Annam (chữ Hán: 安南; alternate spelling: Anam), or Trung Kỳ (中圻), was a French protectorate encompassing what is now Central Vietnam from 1883 to 1949.

The government of the Nguyễn Dynasty still nominally ruled Annam and Tonkin as the Empire of Đại Nam, with the emperor residing in Huế.

[citation needed] Towards the end of the 18th century a rebellion overthrew the Nguyễn lords, but one of its members, Gia Long, by the aid of a French force, in 1801 acquired sway over the whole of present-day Vietnam (Annam, Tongking and Cochinchina).

The Monsignor saw in the political condition of Annam a means of establishing French influence in Indochina and counterbalancing British power in India.

Before this, in 1787, Gia Long had concluded a treaty with Louis XVI, whereby in return for a promise of aid he ceded Tourane and Pulo-Condore to the French.

With the treaty of Tientsin, China recognised the French protectorate over Annam and Tonkin and implicitly abandoned her own claims to suzerainty over Vietnam.

The country consisted chiefly of a range of plateaus and wooded mountains, running north and south and declining on the coast to a narrow band of plains varying between 12 and 50 miles (80 km) in breadth.

South of this point, the coast curves outwards and is broken by peninsulas and indentations; to the north it is concave and bordered in many places by dunes and lagoons.

June, July and August are the hottest months, the temperature often reaching 85 °F (29 °C) or 90 °F (32 °C) or more, though the heat of the day is to some extent compensated by the freshness of the nights.

The southwest monsoon which brings rain in Cochin China coincides with the dry season in Annam, probably because the mountains and lofty plateaus separating the two regions retain the precipitation.

The economy was an agricultural one based on: Silk spinning and weaving were carried on in what the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition called "antiquated lines ...silkworms [are] reared in a desultory fashion".

[8] Trade, which was controlled by the Chinese, was mostly carried out on the sea, with the chief ports being Da Nang and Qui Nhơn, open to European commerce.

This council was composed of the heads of the six ministerial departments nominated by the emperor, namely interior, finance, war, ritual, justice, and public works.

[9] As a Governor-General of French Indochina, Pierre Pasquier, stated: “The King reigns but the Resident superior rules.”[10][9] The effective power in the protectorate was in the hands of the resident-superior with both the monarch and the local high officials playing a subordinate role to his office.

[7] From 1 January 1898, the French directly took over the right to collect all taxes in the protectorate of Annam and to allocate salaries to the Emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty and its mandarins.

[citation needed] Following the establishment of two protectorates over the Nguyễn dynasty the French expanded the education system they had set up in Cochinchina to the rest of Vietnam.

[citation needed] Vocational education was also established to train the indigenous population to work for French capitalists as skilled labourers.

[citation needed] The Quốc Ngữ alphabet was used to turn Vietnamese into "a vehicle used to transport French ideology and interests in Indochina".