César Lecat de Bazancourt - Les Expéditions de Chine et de Cochinchine - 1861-1862

BAZANCOURT (César, baron de)

The Expeditions to China and Cochinchina. According to the Official Documents.

Paris, at Amyot, 1861-1862.

2 volumes octavo (21 x 13.5 cm), half-bound in calf (bindings of the period), smooth gilt spine with ornament, coat of arms in the center of the upper board, decorative tooling in blind on the boards, gilt edge on the pleats, price tag on the verso of the book, gilt edges, [4]-iii-426; [6]-413 pages (complete). Corners, heads and spine rubbed, scattered foxing. Good overall condition.

Original edition.

The work retraces in a chronological and official manner the French military interventions in the Far East between 1858 and 1860; it first describes the Cochinchina expedition, marked by the attack on Tourane, the stagnation of operations, then the capture of Saïgon in 1859, which opened the way to the lasting establishment of France in Indochina, then the China expedition conducted jointly with Great Britain during the Second Opium War, including the battles of the Pei-tse-lí Gulf, the taking of the Taku forts, the march on Beijing and the conclusion of the 1860 Treaty of Beijing, after Allied troops entered the capital and the destruction of the Summer Palace, all presented from a military and political perspective favorable to French action.

PROVENANCE: Arms of the Imperial Lycée de Charlemagne. Secondary and higher education establishment in the Marais district, in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, founded in 1804.

Good copy.