Louis Charles de Montigny (1805–1868) was a French diplomat who was active in Asia during the 19th century.

Biography

He was the first French consul in Shanghai from 23 January 1848 to 10 June 1853. He founded the

Shanghai French Concession The Shanghai French Concession; ; Shanghainese pronunciation: ''Zånhae Fah Tsuka'', group=lower-alpha was a foreign concession in Shanghai, China from 1849 until 1943, which progressively expanded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. T ...

in 1849. In 1856, de Montigny was sent as a French envoy to

King Mongkut Mongkut ( th, มงกุฏ; 18 October 18041 October 1868) was the fourth monarch of Siam (Thailand) under the House of Chakri, titled Rama IV. He ruled from 1851 to 1868. His full title in Thai was ''Phra Bat Somdet Phra Menthora Ramathibo ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

. A treaty was signed on 15 August 1856 to facilitate trade, guarantee religious freedom, and allow the access of French warships to

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...

. From Thailand, de Montigny visited Vietnam in 1857 to demand the establishment of a consulate in

Huế Huế () is the capital of Thừa Thiên Huế province in central Vietnam and was the capital of Đàng Trong from 1738 to 1775 and of Vietnam during the Nguyễn dynasty from 1802 to 1945. The city served as the old Imperial City and admi ...

, freedom to trade and to preach, and an end to persecution against Catholics. However, the Vietnamese court rejected all of his demands. When Montigny's mission failed, Napoléon III decided to dispatch a military force of 3,000 to Vietnam, leading to the capture of Da Nang by

Charles Rigault de Genouilly Admiral Pierre-Louis-Charles Rigault de Genouilly (, 12 April 1807 – 4 May 1873) was a French naval officer. He fought with distinction in the Crimean War and the Second Opium War, but is chiefly remembered today for his command of French and ...

on 1 September 1858. Charles de Montigny served again as President of the Municipal Council in Shanghai from 1 May 1862. From 1863 to 1868, he was French Consul in

Tientsin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...

, where he died in 1868.

Notes

1805 births 1868 deaths People of the Cochinchina campaign 19th-century French diplomats {{France-diplomat-stub