1889 French Bureau Topographique Map of South Vietnam and Cambodia

This is an 1889 Bureau topographique des Troupes de l'Indochine map of Cochinchina, including parts of modern-day southern Vietnam and Cambodia. The map is significant for its coverage of the Saigon - Mỹ Tho Railroad and Vĩnh Tế Canal.

A Closer Look

Coverage extends from the Tamboun River south to the Cà Mau Peninsula, thus embracing the important Phnom Penh - Saigon corridor. Both the important Saigon - Mỹ Tho Railroad (French Indochina's first railroad) and the Vĩnh Tế Canal are illustrated. Red lines detail Cochinchina's road network and likely differentiate different road grades or stages of construction. The Mekong Delta is illustrated in detail and is labeled Bouches du Me Kong.

The Saigon - Mỹ Tho Railroad Line

Construction began on the Saigon - Mỹ Tho Railroad line in November 1882. The line had originally been part of a planned Mekong Delta railway network that never materialized. The Saigon - Mỹ Tho line suffered from construction woes from the outset. The Maison Eiffel, one of the sub-contractors, did not account for the marshy terrain, which caused the three major tracks to slowly sink. Nonetheless, the railway officially opened on July 20, 1885, but did not run through service until May 29, 1886, because continuing problems with the Bền Lức Bridge forced the railway to use a ferry to cross the East Vàm Cỏ River. The builders also elected to use the same 20kg/m rails as the Saigon steam tramway, which limited the railway to lightweight rolling stock.

Even when construction was completed and problems with the bridges were solved, the company organized to operate the railway could not turn a profit, due partially to Chinese rice merchants preferring barge transport. This led colonial authorities to suspend the Maison Eiffel franchise and operations over to Saigon's steam tramway (which only agreed to operate it if the colonial government would be responsible for maintaining and repairing the line). In 1912, with the line still unprofitable, the colonial government again terminated the franchise, and the line was taken over fully by the colonial government. By the 1930s, the burgeoning road network began to seriously compete with the Saigon - Mỹ Tho line. The French military used the line during the First Indochina War (1946 - 1954) to move troops and supplies, making the rails targets for the Việt Minh. After the war, the South Vietnamese Department of Railways took over. By this time, the road network had significantly expanded, limiting the railroad's value and leading to its closing on June 30, 1958.

The Vĩnh Tế Canal

The Vĩnh Tế is a 54-mile-long (87 kilometers) canal in southern Vietnam built between 1819 and 1824. Around 80,000 local Vietnamese and Khmer workers built it under Emperors Gia Long and Minh Mang. Thousands of workers died of fatigue and disease, and several Khmer-led rebellions ignited during the 5 years of construction. Khmer workers suffered other abuses at the hands of Vietnamese workers (according to Cambodian nationalists), resulting in the Vĩnh Tế Canal becoming part of the anti-Vietnamese propaganda embraced by the Khmer Rouge over a century later.

Publication History and Census

This map was drawn by Jean Baptiste Laurent Friquegnon (August 10, 1858 - 1934) and published by the Bureau Topographique des Troupes de l'Indochine in 1889. We note two cataloged examples in OCLC, at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and the Bibliothèque Nationale Universitaire de Strasbourg.