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The East Indies, sometimes known simply as the Indies, are the lands of South and Southeast Asia, though usually refer to just the islands of Southeast Asia, primarily the Indonesian and Philippine Archipelagos. The inhabitants of the region are rarely ever called East Indians, and comprise a wide variety of cultural and religious diversity, with no single ethnic group.<br/><br/> Many of these islands were Dutch colonies, and the area was known as the Dutch East Indies for around 300 years before Indonesian independence, while those under Spanish occupation were titled the Spanish East Indies until the American conquest. Sometimes French-occupied Indochina and the former British territories of Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore are included within the East Indies (the latter three as the British East Indies), as well as former Portuguese East Timor.
In 1884, while visiting Australia, Lord Rosebery described the changing British Empire, as some of its colonies became more independent, as a "Commonwealth of Nations". Conferences of British and colonial prime ministers had occurred periodically since the first one in 1887, leading to the creation of the Imperial Conferences in 1911. The commonwealth developed from the Imperial Conferences. A specific proposal was presented by Jan Christiaan Smuts in 1917 when he coined the term "the British Commonwealth of Nations," and envisioned the "future constitutional relations and readjustments in the British Empire". Smuts successfully argued that the Empire should be represented at the all-important Versailles Conference of 1919 by delegates from the dominions as well as Britain. In the Balfour Declaration at the 1926 Imperial Conference, Britain and its dominions agreed they were "equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations".
Rickshaws (or rickshas) are a mode of human-powered transport: a runner draws a two-wheeled cart which seats one or two persons. Rickshaws are commonly made with bamboo. The word rickshaw came from Asia, where they were mainly used as means of transportation for the social elite.<br/><br/> In recent times the use of rickshaws has been discouraged or outlawed in many countries due to concern for the welfare of rickshaw workers. Runner-pulled rickshaws have mainly been replaced by cycle rickshaws and auto rickshaws. The term rickshaw is today commonly used for those vehicles as well. The word "rickshaw" originates from the Japanese word jinrikisha (renliche in Chinese) which literally means 'human-powered vehicle'.
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the largest empire in history and, for over a century, was the foremost global power.<br/><br/> By 1922 the British Empire held sway over about 458 million people, one-fifth of the world's population at the time. The empire covered more than 33,700,000 km2 (13,012,000 sq mi), almost a quarter of the Earth's total land area. As a result, its political, legal, linguistic and cultural legacy is widespread.
Cochinchina, uniquely in French Indochina, was considered a colony by the French, unlike the dependencies of Annam and Tonkin.
The First Indochina War (also known as the French Indochina War, Anti-French War, Franco-Vietnamese War, Franco-Vietminh War, Indochina War, Dirty War in France, and Anti-French Resistance War in contemporary Vietnam) was fought in French Indochina from December 19, 1946, until August 1, 1954, between the French Union's French Far East Expeditionary Corps, led by France and supported by Emperor Bảo Đại's Vietnamese National Army against the Việt Minh, led by Hồ Chí Minh and Võ Nguyên Giáp. Most of the fighting took place in Tonkin in Northern Vietnam, although the conflict engulfed the entire country and also extended into the neighboring French Indochina protectorates of Laos and Cambodia. The war ended in French defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954.
Imperial France celebrating the (notional) unity of the metropolitan country and the colonies, c. 1920s