The Siege of Saigon, a two-year siege of the city by the Vietnamese after its capture on 17 February 1859

The Siege of Saigon, a two-year siege of the city by the Vietnamese after its capture on 17 February 1859 by a Franco-Spanish flotilla under the command of the French admiral Charles Rigault de Genouilly, was one of the major events of the Conquest of Cochinchina (1858–62). Saigon was of great strategic importance, both as the key food-producing area of Vietnam and as the gateway to Cochinchina.