Sports and Youth Movements in Indochina during the First World War

As everywhere in the French Empire, the French colonial administration in Indochina wished to train its soldiers by promoting sports in school. Many sport associations appeared very quickly and the founding members were almost entirely Annamites. Indochina can be seen to stand out from the other French territories in a way that has not previously been studied: because of the War, the Governor General decided to promote sports and also welcome the Indochinese elite as equals in the Scout troops. He thus introduced a new way to manage the colonized people. This was an exceptional example of the drive towards colonization in agreement with some local elites, leading to the creation of a new westernized social group through leisure activities. This paper argues that the Great War played a key role in the development of sports in Indochina, through the rapid adherence of the local elite, for both personal and political reasons.