Phan Thanh Giản

Phan Thanh Giản
Phan Thanh Giản in Paris in 1863.
Born	November 11, 1796 Ba Thanh village, Biên Hòa
Died	1867 Cochinchina, Vietnam
Other names	Courtesy name (tự): Đạm Như () Pseudonym (hiệu): Lương Khê ().
Organization	Nguyễn Dynasty
Notes
Negotiator of the Treaty of Saigon. Ambassador to France. Governor.

Phan Thanh Giản (November 11, 1796–1867) was a Grand Counsellor at the Nguyễn court in Vietnam. He led an embassy to France in 1863, and committed suicide when France completed the invasion of Southern Vietnam (Cochinchina) in 1867.

Phan Thanh Giản's grandfather was an ethnic Chinese (with ancestry from Fujian Province in China), while his grandmother was a Hoa woman.

Phan Thanh Giản was one of the foremost mandarins of the Nguyễn court. He played a key role in negotiating the Treaty of Saigon with the French in 1862. The negotiations led to the formal cession of Vietnamese territory that the French Expeditionary Corps had occupied in 1861 (the first parts of the future colony of Cochinchina): the provinces of Già Dinh, Mỹ Tho, Bien Hoa, and the Poulo Condore islands were ceded, and war reparations paid to the French.

Because of his role in these negotiations, Phan Thanh Giản became rather unpopular, both with the Vietnamese population, and with the court of king Tự Đức.

In 1863, Phan Thanh Giản was sent by the king on an embassy to France to visit Napoleon III, in order to negotiate the return of the territories given to the French. Phan Thanh Giản was accompanied by Michel Duc Chaigneau (the son of Jean-Baptiste Chaigneau) on this embassy. Phan Thanh Giản with a 70-strong embassy met with Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie in November 1863. Napoleon III, moved by Phan Thanh Giản's plea, accepted to return the provinces in exchange for a war indemnity, an agreement to station troops in Saigon, My Thau and Thủ Dầu Một, and recognition of French military protection. The French Navy Minister Chasseloup-Laubat however, opposed to the return of Cochinchinese territory, threatened Napoleon III with his resignation and that of the whole cabinet, forcing him to order the cancellation of the agreement in June 1864