The notion of a single entity called Indochina originated with French colonization which began in the 17th century, but the history of the region began about 3,000 years ago with the arrival of the people from the north. Before Eureopean intervention, the Khmer Empire in what is now Cambodia grew and declined, the kingdom of Champ rose and fell, and Vietnam expended steadily after more than 1,000 years of Chinese domination. The Thai kingdom of Ayutthaya rose in the 14th century and established a strong rule over the area of present Thailand, which was known as Siam before 1939, Myanmar’s early history, when it was known abroad as Burma, consisted to the Khmers. In the 16th century the country was unified under Burmese sovereignty.

          European domination of the region began in the 16th century. The British gained complete control of Burma at the end of the 19th century. And it was granted independence only in 1947. The Thais managed to preserve their independence. In the 19th century the French established Cochin China (southern Vietnam) as a colony and gained protectorates over Cambodia, Annam (central Vietnam), and Tonkin (nothern Vietnam). In 1887 they formed those four states into the Indochinese Union, or French Indochina. Laos was added to the union in 1893. During world War ll the Japanese occupied the region, and in March 1945 they
proclaimed the area the autonomous state of Vietnam. The regime collapsed, however, and in the north the Vietminh under Ho Chi Minh proclaimed a Democratic Republic of Vietnam and assumed power. Laos and Cambodia were quickly reoccupied by the French, who founded the Indochinese Federation.
The Indochina wars soon erupted, and, as a result, the independent self-governing states of Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam were recognized in1954. After the French lost the battle of Dienbienphu in 1954, the French were forced to withdraw from northern Vietnam and the country was divided at the 17th parallel. South Vietnam came into begin in 1955. The conquest of South Vietnam by North Vietnamse troops at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 ended 21 years of partition and civil war. Formal unification was declared in 1976, and the nation is now called the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.  
                 
 
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