<P> Archaeologists have found Chinese made potteries porcelains and other historical relics from the Southern dynasties (420--589), the Sui dynasties (581--618), the Tang dynasty (618--907), the Song Dynasties (960--1279), the Yuan dynasties (1206--1368), the Ming dynasty (1368--1644) and later eras up to modern times on the South China Sea islands . </P> <P> The South China Sea was known as the "Champa Sea" by sailors and traders in the region . It was named after a Hindu thalassocratic empire Champa that flourished in the area around that period . </P> <Ul> <Li> 1816--Annamese emperor Gia Long ordered a company to the Paracel Islands to make a survey and draw a map . </Li> <Li> 1835--Annam erects a pagoda in the Paracel Islands </Li> <Li> 1870 - Captain Meads explores the islands and lays official claim to both Spratly and Parcel groups . The Kingdom of Humanity is established . </Li> <Li> 1876--China makes its earliest documented claim to the Paracel Islands </Li> <Li> 1883--When the Spratlys and Paracels were surveyed by Germany in 1883, China issued protests . </Li> <Li> 1884--1885 Sino - French War . In December 1884, alarmed by Japanese ambitions in Korea, Empress Dowager Cixi ordered her ministers to extricate China from the undeclared war with France that had broken out on 23 August . Important French victories in Tonkin and Formosa in February and early March 1885 strengthened her desire to end the Sino - French War, and although the Chinese won an unexpected victory in Tonkin in late March, defeating General de Négrier's 2nd Brigade at Bang Bo and reoccupying Lang Son, this success was counterbalanced by the simultaneous French capture of the Pescadores Islands . China's position in early April 1885 was critical . Seizing the opportunity offered by the fall of the Ferry ministry, the Chinese agreed to implement the provisions of the May 1884 Tientsin Accord, which recognised France's protectorate over Vietnam . In return, the French dropped their longstanding demand for an indemnity for the Bac Le Ambush . After a flurry of negotiations in Paris in the first days of April 1885, peace was made on this basis . </Li> <Li> 11 May 1884 - The Tientsin Accord or Li--Fournier Convention, concluded on 11 May 1884, was intended to settle an undeclared war between France and China over the sovereignty of Tonkin (northern Vietnam). The convention, negotiated by Li Hung - chang for China and capitaine de vaisseau François - Ernest Fournier for France, provided for a Chinese troop withdrawal from Tonkin in return for a comprehensive treaty that would settle details of trade and commerce between France and China and provide for the demarcation of its disputed border with Vietnam . </Li> <Li> 9 June 1885 - The Treaty of Tientsin, signed on 9 June 1885, officially ended the Sino - French War . The unequal treaty restated in greater detail the main provisions of the Tientsin Accord, signed between France and China on 11 May 1884 . As Article 2 required China to recognise the French protectorate over Annam and Tonkin established by the Treaty of Hue in June 1884, implicitly abandoning her own claims to suzerainty over Vietnam, the treaty formalised France's victory in the Sino - French War . </Li> <Li> 1887--In the 19th century, Europeans found that Chinese fishermen from Hainan annually visited the Spratly islands for part of the year, while in 1877 it was the British who launched the first modern legal claims to the Spratlys . </Li> <Li> 1887--The Convention Respecting the Delimitation of the Frontier Between China and Tonkin between France and the Qing Empire set the maritime boundary in the Gulf of Tonkin . The 1887 Chinese - Vietnamese Boundary convention signed between France and China after the Sino - French War said that China was the owner of the Spratly and Paracel islands . The 1887 Convention Respecting the Delimitation of the Frontier Between China and Tonkin between France and the Qing Empire set the coastal boundary in the Gulf of Tonkin but did not state that China was the owner of the Spratly and Paracel islands because these islands are not in the Gulf of Tonkin nor was administered by Tonkin but belonged to the realm of Annam in Central Vietnam . The purpose of this treaty was for a better control of the border by having it follow the Ka Long river in Móng Cái coastal city, but doing so, the French gave an enclave to China of 7 Vietnamese fishermen's villages . Currently there are some suggestions that this part of Fangchenggang district, Guangxi, China belongs to Vietnam, especially after North Vietnam was established and announced to cancel all treaties signed by French colonial Vietnam . Thus Fangchenggang was supposed to be returned to Quang Ninh province in Vietnam, but this has not been done yet . Most people living in the area are Vietnamese fishermen who became one of the 56 ethnic groups of China, known as ethnic Vietnamese people of China or Gin people . </Li> <Li> 1898--The Philippine Islands were ceded by Spain to the United States in the Treaty of Paris following the Spanish--American War . The Spratly Islands were not part of the Philippines per the Treaty . </Li> <Li> 12 April 1898 - France seized Guangzhouwan as a treaty port, and took its own concession in the treaty port of Shanghai . Kwangchow Wan, (Guangzhouwan), was leased by China to France for 99 years (or until 1997, as the British did in Hong Kong's New Territories), according to the Treaty of 12 April 1898, on 27 May as Territoire de Kouang - Tchéou - Wan, to counter the growing commercial power of British Hong Kong and was effectively placed under the authority of the French Resident Superior in Tonkin (itself under the Governor General of French Indochina, also in Hanoi); the French Resident was represented locally by Administrators . The French wanted to develop the port, which they called Fort - Bayard, to serve southern China, in parts where France had exclusive rights to railway and mineral development . Their efforts, however, were hindered by the poverty of the surrounding land . The French retained control of the region until 1943 when the Japanese occupied the area during World War II . At the end of the war, the region returned briefly under French rule before being formally returned to China in 1946 by General Charles de Gaulle, the French head of state . The old spellings "Tsankiang", "Chankiang" and "Tsamkong" were replaced by the pinyin romanisation "Zhanjiang" by the Chinese government in 1958 . Zhanjiang is headquarters of the South Sea Fleet of the People's Liberation Army Navy South Sea Fleet . The Zhanjiang Port is one of the eight major ports in China, with an annual throughput of more than 2,600 million tons . As a natural port, it has about 60 kilometers depth and three islands outside to support . </Li> </Ul> <Li> 1816--Annamese emperor Gia Long ordered a company to the Paracel Islands to make a survey and draw a map . </Li>

When did the south china sea conflict start