Land codes and the state in French Cochinchina c. 1900-1944.

Abstract

This paper examines the ways in which the French colonial administration in Cochinchina sought to regulate the alienation of native lands and their sale to overseas investors between about 1900 and 1940. Drawing on archival evidence, the paper considers how the administration developed land legislation in order to facilitate the expansion of European agricultural interests in the colony. The conflicts between those different interests is examined and the paper argues that debates over land sale policies exposed the complex and sometimes conflicting nature of French colonial policy in Indochina.