III
THE PHILIPPINES’ FIRST PARTNERSHIP WITH FRANCE The ‘Chasseurs Tagals’ (Tagal Rangers) and the French Conquest of Cochinchina (1858-1863)
D
espite the unsuccessful French expedition to Basilan, the issue of Cochinchina sparked a renewed relationship between the Philippines and France. Since 1676, Catholic missions in Tonkin were in the hands of the Spanish Dominicans based in Manila (Provincia del Santo Rosario)122 and the French from the Missions Étrangères de Paris (MEP) working mostly in Cochinchina. Although Emperor Gia Long (r. 1802-1820) and French Bishop Pigneau de Behaine shared a close relationship, the emperor issued an edict in 1804, which treated Buddhism and Catholicism with equal suspicion and forbade both religions from building or repairing pagodas and churches. The edict was issued to secure the support of the orthodox Confucian elite to legitimize the Nguyễn Imperial Dynasty and to secure Chinese recognition. Nonetheless, it was only Catholicism that was regarded as a proper threat, owing to a more organized Catholic community.123 To prevent the European powers that had settled in Manila, Macau, and Penang from using religion as a means to extend their influence, Gia Long’s successor, Minh Mạng aka Minh Mệnh (r. 1820-1841), increased pressure on the missionaries. Minh Mạng’s first edict, issued in 1825, forbade missionaries from entering the kingdom. A second edict was issued in 1833, outlawing Catholicism and ordering the arrest of missionaries and their exile to Huế. The second edict was promulgated following Lê Văn Khôi’s insurgency in Gia Định province (Cochinchina) where some Vietnamese Catholics called the Siamese for help. The third edict, declared in 1836, ordered the execution of all missionaries arriving on board Chinese ships and all missionaries detained in Vietnamese jails.124 Among those incarcerated were four Spanish clerics, including two bishops.125 Because of these developments, The Netherlands, Britain, and France refused to receive Minh Mạng’s ambassadors in 1840. 39
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