Bảo Đại born Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy (阮福永瑞), was the 13th and last ruler of the Nguyễn dynasty. From 1926 to 1945, he was king (or emperor) of Annam under French ‘protection’. During this period, Annam was a protectorate within French Indochina

French Indochina

French Indochina was part of the French colonial empire in southeast Asia. A federation of the three Vietnamese regions, Tonkin , Annam , and Cochinchina , as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887....

, covering the central two-thirds of the present-day Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

. Bảo Đại ascended the throne in 1932 at the age of 19. The Japanese ousted the French in March 1945 and then ruled through Bảo Đại.