French Indochina was a grouping of French colonial territories in Southeast Asia which existed from 1887 to 1954. France grouped the Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina regions of Vietnam together in 1887, adding Laos in 1893. Indochina was administered from the city of Hanoi, and Indochina would later become a part of Vichy France after the fall of France in 1940. Japan invaded and occupied Indochina in September 1940 to gain access to French airbases and raw materials, and Ho Chi Minh and his Viet Minh began a guerrilla war against the Japanese in May 1941. In August 1945, when Japan surrendered, the Viet Minh declared that Vietnam was an independent nation, leading to the First Indochina War with France. The war ended in September 1954 when France agreed to grant Vietnam and Laos independence, ending their control of Indochina.
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