Colonial Experience

   The French established a Western administration over the new territories, opening up the colony to economic exploitation [C]. Paul Doumer, arriving in 1897, enforced French control and left the Vietnamese bureaucracy without much power. By the 1930’s, Vietnamese officials only held low positions of order. He took advantage of Vietnam, making sure everything done in the colony would benefit the French. He started many different public transportation works, such as railroads, highways, harbors, bridges, and canals; they furthered the French exploitation of the Vietnamese trade. Doumer also taxed the Vietnamese peasants to pay and to labor for the works. He directly exported all raw materials from Vietnam, such as rice, coal, rare minerals, and rubber. Local consumption of the products was little to none, and the “aim of all investments was not the systematic economic development of the colony but the attainment of immediate high returns for investors.” [D]  

Do-more: Paul Doumer was one of the early enoforcers of French administration in the early 20th century.