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This article proposes a new understanding of the development of the indigénat (native legal status) across the French Empire. Historiographic research has assumed that the indigénat first emerged in Algeria before being transferred to other French colonies. However, this study aims to demonstrate that the rise of this administration system in Cochinchina was similar and concomitant with the one in Algeria. The article reaches the conclusion of a double original paradigm of the indigénat and addresses the need to extend this research to the rest of the French colonies.