<Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> France </Th> <Th> Vietnam </Th> </Tr> <P> French--Vietnamese relations started as early as the 17th century with the mission of the Jesuit father Alexandre de Rhodes . Various traders would visit Vietnam during the 18th century, until the major involvement of French forces under Pigneau de Béhaine from 1787 to 1789 helped establish the Nguyễn Dynasty . France was heavily involved in Vietnam in the 19th century under the pretext of protecting the work of Catholic missionaries in the country . France progressively carved for itself a huge colony, which would form French Indochina in 1887 . France continued to rule Vietnam as a colony until France's defeat in the First Indochina War and the proclamation of Vietnam's independence in 1954 . </P> <P> One of the first Frenchmen to visit Vietnam was the Jesuit father Alexandre de Rhodes, who arrived there in 1620 . While he was in Vietnam, he wrote the first Vietnamese Catechism and he went living </P>

When did vietnam first became a colony of france