Indépendance, Liberté, Bonheur ("Independence, Freedom, Happiness") | |||||||
| Anthem | "The Army Marching Song" | ||||||
| Capital | Huế | ||||||
| Largest city | Saigon | ||||||
| Other cities | Hanoi, Phnom Penh, Vientiane | ||||||
| Language official |
French (de jure) Vietnamese (de facto) | ||||||
| others | Khmer, Laotian | ||||||
| Religion | 48.9% Buddhism 30.1% Folk Polytheism 7.2% Taoism 5.9% Catholicism 2.3% Islam 2.1% Eastern Orthodox 1.3% Hinduism 1.1% Protestanism 0.4% Haohoaism 0.7% Others | ||||||
| Demonym | Indochinese | ||||||
| Government | confederation of socialist republics (1955–1980) • under a dominant-party government (1955–1956) • under a centralized one-party government (1956–1980) federal parliamentary republic (1980–present) • semi-presidential (1980–1992) • under a dominant-party government (1980–2002, 2008–present) | ||||||
| Legislature | Federal Assembly Federal Senate | ||||||
| President | Thongloun Sisoulith | ||||||
| Prime Minister | Nguyễn Thiện Nhân | ||||||
| Area | 749,047 km² | ||||||
| Population | 90,0504,201 (2019 Census) | ||||||
| GDP Total: |
$3,44 trillion | ||||||
| per capita | $38,243 | ||||||
| Established | 1945 (as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) 1955 (as the Union of Democratic Republics of Indochina) 1980 (as the Federal Republic of Indochina) | ||||||
| Independence | from French Empire | ||||||
| declared | 1954 (under United Nations transitional authority) | ||||||
| Currency | Indochinese piastre (INP) | ||||||
| Timezone | UTC+7 (Indochinese Standard Time) | ||||||
| Driving Side | Right | ||||||
| Calling Code | +84 | ||||||
| Internet TLD | .ic | ||||||
| Organizations | G8, G20, WTO, Southeast Asian Union, OECD, APEC, Francophonie, NAM, United Nations | ||||||
Indochina, officially the Federal Republic of Indochina, is a supranational country in Mainland Southeast Asia. Home to 90 million people, it is the fifteenth-most populous country in the world and the third-most populous in Southeast Asia. With a total area of 749,047, Indochina is also the second-largest country by area in the Southeast Asian Union. It borders China to the north, Thailand and Burma to the west, while sharing maritime border with the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia through the Indochinese Sea.
The country was founded in 1955 as the Union of Democratic Republics of Indochina modelled after the Soviet Union as a federation of three "equal and independent" democratic-socialist republics of Laos, Kampuchea and Vietnam. After the death of its founding leader Hồ Chí Minh in 1979, Indochina became a federal republic of 80 provinces (with the three republics being dissolved) after a referendum in 1980, thus avoiding balkanization as experienced by post-Tito Yugoslavia. It currently has a parliamentary system with power vested in a popularly-elected Federal Assembly that elects the Prime Minister, and a Federal Senate appointed by the provinces that scrutinizes the federal government and elects the Federal President. Although election is regularly held, the Worker's Party of Indochina has dominated Indochinese politics since the country's founding, with 14 out of 16 prime ministers since 1955 being from the party. The federal language is French; in practice, due to Vietnam's dominant economic power among the member states, Vietnamese is considered the de facto language at the federal level.
The French Empire started annexing the independent dynasties in the Indochinese peninsula in 1862, before incorporating them into one union entity, French Indochina (officially the Indochinese Union) in 1887. After the Fall of France during World War II, the colony was administered by the Vichy government and was under Japanese occupation until March 1945, when the Japanese overthrew the colonial regime. After the Japanese surrender, the Viet Minh, a pro-independence organization led by Hồ Chí Minh (leader of the Việt Minh), declared Vietnamese independence and founded the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, but France subsequently took back control of Vietnam and the rest of French Indochina. An all-out independence war, known as the Indochina War, broke out in late 1946 between French and Viet Minh forces. After the French defeat in the Battle of Điện Biên Phủ and the subsequent Geneva Peace Accord of 1954, the French withdrew from Indochina. The entire country was placed under the United Nations Transitional Authority in Indochina (UNTAI), which held a general election in 1955 with the victory of the Việt Minh coalition, which is led by the Worker's Party of Indochina.
The foundation for the influential position held by Indochina today was laid during the economic miracle of the 60s and 70s, when Indochina rose from the enormous destruction wrought by the Indochinese War under a mixed-market economy. The first prime minister Hồ Chí Minh, who remained in office until his death in 1979, maintained neutrality during the Cold War and eventually founded the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in 1974. Hồ's pragmatic foreign policy enabled Indochina to receive economic assistance from both the United States and the Soviet Union, who sought to win Indochina's support during the Cold War. Along with Dr. Mahathir of Malaysia, Hồ was a proponent of the agreements that developed into the present-day Southeast Asian Union (SAU). When the G6 was expanded in 1997, there was no serious debate as to whether Indochina would become a member.
Nowadays, Indochina is a great power with a strong economy; it has the largest economy in Southeast Asia, the world's sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP, and the fourth-largest by PPP. It is also a global leader in several industrial, scientific and technological sectors, and is considered a highly influential cultural center of Asia. As a developed country, which ranks very high on the Human Development Index, it offers social security and a universal health care system, environmental protections, and a tuition-free university education. Indochina is a member of the United Nations, Southeast Asian Union, G8, G20, APEC, Francophonie, NAM, WTO, and OECD. It has the fourth-greatest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
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