I’m glad you enjoyed it!
I picked this period because there was a French comic I when I was a kid set there but in the 30s and I always loved the mood of it with the colonists, the locals, the pirates, the opium…
As for research I honestly just googled, wiki’d, YouTubed my way around and made notes. Theres some Facebook and Quora groups as well dedicated to it where I found out a lot about the ways of living from the period.