In a sense, the projected"Greater Mekong Subregion" is still conceived on a colonial regime designed grid, only supplanting but not obliterating the grand vision of the"French Indochina construct. This short essay focuses on the explorations of the Mekong territories between 1866 and 1895 underwritten by the French state, and their intended or unintended consequences for the concept of an ideologically homogenous region.