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Conflicting Conceptions of the State: Siam, France and Vietnam in the Late Nineteenth Century

by Martin Stuart-Fox

Political entities and terminology in early and pre-modern Southeast Asia

Pathway Angkor Thom Rcm

Publication: Journal of the Siam Society (JSS) Vol. 82, Pt. 2, pp 135-44

Published: 1994

Author: Martin Stuart-Fox

Pages: 9

Language : English

Even if the concepts of ​“polities”, ​“Empires”, ​“states”, ​“vassality” are still debated among historians when applied to Southeast Asia, it is quite clear that Siamese, Vietnamese, Khmer, Cham or Laotian people developed quite early their own, distinctive vision of the political and geographical spheres they inhabited.

As the author aptly notes, ​“various attempts have been made in the literature to define the differences between European and Southeast Asian notions of the state. Of these the ones that have attracted most attention are the ​“hydraulic state” (Wittfogel1957) and the Asiatic Mode of Production (Sawer 1978) by which Marxists have attempted to differentiate Asian from European political economies; Clifford Geertz’s (1980) negara or ​“theatre state;” and the ​“galactic polity” (Tambiah 1977) or mandala (Wolters 1968). Of these, the Asiatic Mode of Production (AMP) at least has the advantage of providing an alternative schema to Marx’s sequence of slave society-feudalism-capitalism.”

The notion of strict adequation between political power and territory developed differently within the respective Siamese, Vietnamese and Khmer spaces. Remarks the author: ​“While the struggle between Dai Viet and Champa was often one of open warfare between similarly matched powers, interference in the affairs of Cambodia was more often than not at the invitation of some Cambodian claimant to the throne to counter Siamese support for some other candidate (Chandler 1983). Vietnamese migration and settlement in the Mekong delta prepared the way for successive annexations of Cambodian territory, until by about 1780 all of what later became known as Cochinchina was in Vietnamese hands (compare Nguyen The Anh 1989a and Mak Phoen 1989).

“This process of migration and settlement was possible precisely because the Khmer concept of the state and its frontiers differed significantly from the Vietnamese. For the Cambodians their kingdom was ​“an ethnically and culturally dominated space corresponding to the extension of royal power” (Lafont 1989). People occupying social space in villages, not territory extending to defined frontiers, comprised the Cambodian polity. Khmer villages acknowledged that they formed part of the Khmer kingdom. A Vietnamese village situated between them did not. The notion of a frontier for the Khmer was thus ambiguous, as it was also for the Cham. Or to put it another way, the notion of sovereignty was not tied to territory per se, but to territory comprising the social space of Khmer villages. For the Vietnamese, by contrast, sovereignty was much more closely linked to territory per se. Thus the notion of a frontier was more clearly defined: it marked the area over which the writ of the Emperor was stated to extend. Such territory was duly documented in the imperial records. Thus was the judicial basis of possession established, even if in reality Vietnamese settlement, and indeed control, was minimal (Lafont 1989).”

The paradoxical bottom line, thus, is that ““ironically, through their adaptation of Vietnamese ambitions and traditional relationships, the French created in Southeast Asia a colonial empire that was a fulfillment of long-standing goals of Vietnamese expansionism””.

Photo: Angkor Thom North Road in Covid times (Royal Cambodian Monarchy)

Tags: state formation, Southeast Asia, comparative history, Dai Viet, Siam, Khmer Empire

About the Author

Martin stuart fox

Martin Stuart-Fox

Martin Stuart-Fox (b. 1939) is a retired Australian professor and journalist specialized in the history of Southeast Asia, primarily Laos, and in Buddhism philosophy and practice. A field reporter for UPI in Laos in 1963, he moved to Vietnam in 1965 – 1966, covering the war along with his brother David Stuart-Fox, who later on settled down in Bali and wrote extensively about Indonesia.

A marine biologist initially, he was sent in Laos in 1963 as an agricultural extension officer by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Two years later, he joined UPI news agency and was assigned to cover the war in Vietnam, sharing a house in Saigon with other young journalists and photographers, like Steve Northup, Simon Dring, Tim Page and Joe Galloway. In 1972, he covered the birth of the State of Bangladesh in Dacca for UPI.

An emeritus professor at the University of Queensland, Stuart-Fox contributed several books on Southeast Asian religion and politics, on Laos and on ​“Pol Pot’s Kampuchea”.

Martin-Stuart-Fox-left-David-Stuart-Fox-and-Tim-Page-300x213.jpg#asset:5580:squareMediumFit
Martin Stuart-Fox, left, with David Stuart-Fox and war correspondent Tim Page (Photo Mekong Review)

Publications

  1. [ed. & contrib.] Contemporary Laos: studies in the politics and society of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, St Lucia, University of Queensland Press and New York, St Martin’s Press, 1982, 367 pp. 
  2. “Resolving the Kampuchean problem: The case for an alternative regional initiative”. Contemporary Southeast Asia, 4(2), 1982, 210 – 255. [PDF]
  3. [with Ung Bunheang] The Murderous Revolution: life and death in Pol Pot’s Kampuchea, Sydney, Alternative Publishing Cooperative, 1985, 203pp. repub. 1986, White Orchid Press; updated edition Bangkok 1998.
  4. Laos: politics, economics and society, London, Frances Pinter Publishers and Boulder, Lynn Reinner Publishers, 220p, 1986.
  5. [with Rod Bucknell] The Twilight Language: explorations in Buddhist symbolism and meditation, London, Curzon Press and New York, St Martin’s Press. 233pp, 1986. [Italian translation, Rome, Ubaldini Editore, 1997; paperback edition, London: Curzon Press, 1994].
  6. Vietnam in Laos: Hanoi’s model for Kampuchea, Claremont, Keck Center for International Strategic Studies, 52 p, 1987.
  7. “The Kampuchean problem: Time for realism”, World Review, 27(2), 1988, 56 – 72. 
  8. “Conferences on conflict resolution in Kampuchea” Asian Studies Association of Australia, Review 12 (3), 1989, 58 – 60.
  9. “The agony of Cambodia” in C. Mackerras, ed. Eastern Asia: An introductory history. Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1992. 556 – 570 {revised for 2nd (US) edition 1995, 3rd edition 2000].
  10. Historical Dictionary of Laos, 1st ed with Mary Kooyman, Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press. 258 p, 1992; 2nd ed., Lanham, MD, Scarecrow Press. 527 p, 2001; 3rd ed. Lanham, MD, Scarecrow Press. 485 pp, 2008.; 4th ed with Simon Creak and Martin Rathie, Lanham, MD, Scarecrow Press, 692 p, 2023. 
  11. “Conflicting conceptions of the state: Siam, France and Vietnam in the late nineteenth century”, Journal of the Siam Society (JSS) vol. 82, 1994, p 135 – 144. 
  12. Buddhist Kingdom Marxist State: the making of modern Laos, 1st ed Bangkok, White Lotus Press. 310 p, 1996; 2nd ed Bangkok, White Lotus Press, 419 p, 2002.
  13. A History of Laos, Cambridge, New York and Melbourne, Cambridge University Press. 253 p, 1997 [updated Japanese and Thai translations, 2010].
  14. The Lao Kingdom of Lan Xang: Rise and Decline, Bangkok, White Lotus Press, 200 p, 1998.
  15. A Short History of China and Southeast Asia: Tribute, Trade and Influence, NSW, Allen & Unwin, 278 p, 2003.
  16. [with photos by Steve Northup] Naga Cities of the Mekong: a guide to the temples, legends and history of Laos, Singapore, Media Masters, 128 p, 2006.
  17. “The Persistence of Political Culture in Laos and Cambodia” Sudostasien Aktuell, no. 3, 2008, 33 – 57. [PDF]
  18. [with Somsanouk Mixay, photos by Steve Northup) Festivals of Laos, Chiang Mai, Silkworm Press, 92 p, 2010.
  19. The A to Z of Laos, Lanham, MD, Scarecrow Press, 485 p, 2010.
  20. “Symbolism in city planning in Cambodia from Angkor to Phnom Penh” (with Paul Reeve) Journal of the Siam Society 99, 2011, 105 – 138. [PDF]
  21. ‘City planning in Cambodia’, Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures (with Paul Reeve), 2014, 1259 – 1268. [PDF]
  22. [with Trude Jacobsen] ​“Power and political culture in Cambodia”, Asia Research Institute Working Paper Series 200, 2013. [PDF]
  23. “Sihanouk’s legacy”, New Mandala 26 February 2013.
  24. “The Origins of Causal Cognition in Early Hominins”, Philosophy and Biology 30, 2, 2015, p 247 – 266.
  25. Numerous articles on Laos, Cambodia, China, Southeast Asia.

  26. “Major transitions in human evolutionary history”, World Futures, 2022.

    Engaging Asia: Essays on Laos and Beyond in Honour of Martin Stuart-Fox, ed. by Delsey Goldston, Singapore, NIAS Press, 2019.

    Martin Stuart-Fox website.