Activities of the Constitutionalist Party in Cochinchina (1919 - 1942)

Abstract

Since 1919, many political parties in Cochinchina were born and active in association with the use of press forums as the official mouthpiece. Bui Quang Chieu's Constitutionalist Party, a party representing the interests and political views of the great landowners and bourgeois in Cochinchina, was born and operated in that context. The Party is very conscious in using the press as its mouthpiece, from La Tribune Indigène, La Tribune Indochinoise and later L'Écho Annamite. Influenced by bourgeois democratic thought, they had certain fighting voices. But because the interests are still closely attached to the French colonialists, loyal to the policy of “France - Vietnam is equal”. As a result, the Constitutionalists were abandoned by the people, the Constitutionalist Party weakened and ended its role.