Asie Orientale

A spectacular and colourful French map focusing on East and Southeast Asia, including China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. This map was published during a pivotal period in French history. In 1857, Napoleon III of France sent a force to participate in the Second Opium War but it was diverted to take part in the Cochinchina Campaign instead. This was a series of punitive expeditions against the Vietnamese government for their executions of Christian missionaries in Vietnam. The campaign concluded in 1862 and marked the beginning of French activity in the country.

This is the elephant folio version of this map with the lower extension which also bears a colour key to the areas of interest to European powers, such as Great Britain in Myanmar after the Second Anglo-Burmese War, Spain in the Philippines, and the Dutch in Indonesia. The vast Russian possessions in Siberia are marked in the north of the map.

Original colour. [SEAS5508]