Southern Vietnam
Southern Vietnam is one of the three geographical regions of Vietnam, the other two being Northern and Central Vietnam. It includes 2 administrative subregions, which in turn are divided into 19 First Tier units, of which 17 are provinces and 2 are municipalities.
Known as Nam Bộ today in Vietnamese, it was historically called Gia Định, Nam Kỳ, Nam Bộ, and Nam Phần, sometimes Nam Việt. Cochinchina is a historical exonym for this region during the colonial period, which referred to the entire domain of Đàng Trong in the feudal period. A more accurate term for the southern region is Lower Cochinchina, or Basse-Cochinchine in French.
In the early period, Southern Vietnam was under the Kingdom of Funan and later the Khmer Empire. Southern Vietnam was conquered by the Nguyễn lords in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The main ethnicities in Southern Vietnam are Kinh, Khmer and Hoa.