The Kingdom of Sedang (sometimes referred to as the Kingdom of the Sedang) was an ephemeral political entity established in the latter part of the 19th Century by a French adventurer Charles-Marie David de Mayréna in part of what is present-day Vietnam. An official language is a language that is given a unique legal status in the countries, states, and other territories. ... Headquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are concentrated. ... The President of the Philippines meets with the President of the United States. ... Marie I, King of Sedang Charles-Marie David de Mayréna I was the first King of the Kingdom of Sedang. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Marie I, King of Sedang Charles-Marie David de Mayréna I was the first King of the Kingdom of Sedang. ...

Mayréna, a former French government official with a dubious history that allegedly involved embezzelment, was in 1888 the owner of a plantation in French Indochina. When the King of Siam began claiming territories near those held by the French Mayréna convinced the nervous colonial administrator to permit him to lead an expedition into the interior in order to negotiate treaties with the local tribespeople. French Indochina was a federation of French colonies and protectorates in Southeast Asia, part of the French colonial empire. ... For the country formerly called Siam see Thailand SIAM is an acronym for Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. ...

However, upon his arrival he instead convinced the tribesmen to form a local kingdom under his rule. To justify this he argued that the tribes involved were not subjects or vassals of the emperor of Annam (Vietnam), and hence had a right to independent statehood. The Kingdom of Sedang, as he named it, incorporated the Bahnar, Rengao, and Sedang tribes. Mayréna was elected King by the chiefs of these tribes, established his capital at Kon Gung (also called Pelei Agna, or Great City), and assumed the regnal name and style of Marie the First, King of the Sedang, on 3 June 1888. Annam, literally meaning Pacified South, is a region of central Vietnam that fell under Chinese rule in 111 BC as Annan (安南). Known locally as Trung Bá»™, meaning Central Boundary, it was formerly a kingdom the size of Sweden with its capital at Hué. It had been seized by the French... June 3 is the 154th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (155th in leap years), with 211 days remaining. ... 1888 is a leap year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ...

Marie I, King of Sedang in an 1890 photograph.

He subsequently offered to cede his kingdom to France in exchange for monopoly trade rights, and hinted that the Prussians were interested if the French were not. When the French government failed to respond positively, Mayréna approached the English in Hong Kong. When he was rebuffed there he travelled to Belgium, where in 1889 a financier named Somsy offered to provide him with arms and money in exchange for the kingdom's mineral rights. Mayréna's return to Sedang was thwarted by the French Navy, who blockaded Vietnamese ports, and by the seizure of his arms as contraband at Singapore. Marie I, King of Sedang, in a photograph from 1890 File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Marie I, King of Sedang, in a photograph from 1890 File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...

During his travels to Southeast Asia and Europe Mayréna awarded dozens of titles of nobility, orders of knighthood and assorted medals and paraphernalia to his supporters. He also created a series of postage stamps that are the main tangible legacy of his kingdom.

The Kingdom of Sedang came to an end when King Marie the First - who had earlier become a convert to Islam and married several local women - died under mysterious circumstances (various reports claim by poisoning, snakebite or as the result of a duel) on November 11, 1890 at Tioman, Malaya.

External links

• The Imperial Collection - A site documenting the history and stamps issued by Sedang.