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The Mekong Expedition of 1866-1868, conceived and promoted by a group of French colonial officers and launched under the leadership of captain Ernest Doudard de Lagrée, was a naval exploration and scientific expedition of the Mekong river on behalf of the French colonial authorities of Cochinchina. Its primary objective among scientific documentation, mapping and the mission civilatrice was the assessment of the river's navigability in order to link the delta region and the port of Saigon with the riches of southern China and upper Siam (modern day Thailand). Ambitions were to turn Saigon into a successful commercial center such as British controlled Shanghai at the mouth of the Yangtze river. Political objectives were heavily influenced by 19th century Anglo-French geo-strategic rivalries, namely the consolidation and expansion of French colonial possessions, the containment of Britain's colony of Upper Burma and the suppression of British economic interference on the South-East Asian subcontinent. Over the course of 2 years the expedition, which came to be known as the Mekong Exploration Commission traversed almost from Saigon through 19th century Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar into China's Yunnan province; finally arriving in Shanghai and mapping over of previously unknown terrain. Despite its explicit political and economic connotations, long after the classic Age of Discovery and the disappointment over the river's unsuitability as a trade highway, the expedition gained highest acclaim among scholars, in particular the Royal Geographical Society in London and "holds a special place in the European annals of discovery" as the first to reveal the Mekong valley region, its people and southern China to Europeans.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Garnier, Marie Joseph Francis (1839-1873) Voyage d'exploration en Indo-Chine effectué pendant les années 1866, 1867, et 1868 par une Commission Française présidée par M. le Capitaine de Frégate Doudart de Lagrée )〕 ==Background== Having relieved the Siege of Saigon, Admiral Léonard Charner proclaimed the formal annexation of three provinces of Cochinchina into the French Empire on 31 July 1861. The event marks the beginning of the colonial era of France in South-East Asia, followed by the founding of French Cochinchina in 1862 and the French protectorate over Cambodia in 1863.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Vietnam - Table A. Chronology of Important Events )〕 The government in Paris maintained a more realistic idea on these acquisitions than most of its colonial entrepreneurs as it became clear that Cochinchina was "...not to be a jewel in the French colonial empire." It had rather become a liability and the Ministry of the Colonies pondered options of retreat, strictly based on scholars' reports in French Indochina who measured Saigon's commercial success against British Singapore and Shanghai. Contrary to these sober official conclusions, the lucrative trade of these two ports and the economic links to China via the Yangtze rather motivated the French colonial community in Saigon to speed up surveying the Mekong. Since 1857 a number of colonial officers seriously voted for a mission "into the unknown lands north of the Mekong delta", arguing that their "government underestimated the importance of such an expedition for the continuance of French colonial power." Ideas expressed in idealized form, yet focusing on a new, alternative and solely French controlled trade route to China were based on the general conception that the vast empire with its enormous market was a potential source of a great commercial opportunity. Francis Garnier, the most ardent supporter of the expedition wrote "For a long time the gaze of the colony had been cast with curiosity and impatience towards the interior of Indo-China which was shrouded in great mystery." Louis de Carné, the youngest expedition member also pointed to the unknowns: "Uncertainty begins within two degrees of Saigon, the very inexact charts of the great river; beyond that, only misleading geography instead of serving it."〔 An earlier campaign, launched in Burma in 1837 by the British army officer Captain McLeod, who had travelled up the Salween River along the border to Thailand was considered proof of British rivalry and ambition. Only the refusal of Chinese authorities to allow him passage through Chinese controlled territories ended McLeod's mission. Although unsuccessful, the event spurred fears that the British were about to win the race and close off the French to Chinese trade. Some historians, such as the Dutch author H.Th. Bussemaker have argued that these French colonial undertakings and acquisitions in the region were mere reactions to or counter-measures against British geo-strategy and economic hegemony. "For the British, it was obvious that the French were trying to undercut British expansionism in India and China by interposing themselves in Indochina. The reason for this frantic expansionism was the hope that the Mekong river would prove to be navigable to the Chinese frontier, which then would open the immense Chinese market for French industrial goods." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mekong Expedition of 1866–68」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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