In 1858, as European powers were scrambling to outdo one another in imperial wealth and power, France invaded Vietnam. After forcing a peace treaty in 1862, the French established a colonial government for Vietnam in the form of a protectorate that the French called Cochin China. Bypassing the traditional capitals of Hanoi and Hue, they instead established a colonial capital at Saigon, in the south of Vietnam. In 1883, France added the more northerly regions of Tonkin and Annam to its imperial holdings, and in 1893 combined all their Vietnamese and Cambodian protectorates with the territory of Laos to form French Indochina.