The aim of this paper is to use both anthropological and historical approaches to explore the distinctive nature of colonialism in French-ruled Indochina. From this interdisciplinary perspective, it seeks to contextualize a rich but little known series of nineteenth- and twentieth-century writings on Indochina's peoples and cultures. It notes particularly their emphasis on concepts of the community and of the transforming revolutionary event. And it argues that these writings' distinctive understandings of race, culture and polity profoundly affected the thought and action of Asians as well as Europeans, with these effects being felt both within and beyond the French empire.