French Cochinchine
Region, southern Vietnam .
Covering 30,000 sq mi (77,700 sq km), the area was a vassal of the Chinese empire and later part of the Khmer kingdom of Cambodia. Its capital, Saigon (see Ho Chi Minh City ), was occupied by the French in 1859. It was made a French colony in 1867 and combined with other French protectorates to form French Indochina in 1887. Incorporated into Vietnam in 1949, it was part of South Vietnam (1954–76) until the country was reunited. It includes the Mekong River delta, one of the greatest rice-producing regions in Asia.