An Annamite ambassador

A carte-de-visite portrait showing a member of the Annamite legation that visited Paris in 1863.

The state of Annam lay in what is now Central Vietnam, and had its capital at Hue. In 1858 France initiated a programme of military expansion in the area and by 1887 Annam had become a part of the Union of Indochine.

The First Treaty of Saigon, signed on 5 June 1862 between the French and the last pre-colonial emperor of Annam, Tu Duc, ceded Saigon, the island of Poulo Condor and three southern provinces of what was to become known as Cochinchina - Bien Hoa, Gia Dinh, and Dinh Tuong - to the French. The treaty was confirmed by the treaty of Hue signed on 14 April 1863. Furthermore, the treaty stipulated the opening of three Vietnamese ports to trade (Tourane, Balat and Quang Yên), freedom for missionary activity and French authority over Vietnam's foreign affairs. Also by this agreement, Saigon was declared the capital of French Indochine.

In the autumn of the same year, a delegation of Annamite ambassadors travelled to Paris in an attempt to negotiate the purchasing back of the three southern provinces.