The Opium Wars give Europeans control over China through a series of unequal treaties; including the Treaty of Nanking.

USS Constitution lands in Da Nang. A company of US Marines moves overland to Hue and recues a French Bishop who had been captured by the Vietnamese. America's first combat involvement in Vietnam; 120 years later two battalions of US Marines will return to Vietnam via Da Nang.

French vessels bombard Da Nang in response to persecution of Catholic missionaries.

Authorized by Napoleon III to launch a naval expedition to punish the Vietnamese and force them to accept a French protectorate, French and Spanish forces seized Da Nang (in their second attack) after several missionaries had been killed.

French forces capture Saigon.

Military resistance begins against the French. French gain control of Gia Dinh.

The French defeat the Vietnamese army and gain control of Gia Dinh and surrounding provinces.

The Treaty of Saigon ceded three southern provinces (Bien Hoa, Gia Dinh, and Dinh Tuong in the Mekong Delta) to the French.

France had conquered all of southern Vietnam, which became the French colony of Cochin China.

French troops move to northern Vietnam to expand control of Indochina. The Chinese also lay claim to Vietnam, and oppose the French move prompting the Sino-French War over Indochina .

Annam and Tonkin become French Protectorates.

France wins the Sino-French War, and completes French control over Vietnam and other Indochina domains.

Cambodia joins the French holdings in Vietnam to form French Indochina (the Indochina Union).

Laos is added to French Indochina.