The Invasion of Vietnam

Reasons

In the French's mind, the Vietnamese were inferior people, and they wanted to educate them with the French culture and religion. For example to enhance Vietnamese infrastructure, they built roads, railways, and a bridge across the Red River at Hanoi, and, to better their culture, set up multiple opera houses. In addition, Vietnam's copious natural resources were very appealing to a developing France. Rubber, the second largest export after rice, was produced by plantations across Vietnam. The French were just as interested in coal deposits, and output of the Hongay Coal Mines quadrupled in fourteen years. Another motivation in the eyes of the French was that the commercial success in Vietnam decreased the burden of taxpayers across France.

Method

The French colonized Vietnam in 1858. 2,500 soldiers took the port of Tourane and returned to take the capital, Saigon, in 1861. The French imposed an extremely harsh rule, which caused the Vietnamese people to become second class citizens in their own country. Only a very small percentage of the population were able to retain any amount of social standing while the majority of the Vietnamese were forced to slave away as the lowest working class. 

Vietnam - Life Under Colonial Rule

The French orchestrated the colonization of Indochina (the combination of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia) with a firm hand, repressing the Vietnamese beliefs in favor of European values. French officials were given places of power within the newly instated government, and violation of the laws or rebellion of any kind resulted in decrease of Vietnamese representation. Political actions common to repression such as censorship and limitation of education were common. The Vietnamese were encouraged not to participate in politics, for fear that they might be inspired with rebellious notions. Ironically enough, political ideas such as communism and nationalism would eventually defeat the french to bring independence to the people of Indochina. A quick note: it is interesting to note the parallels between the repression and the resulting brand of nationalism in the repressed people. In colonies of fairly liberal governments more moderate nationalist movements appeared, whereas in Vietnam they came up with hardcore communism that has only in the last few decades turn to socialism.  In any case, the condition of the daily life of the Indochinese was unpleasant, to put it lightly. The people were virtually slaves working for a meager bag of rice, only able to keep one bag out of every eleven that were harvested. The corrupt French  government often guillotined, tortured, or burned the whole village of their opposition.