the mines, first from neighbouring islands, then from Japan, the Dutch East Indies, the French government also attempted to encourage European immigration, without much success. The indigenous population was excluded from the French economy, even as workers in the mines, and they were ultimately confined to reservations. This sparked a violent reaction in 1878 as High Chief Atal of La Foa managed to unite many of the central tribes, the Europeans brought new diseases such as smallpox and measles
22.
Charles Duclerc
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Charles Théodore Eugène Duclerc was a French journalist and politician of the Third Republic. He was a member of the board of the National newspaper. Duclerc served as Minister of Finance from May through June in the Provisional government of France, later served as prime minister from 1882 to 1883 in the third Republic. Duclerc was born in Bagnères-de-Bigorre and he died in Paris, fallières remains Interior Minister, and Devès Minister of Justice
23.
Liu Yongfu
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Liu Yongfu was a Chinese soldier of fortune and commander of the celebrated Black Flag Army. Liu won fame as a Chinese patriot fighting against the French in northern Vietnam in the 1870s, during the Sino-French War he established a close friendship with the Chinese statesman and general Tang Ching-sung, and in 1895 he helped Tang organise resistance to the Japanese invasion of Taiwan. He succeeded Tang as the second and last leader of the short-lived Republic of Formosa, Liu Yongfu was born on 10 October 1837 in the town of Qinzhou in southern China, close to the Vietnamese border. Qinzhou, now in Guangxi province, was at time in the extreme southwest of Guangdong province. The ancestral home of Lius family was the village of Popai in Guangxi province, Lius family was poor, living by manual work for others, and was only just able to scrape a living. In 1857 Liu joined a militia force commanded by Wu Yuanqing. The fall of Nanking and the collapse of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in 1864 altered Lius prospects dramatically for the worse, Imperial forces gradually began to reassert their control over southwest China, and it was only a matter of time before they secured Guangxi province. To escape their vengeance, Liu needed to make himself sufficiently powerful to give the Imperial generals pause and his first step was to buy some time by retreating into the mountains of northern Tonkin. In 1868 he abandoned Wu Yuanqings rebels and crossed into Vietnam with a force of 200 soldiers whose loyalty he could trust. He had dreamed as a youth that he would one day become a famous General of the Black Tiger, and christened his tiny band of adventurers the Black Flag Army, heiqi jun. The Black Flags marched slowly through northern Tonkin, recruiting men to their standard as they went, fearing that Liu might eventually pose a threat to their own ascendancy in the area, they declared their intention of attacking the intruders. Liu struck first, however, and defeated a far stronger army of montagnards in a surprise attack, the short conflict enabled Liu to come to an early arrangement with the Vietnamese authorities, who had observed the performance of the Black Flag Army with great interest. Provided that he continued to act in accordance with his status as a Vietnamese military governor. Having secured his base, Liu began to extend his ambitions, ultimately, his intention was to carve out a small empire of his own controlling the upper course of the Red River. His first target was the town of Lao Cai, which had recently been occupied by a force of Cantonese bandits under the command of He Junchang. His band was allied with the Yellow Flag Army, a force established by Huang Chongying on the model of the Black Flag Army, Lius attempt on Lao Cai brought him into conflict with the Yellow Flags. Troops of both armies moved warily into the town while their leaders negotiated insincerely, finally the Yellow Flags launched a surprise attack on the Black Flags, first exploding a mine in an unsuccessful attempt to kill the Black Flag leader. However, despite their numbers, they were defeated and driven from Lao Cai
24.
Black Flag Army
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Although brigands, they were known mainly for their fights against the invading French forces, who were then moving into Tonkin. With the sanction of both Vietnamese and Chinese authorities, the Black Flags joined the Vietnamese regular forces, stemming French encroachment beyond the Red River Delta, the Black Flag Army is so named because of the preference of its commander, Liu Yongfu, for using black command flags. In 1857, Liu Yongfu, a Hakka soldier of fortune and he defected with his men to the band of Wu Yuanqing under his own – black – flag. Liu organized a ceremony reminiscent of the rituals and what became known as the Black Flag Army was born. The army operated as an independent unit under Wu Yuanqing and under his son and successor, although not part of the Taiping forces, both Wu Yuanqing and Wu Yazhong laid claim to be Taiping princes. Hotly pursued, the desperate Wu Yazhong, with Liu and his Black Flag Army, the profits accrued from this venture were so great that Lius army swelled in numbers in the 1870s, attracting to its ranks adventurers from all over the world. Although most of the Black Flag soldiers were Chinese, the officers included American and European soldiers of fortune. Liu used their expertise to transform the Black Flag Army into a fighting force. Under his command in Tonkin he had 7,000 soldiers from Guangdong, the harassment of European vessels trading on the Red River triggered the dispatch of the French expeditionary force to Tonkin under Commandant Henri Rivière in 1882. The resulting clashes between the French and the Black Flag Army escalated, resulting eventually in the Sino-French War, the Black Flag Army formally disbanded at the end of the Sino-French War, though many of its members continued to harass the French for years afterwards as freelance bandits. Remarkably, Liu Yongfu revived the Black Flag Army again in 1895 in response to the Japanese invasion of Taiwan, Liu Yongfu crossed to Taiwan at the appeal of his old friend Tang Ching-sung, the islands former governor-general and now president of the short-lived Republic of Formosa. Liu was to command the Formosan resistance forces against the Japanese, Liu himself was obliged to disguise himself as an old woman to escape capture. But Chinese, and it is not known to what extent they were augmented by volunteers from the neighboring Chinese provinces and they are survivors of the valorous Taeping rebels who held the military power of the Chinese Empire at bay for many years. This band of exiles, numbering about 5,000, were accompanied by -their wives and families and their chief was Watsong, one of Taeping Wang’s principal lieutenants, and many of them continued the freebooting practices into which the rebellion degenerated in its latter period. They offered no further hostility to the Chinese Government, but rather became the supporters and instruments of Chinese policy, the Anamese troops were sent against them several times, but were invariably defeated. In 1868 they held undisputed possession of the right bank of the Red river above the capital. With the assistance of the Chinese Viceroy of Canton, or Governor-General of the two Kwang, they were expelled from the low country and confined to the upper course of the river. Soon after Watsong died, and his followers divided into two bands, the main body of the original Taeping rebels were disposed to settle down to peaceful pursuits, and to make their submission to the Chinese and Anamese authorities
25.
Jules Ferry
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Jules François Camille Ferry was a French statesman and republican. He was a promoter of laicism and colonial expansion and he attacked the Second French Empire with great violence, directing his opposition especially against Baron Haussmann, prefect of the Seine department. A series of his articles in Le Temps was later republished as The Fantastic Tales of Haussmannlaxupa, in this position he had the difficult task of administering Paris during the siege, and after the Paris Commune was obliged to resign. From 1872 to 1873 he was sent by Adolphe Thiers as minister to Athens, but returned to the chamber as deputy for the Vosges, when the first republican ministry was formed under W. H. A leader of the Opportunist Republicans faction, he was twice premier and he was an active Freemason initiated on July 8,1875, in La Clémante amitiée lodge in Paris the same day as Émile Littré. He became a member of the Alsace-Lorraine Lodge founded in Paris in 1782, two important works are associated with his administration, the non-clerical organization of public education, and the major colonial expansion of France. Following the republican programme he proposed to destroy the influence of the clergy in the university and he finally succeeded in passing his eponymous laws of 16 June 1881 and 28 March 1882, which made primary education in France free, non-clerical and mandatory. In higher education, the number of professors, called the Republics black hussars because of their Republican support, after the military defeat of France by Prussia in 1870, Ferry formed the idea of acquiring a great colonial empire, principally for the sake of economic exploitation. In a speech before the Chamber of Deputies on 28 July 1885, he declared that it is a right for the superior races and they have the duty to civilize the inferior races. The last endeavor led to a war with Qing dynasty China, although the treaty of peace with the Manchu Empire, in which the Qing dynasty ceded suzerainty of Annam and Tonkin to France, was the work of his ministry, he would never again serve as premier. The desire for a monarchy was strong in France in the years of the Third Republic – Henri. A committed republican, Ferry proceeded to a purge by dismissing many known monarchists from top positions in the magistrature, army and civil. He also played with political dynamite that eventually destroyed his success, Ferry believed in not confronting Wilhelmine Germany by threats of a future war of revenge. Most French politicians in the middle and right saw it as a duty to one day lead France again against Germany to reclaim Alsace-Lorraine. But Ferry realized that Germany was too powerful, and it made sense to cooperate with Otto von Bismarck. A sensible policy – but hardly popular, Bismarck was constantly nervous about the situation with France. Although he had despised the ineptness of the French under Napoleon III, Bismarck, for all his abilities regarding manipulating events, could not afford to anger the Prussian military. He got the two provinces, but he realized it would eventually have severe future repercussions
26.
Fujian Fleet
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The Fujian Fleet originally founded in 1678 as the Fujian Marine Fleet was one of Chinas four regional fleets during the closing decades of the nineteenth century. The fleet was almost annihilated on 23 August 1884 by Admiral Amédée Courbets Far East Squadron at the Battle of Fuzhou, nearly all of its ships were elderly products of the Foochow Navy Yard. Its flagship, the wooden corvette Yangwu, was built in 1872, the other Chinese-built ships included the wooden gunboats Fuxing and Zhenwei, the wooden transports Fupo, Feiyun, Jian, Yongbao and Chenhang, and the despatch vessel Yixin. Table 1, Ships of the Fujian Fleet Nine of the vessels of the Fujian Fleet were destroyed in less than an hour during the Battle of Fuzhou. The Chinese flagship Yangwu was successfully attacked with a spar torpedo, the despatch vessel Fuxing was also attacked, less successfully, with spar torpedoes, and was finally carried by boarding. She had already been set alight by French shellfire, and was abandoned by the French prize crew. Zhenwei was blown up by a shell from the ironclad Triomphante. Chenhang, Yongbao, Feiyun, Jian, Fusheng and Jiansheng were either sunk or set alight by shellfire from the cruisers Duguay-Trouin, Villars, only Fupo and Yixin survived the battle without serious damage, by escaping upriver before the French ships had a chance to engage them. The Fujian Fleet never recovered from the loss of most of its ships in the Sino-French War, during the following decade it acquired several new ships, but it was never as large again as it was in 1884. The composite sloop Henghai was completed at the Foochow Navy Yard in late 1885, Henghai served with the Fujian Fleet for less than a year. She ran aground off the Pescadores Islands on 30 March 1886 in thick fog, in 1893 the 2, 200-ton steel torpedo boat Fujing was completed at the Foochow Navy Yard and joined the Fujian Fleet. She was sent north during the Sino-Japanese War to assist the Beiyang Fleet and she sank in a storm near Port Arthur in 1898. La conquête de lIndochine Vienet, R. Devant le champ de bataille de Mawei, La Géographie,1525, 31–53 Wright, R
27.
Battle of Tamsui
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The Battle of Tamsui, Danshui, or Hobe was a significant French defeat by Qing China at Tamsui, Taiwan during the Keelung Campaign of the Sino-French War. The battle of Tamsui was part of the Keelung Campaign, following the outbreak of the Sino-French War on 23 August 1884, the French decided to put pressure on China by landing an expeditionary corps in northern Formosa to seize Keelung and Tamsui. Meanwhile, a second French force under the command of Rear Admiral Sébastien Lespès prepared to attack Tamsui and his orders from Courbet were to bombard the Chinese forts at Tamsui, destroy the barrage across the Tamsui River and seize Tamsui itself. The town of Tamsui or Hobe had a population of around 6,000 at this period, Tamsui was defended by two major forts, both to the west of the town. To the northeast, defending the town against a landing, was a still under construction. Although the New Fort was only armed, it had an excellent all-round field of fire. Other important fortification works had built on all the neighbouring ridges. The European residents of Tamsui, many of whom were British, as the French warships were unable to enter the Tamsui River, Lespès decided to bombard the White Fort and the New Fort on the morning of 2 October. In fact hostilities were begun by the Chinese, who began firing at sunrise on 2 October with three cannon which they had placed in the barbette of the New Fort the previous evening, more than 2,000 shells were fired against the two forts. Many failed to explode on impact, and remained dangerous for days afterwards, others missed their targets, because the bombardment was delivered from long range, and damaged many buildings in Tamsui itself, including all the European residences. The French could then clear the pass by exploding a large powder charge, meanwhile, he attempted to neutralise the mines himself. On the evening of 2 October the gunboat Vipère scouted the pass, on the following night the launches tried to drag the electric wires. They failed, and one of them was almost destroyed when the Chinese exploded one of the mines at a distance, DEstaing reached Keelung on the afternoon of 3 October. By then the French had already secured the hills to the west of the town and the Chinese had retreated and it was probably the correct decision, though it would later be criticised. Courbet nevertheless did what he could to give Lespès a respectable landing force and he sent him three more ships, which arrived off Tamsui on the evening of 5 October. They carried their own landing companies and also the company from Bayard. Lespès thereupon began making preparations for a landing to assault the defences of Tamsui, the ironclads Bayard, La Galissonnière and Triomphante each supplied one company. The smaller vessels dEstaing and Châteaurenault provided a company, and Tarn
28.
Battle of Bang Bo (Zhennan Pass)
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The Battle of Bang Bo, known in China as the battle of Zhennan Pass, was a major Chinese victory during the Sino-French War. The battle set the scene for the French retreat from Lang Son on 28 March, on 3 March, at the Battle of Hoa Moc, Giovanninellis men broke through a formidable Chinese blocking position and relieved the siege. After resupplying the 2nd Brigade with food and ammunition, de Négrier defeated the Guangxi Army at the Battle of Đồng Đăng on 23 February and cleared it from Tonkinese territory. For good measure, the French crossed briefly into Guangxi province and blew up the Gate of China and they were not strong enough to exploit this victory, however, and the 2nd Brigade returned to Lang Son at the end of February. By early March, in the wake of the French victories at Hoa Moc and Dong Dang, Giovanninellis 1st Brigade faced Tang Jingsongs Yunnan Army around Hung Hoa and Tuyen Quang, while de Négriers 2nd Brigade at Lang Son faced Pan Dingxins Guangxi Army. Substantial French reinforcements reached Tonkin in the middle of March, giving Brière de lIsle a brief opportunity to break the stalemate. He moved the bulk of the reinforcements to Hung Hoa to reinforce the 1st Brigade, intending to attack the Yunnan Army, while he and Giovanninelli drew up plans for a western offensive, he ordered de Négrier to keep the Chinese in respect around Lang Son. Meanwhile, behind the Chinese border, the Guangxi Army was also building up its strength and this was an exaggeration, based on the assumption that each Chinese company was at full strength. Even at this strength, it fearfully outnumbered the French. By the middle of March nine separate Chinese military commands were massed close up to the Tonkinese border around the entrenched camps of Yen Cua Ai. There were six main Chinese concentrations, the entrenched camp of Yen Cua Ai was held by ten battalions under the command of Feng Zicai and a slightly smaller force under the command of Wang Xiaochi. These two commands numbered perhaps 7,500 men in all, two to three kilometres behind Yen Cua Ai, around the village of Mufu, lay the commands of Su Yuanchun and Chen Jia, perhaps 7,000 men in all. Fifteen kilometres behind Mufu the commands of Jiang Zonghan and Fang Yusheng, the commander of the Guangxi Army, Pan Dingxin, lay at Haicun,30 kilometres behind Mufu, with 3,500 men. Fifty kilometres to the west of Zhennanguan,3,500 men under the command of Wei Gang were deployed around the village of Aiwa. Finally, fifteen kilometres to the east of Zhennanguan, just inside Tonkin, de Négriers 2nd Brigade numbered around 2,500 men. Roussels battery, of Giovanninellis 1st Brigade, was also at Lang Son, the battery had lagged behind during the Lang Son Campaign, and Giovanninelli had left it at Lang Son when he set out with the 1st Brigade to relieve Tuyen Quang. Not all of the 2nd Brigade was stationed at Lang Son, on 22 March, Chinese forces under the command of Feng Jicai（冯子材） raided the French forward post at Dong Dang, a few kilometres north of Lang Son. De Négrier, who had forced to bring the bulk of the 2nd Brigade up from Lang Son to support Herbinger
29.
Suez
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Suez is a seaport city in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez, near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same boundaries as Suez governorate. It has three harbors, Adabya, Ain Sukhna and Port Tawfiq, and extensive port facilities, together they form a metropolitan area. Railway lines and highways connect the city with Cairo, Port Said, Suez has a petrochemical plant, and its oil refineries have pipelines carrying the finished product to Cairo. In the 7th century AD a town named Kolzum stood just north of the site of present-day Suez and served as terminus of a canal built by Amr ibn al-As linking the Nile River. Kolzums trade fell following the closure of the canal in 770 by the second Abbasid caliph al-Mansur to prevent his enemies in Arabia from accessing supplies from Egypt, nonetheless, the town benefited from the trade that remained between Egypt and Arabia. By 780 al-Mansurs successor al-Mahdi restored part of the canal, the Qarmatians led by Hasan ibn Ahmad defeated a Fatimid army headed by Gawhar al-Siqilli at Kolzum in 971 and thereby captured the town. Following his defeat in Cairo by al-Siqilli at the end of year, Hasan. Suez was situated nearby and served as a source of drinking water for Kolzum according to Arab traveler al-Muqaddasi who visited in 986, the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt, Saladin, fortified both Kolzum and Suez in to defend Egypts eastern frontier from Crusader raids by Raynald of Chatillon. Between 1183-84, Raynald had ships stationed in the Red Sea to prevent the Ayyubid garrison at Kolzum from accessing water, in response, Saladins brother al-Adil had Husam ad-Din Lulu build a naval fleet which sailed to the southern port of Aidab to end Raynalds venture. By the 13th century it was recorded that Kolzum was in ruins as was Suez which had replaced the former as a population center. According to Muslim historians al-Maqrizi and al-Idrisi, Kolzum had once been a prosperous town, Arab geographer al-Dimashqi noted that Kolzum belonged to the Mamluk province of al-Karak at the time. Following the Ottomans conquest of Egypt at the beginning of the 16th century, the Ottoman fleets at Suez were instrumental in disputing control with the Portuguese over Indian Ocean trade. However, by 1798, during Napoleonic invasion, Suez had devolved into an unimportant town, fighting between the French and the British in 1800 left most of the town in ruins. Its importance as a port increased after the Suez Canal opened in 1869, the city was virtually destroyed during battles in the late 1960s and early 1970s between Egyptian and Israeli forces occupying the Sinai Peninsula. The town was deserted following the Six Day War in 1967, reconstruction of Suez began soon after Egypt reopened the Suez Canal, following the October War with Israel. Suez was the first city to major protests against the government of Hosni Mubarak during the 2011 Egyptian revolution and was the scene of the first fatality of that uprising. On account of this, it has called the Sidi Bouzid of Egypt. The city is divided into five districts, It is most populous district of the city
30.
Alexandria
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Alexandria is the second largest city and a major economic centre in Egypt, extending about 32 km along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country. Its low elevation on the Nile delta makes it vulnerable to rising sea levels. Alexandria is Egypts largest seaport, serving approximately 80% of Egypts imports and exports and it is an important industrial center because of its natural gas and oil pipelines from Suez. Alexandria is also an important tourist destination, Alexandria was founded around a small Ancient Egyptian town c.331 BC by Alexander the Great. Alexandria was the second most powerful city of the ancient world after Rome, Alexandria is believed to have been founded by Alexander the Great in April 331 BC as Ἀλεξάνδρεια. Alexanders chief architect for the project was Dinocrates, Alexandria was intended to supersede Naucratis as a Hellenistic center in Egypt, and to be the link between Greece and the rich Nile valley. The city and its museum attracted many of the greatest scholars, including Greeks, Jews, the city was later plundered and lost its significance. Just east of Alexandria, there was in ancient times marshland, as early as the 7th century BC, there existed important port cities of Canopus and Heracleion. The latter was rediscovered under water. An Egyptian city, Rhakotis, already existed on the shore also and it continued to exist as the Egyptian quarter of the city. A few months after the foundation, Alexander left Egypt and never returned to his city, after Alexanders departure, his viceroy, Cleomenes, continued the expansion. Although Cleomenes was mainly in charge of overseeing Alexandrias continuous development, the Heptastadion, inheriting the trade of ruined Tyre and becoming the center of the new commerce between Europe and the Arabian and Indian East, the city grew in less than a generation to be larger than Carthage. In a century, Alexandria had become the largest city in the world and and it became Egypts main Greek city, with Greek people from diverse backgrounds. Alexandria was not only a center of Hellenism, but was home to the largest urban Jewish community in the world. The Septuagint, a Greek version of the Tanakh, was produced there, in AD115, large parts of Alexandria were destroyed during the Kitos War, which gave Hadrian and his architect, Decriannus, an opportunity to rebuild it. On 21 July 365, Alexandria was devastated by a tsunami, the Islamic prophet, Muhammads first interaction with the people of Egypt occurred in 628, during the Expedition of Zaid ibn Haritha. He sent Hatib bin Abi Baltaeh with a letter to the king of Egypt and Alexandria called Muqawqis In the letter Muhammad said, I invite you to accept Islam, Allah the sublime, shall reward you doubly. But if you refuse to do so, you bear the burden of the transgression of all the Copts
France
French Navy
