Gia Long - Pigneau and French Assistance

Pigneau and French Assistance

Deflated by his situation, Nguyen Anh asked Pigneau to appeal for French aid, and allowed Pigneau to take his son Nguyen Phuc Canh with him as a sign of good faith. This came about after Nguyen Anh had considered enlisting English, Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish assistance. Pigneau advised against Nguyen Anh's original plan to seek Dutch aid from Batavia, fearing that the support of the Protestant Dutch would hinder the advancement of Catholicism. Pigneau left Vietnam in December, arriving in Pondicherry, India in February 1785 with Nguyen Anh's royal seal. Nguyen Anh had authorized him to make concessions to France in return for military assistance. The French administration in Pondicherry, led by acting governor Coutenceau des Algrains, was conservative in outlook and resolutely opposed intervention in southern Vietnam. To compound the already complex situation, Pigneau was denounced by Spanish Franciscans in the Vatican, and he sought to transfer his political mandate to Portuguese forces. The Portuguese had earlier offered Nguyen Anh 56 ships to use against the Tay Son.

In July 1786, after more than 12 months of fruitless lobbying in Pondicherry, Governor de Cossigny allowed Pigneau to travel back to France to directly ask the royal court for assistance. Arriving at the court of Louis XVI in Versailles in February 1787, Pigneau had difficulty in gathering support for a French expedition in support of Nguyen Anh. This was due to the parlous financial state of the country prior to the French Revolution. Pigneau was helped by Pierre Poivre, who had previously been involved in seeking French commercial interests in Vietnam. Pigneau told the court that if France invested in Nguyen Anh and acquired a few fortified positions on the Vietnamese coast in return, then they would have the capability to "dominate the seas of China and of the archipelago", and with it, control of Asian commerce. In November 1787, a treaty of alliance was concluded between France and Cochinchina—the European term for southern Vietnam—in Nguyen Anh's name. Pigneau signed the treaty as the "Royal Commissioner of France for Cochinchina". France promised four frigates, 1,650 fully equipped French soldiers and 250 Indian sepoys in return for the cession of Pulo Condore and Tourane (Da Nang), as well as tree trade to the exclusion of all other countries. However, the freedom to spread Christianity was not included. However, Pigneau found that Governor Thomas Conway of Pondicherry was unwilling to fulfill the agreement; Conway had been instructed by Paris to determine when to organize the aid, if at all. Pigneau was thus forced to use funds raised in France to enlist French volunteers and mercenaries. He also managed to procure several shipments of arms and munitions from Mauritius and Pondicherry.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Anh had stayed in Siam with a contingent of troops until August 1787. His soldiers served in Siam’s war against Bodawpaya of Burma. Having consolidated their hold on southern Vietnam, the Tay Son decided to move north to unify the country. However, the withdrawal of troops from the Gia Dinh garrison weakened them their hold on the south. This was compounded by reports that Nguyen Nhac was being attacked near Qui Nhon by his own brother Nguyen Hue, and that more Tay Son troops were being evacuated from Gia Dinh by their commander Dang Van Tran in order to aid Nguyen Nhac. Sensing Tay Son vulnerability in the south, Nguyen Anh assembled his forces at home and abroad in preparation for an immediate offensive. Nguyen Anh secretly left Siam and headed for southern Vietnam, but he failed in his first attempt to recapture Gia Dinh. He eventually succeeded in taking My Tho, made it the main staging point for his operations, and rebuilt his army. After a hard-fought battle, his soldiers captured Saigon on 7 September 1788. Eventually, Pigneau assembled four vessels to sail to Vietnam from Pondicherry, arriving in Saigon on 24 July 1789. The combined forces helped to consolidate Nguyen Anh’s hold on southern Vietnam. The exact magnitude of foreign aid and the importance of their contribution to Gia Long's success is a point of dispute. Earlier scholars asserted that up to 400 Frenchmen enlisted, but more recent work has claimed that less than 100 soldiers were present, along with approximately a dozen officers.