Land codes and the state in French Cochinchina c. 1900–1940

Cleary, Mark

doi:10.1006/jhge.2002.0465

Cited by 12 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…In peninsular Malaysia, the extensive and sparsely settled forest areas were considered as elsewhere "wastelands" and appropriated by the crown to encourage commercial agriculture [36,37]. When French Indochina entered the plantation rubber industry in the 1920s virtually free land concessions encouraged land acquisitions well beyond needs that often conflicted with use by local communities, mostly ethnic minorities-the so-called Montagnards [38][39][40].…”

Section: Rubber-a Quintessential Smallholder Cropmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Fall and Rise Again of Plantations in Tropical Asia: History Repeated?

Byerlee¹

2014

Land

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Abstract:The type of agrarian structure employed to produce tropical commodities affects many dimensions of land use, such as ownership inequality, overlapping land rights and conflicts, and land use changes. I conduct a literature review of historical changes in agrarian structures of commodities grown on the upland frontier of mainland Southeast and South Asia, using a case study approach, of tea, rubber, oil palm and cassava. Although the production of all these commodities was initiated in the colonial period on large plantations, over the course of the 20th century, most transited to smallholder systems. Two groups of factors are posited to explain this evolution. First, economic fundamentals related to processing methods and pioneering costs and risks sometimes favored large-scale plantations. Second, policy biases and development paradigms often strongly favored plantations and discriminated against smallholders in the colonial states, especially provision of cheap land and labor. However, beginning after World War I and accelerating after independence, the factors that propped up plantations changed so that by the end of the 20th century, smallholders overwhelmingly dominated perennial crop exports, except possibly oil palm. Surprisingly, in the 21st century there has been a resurgence of investments in plantation agriculture in the frontier countries of Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, driven by very similar factors to a century ago, especially access to cheap land combined with high commodity prices. As in the last century, this may be a temporary aberration from the long-run trend toward smallholders, but much depends on local political economy.

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Section: Rubber-a Quintessential Smallholder Cropmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Fall and Rise Again of Plantations in Tropical Asia: History Repeated?

Byerlee¹

2014

Land

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“…The first was that Cochinchina had become "the main focus of colonial development." 76 Not only was international trade to be conducted out of the port of Saigon, but Cochinchina, thanks to its fertile Mêkong Delta, was to become the "rice basket" of Indochina. In addition, other areas of the delta were to be transformed into plantations for the production of coffee, rubber, corn, cotton, and tea.…”

Section: Illustration 4: La Tribune Indigène 30 September 1919mentioning

confidence: 99%

Organisons-nous! Racial Antagonism and Vietnamese Economic Nationalism in the Early Twentieth Century

Lessard¹

2007

fch

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En 1919, certains membres de la communauté vietnamienne de Saïgon décidèrent d'entamer un boycott des biens et des commerces chinois en guise de protestation contre ce qu'ils croyaient être les méthodes déloyales et le monopole exercé par ces commerçants chinois. Très vite ce boycott se transforma en un mouvement plus général de nationalisme économique vietnamien, mouvement qui fut encouragé surtout par une petite élite urbaine, vietnamienne. Le boycott fut promu surtout dans les pages de la presse vietnamienne de Saïgon, dont La Tribune indigène en particulier, et s'exprima en de termes très xénophobes.

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“…The weakness of French control over propriety rights is demonstrated by the history of native lands and their sale to French and Vietnamese investors from the 1880's to 1940 (see Kleinen 1988;Murray 1980;Ta 1993;Cleary 2001). French legislation translated "public state and village land" as if it were European "domain land," that is, the rights on public state land belonging to the successor of the imperial state, viz., the representatives of the French colonial state.…”

Section: Communal Landmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The principle of indigenous rights to land was nominally upheld, but uncultivated (abandoned or unoccupied) land became the object of new French laws. The colonial discourse on land codes ranged from strongly pro-capitalist policies designed to favor large-scale plantations, to a pro-peasant ideology, which saw the small farm, whether French or Vietnamese, as pivotal for the new colonial state (Cleary 2001). The propagation of the owner-operated estate led, in the two protectorates, to an unprecedented expropriation of land by European and naturalized Vietnamese who claimed land from indigenous owneroperators who had fled their fields during the period of conquest.…”

Section: Communal Landmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In 1933 nearly half of all the land in Central Vietnam for smallholding and plantation agriculture was located in the Central Highlands and categorized by the state as "uncultivated" or "virgin," that is, "common property" (ANOM AIX SE 1933). The non-Kinh (i.e., non-Vietnamese) population living there had no means or institutions to resist encroachment by settlers from the deltas and by French colonists (Cleary 2001). In the Red River delta, the granting of land had met difficulties from the start, because of the above-mentioned contested ownership after the return of the former cultivators, while schemes for plantations had suffered from delays in the implementation of laws and the inability of the French colonists to mobilize labor (Laffey 1975).…”

Section: Communal Landmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Tragedy of the Margins: Land Rights and Marginal Lands in Vietnam (c. 1800-1945)

Kleinen¹

2011

J Econ Soc Hist Orient

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This article deals with aspects of official land registers in pre-colonial and colonial Vietnam and their relationship with marginal lands since the eleventh century and especially since the beginning of the nineteenth century. The changing pattern of land ownership and control is studied in detail in one specific village in the Red River Delta of northern Vietnam. Several practices of land use and land distribution are discussed, as are various efforts in parts of Vietnam to expand agricultural land, in particular near rivers and coasts, especially as a result of land reclamation. The study of marginal lands is focused on alluvial lands, which were seen originally as empty or waste lands but gradually developed into safety nets for the poor. The traditional social function of these communal waste lands, managed by village elites, was eroded and became a tool for manipulation in the hands of state and village authorities. RésuméCet article traite des aspects des registres fonciers dans le Vietnam pré-colonial et colonial et leurs relations avec la situation actuelle des terres dites marginales depuis le XI e siècle et surtout depuis le début du XIX e siècle. L'évolution de la propriété foncière et de contrôle est étudiée en détail dans un village en particulier dans le delta du fleuve Rouge au nord du Vietnam (avant et durant l'époque coloniale). Plusieurs pratiques d'utilisation des terres et la distribution des terres communales sont présentées. L'article présente aussi divers efforts dans plusieurs régions du Vietnam de développer des terres agricoles, en particulier près des rivières et des zones côtières, notamment en raison des travaux de poldérisation. La question des terres marginales se concentre sur les terres alluviales qui étaient à l'origine considérées comme des terres vides ou des déchets, mais peu à peu développées comme des soupapes de sûreté pour les pauvres. La fonction sociale traditionnelle de ces terres * ) Dr. J.G.G.M. (John) Kleinen, University of Amsterdam/AISSR/MARE; OZ Achterburgwal 185, 1012 DK Amsterdam, Kamer: 214: J.G.G.M.Kleinen@uva.nl. The author thanks two anonymous reviewers for their critical remarks and the editors for their assistance in improving the English text.J. Kleinen / JESHO 54 (2011) 455-477 communales, gérées par les élites du village, est érodée et devenue un outil de manipulation entre les mains des gens de pouvoir de l'état et le village.

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Land codes and the state in French Cochinchina c. 1900–1940

Cited by 12 publications

References 8 publications

The Fall and Rise Again of Plantations in Tropical Asia: History Repeated?

The Fall and Rise Again of Plantations in Tropical Asia: History Repeated?

Organisons-nous! Racial Antagonism and Vietnamese Economic Nationalism in the Early Twentieth Century

The Tragedy of the Margins: Land Rights and Marginal Lands in Vietnam (c. 1800-1945)

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