History of Vietnam

Traditionally, the History of Vietnam dates back more than 4,000 years. But in actuality, there are no reliable sources indicating the Vietnamese or their country until roughly 2700 years ago. For most of the period from 207 BC to early 10th century, it was under the rule of successive dynasties of China. Vietnam regained independence in 939, and complete autonomy a century later. While for much of its history, Vietnam remained a vassal state to the imposing, much bigger China, it defeated three Mongolian attempts of invasion during the Yuan Dynasty, when China was under Mongolian rule. The independent period ended in mid-19th century, when the country was colonized by France. During WWII, Japan occupied Vietnam. After the war, France attempted to re-establish control but ultimately failed. The Geneva Accords partitioned the country in two. During this Cold War period, the North was supported by the People's Republic of China and the USSR, while the South was supported by the United States. Tensions quickly escalated into the Vietnam War. The war ended with the American withdrawal from Vietnam in March 1973 and the capture of Saigon in April 1975.

Colonization

France's involvement can be traced to Alexandre de Rhodes, a Jesuit priest who converted many Vietnamese to Catholicism in the early 1600s. Rhodes improved on earlier works by Portuguese missionaries and developed the Vietnamese romanized alphabet Quốc Ngữ. It was another priest, Pierre-Joseph Pigneaux de Béhaine, who intertwined Vietnam's and France's destinies.

Related Topics:
Alexandre de Rhodes - Quốc Ngữ - Pierre-Joseph Pigneaux

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By the late 1700s, Vietnam was in turmoil. A hundred years before, the posterior Lê dynasty disentegrated and two noble families partitioned the country. The Nguyễn Lords ruled the South and the Trịnh Lords ruled the North. The two constantly warred against each other, always in the name of the nominal Lê Emperor. The Trịnh launched offensive campaigns in 1661 and 1672 but failed to subdue the Nguyễn. Vietnam's economy was wrecked and the peasantry were open to revolt.

Related Topics:
Posterior Lê dynasty - Nguyễn Lords - Trịnh Lords - 1661 - 1672

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In 1771, the Tây Sơn rebels led by Nguyễn Huệ (later known as Emperor Quang Trung) fought a savage war against the Nguyễn Lords. The peasants had become tired of the corruption and tyranny of both the Trịnh and Nguyễn officials and eagerly joined the common uprising of the Tây Sơn, who enacted many social reforms. Taking sides with Nguyễn Phúc Ánh, Pigneaux sailed to France with Nguyễn Phúc Ánh's youngest son. At Louis XVI's court, Pigneaux brokered the Little Treaty of Versailles, which promised French military aid in return for Vietnamese concessions. The French Revolution intervened and Pigneaux's ambition seemed for naught. Undaunted, Pigneaux went to the French territory of Pondicherry, India. He secured two ships, a regiment of Indian troops, and a handful of volunteers and returned to Vietnam in 1788.

Related Topics:
1771 - Quang Trung - Louis XVI - Little Treaty of Versailles - French Revolution - Pondicherry - India - 1788

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Meanwhile Nguyễn Huệ defeated the Trịnh and temporarily united the country. The last Emperor of the Lê dynasty, Lê Chiêu Thống, then went to the Qing Manchu Chinese emperor and asked for 200,000 troops to re-install himself. The Chinese were eager to comply and sent their army south. Nguyễn Huệ fought the Chinese near present day Hanoi and won a major victory in a surprise attack during the Tet holiday. The same tactic would be used centuries later by Võ Nguyên Giáp against the Americans. Unfortunately, Nguyễn Huệ died mysteriously at the age of 40 without a worthy successor.

Related Topics:
Lê Chiêu Thống - Qing - Tet - Võ Nguyên Giáp

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One of Pigneaux's volunteers, Jean-Marie Dayot, reorganized Nguyễn Phúc Ánh's navy along European lines and defeated the Tây Sơn navy at Quy Nhơn in 1792. Another volunteer, Victor Olivier de Puymanel would later build the Gia Định fort in central Saigon. With Nguyễn Huệ's early demise and Pigneaux's aid, Nguyễn Phúc Ánh defeated the Tây Sơn and secured Hanoi in 1802. Nguyễn Phúc Ánh proclaimed himself as Emperor Gia Long.

Related Topics:
Jean-Marie Dayot - Quy Nhơn - 1792 - Victor Olivier de Puymanel - Gia Định - 1802 - Gia Long

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Gia Long buried Pigneaux with full honors in Saigon in 1799. Gia Long also tolerated Catholicism. However he and his successors were staunch Confucians and admirers of China, not of France. His successors, Ming Mạng and Tự Đức, brutally suppressed Catholicism and attempted to undo French influence. Tens of thousands of Vietnamese and foreign-born Christians were massacred during this period, an act which provoked the Catholic nations of Europe to retaliate. The reactionary adherence to Confucianism during this time also meant that the Emperors refused to allow any modernization or technological advancement. When conflict came, as a result of this isolationist policy, the Vietnamese were sadly out-matched.

Related Topics:
1799 - Ming Mạng - Tự Đức

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Under the orders of Napoleon III of France, the landing of French forces in the port of Tourane, (present-day Đà Nẵng) in August 1858, heralded the beginning of the colonial occupation which was to last almost a century. France assumed sovereignty over Annam and Tonkin after the Franco-Chinese War (1884-1885). French Indochina was formed in October 1887 from Annam, Tonkin, Cochin China, and the Khmer Republic; Laos was added in 1893.

Related Topics:
Napoleon III of France - Đà Nẵng - 1858 - Franco-Chinese War - 1884 - 1885 - French Indochina - 1887 - 1893

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With the death of Tự Đức in 1883, a succession of Emperors were quickly elevated and just as quickly deposed. The teenage Emperor Hàm Nghi left the Imperial Palace of Hue in 1885 and started the Cần Vương, or "Aid the King", movement. Hàm Nghi asked the people to rally with him to resist the French. He was captured in 1888 and exiled to French Algeria. A former mandarin Phan Đình Phùng continued the Cần Vương movement until his death in 1895.

Related Topics:
1883 - Hàm Nghi - 1885 - 1888 - Phan Đình Phùng - 1895

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In 1905 Vietnamese resistance centered on the intellectual, Phan Bội Châu. Phan Bội Châu looked to Japan, which had modernized itself and was alone among Asian nations to resist colonization. With Prince Cường Để, Phan Bội Châu started two organizations in Japan: Duy Tân Hội and Việt Nam Công Hiến Hội. Due to French pressure, Japan deported Phan Bội Châu to China. Witnessing Sun Yat-Sen's 1911 nationalist revolution, Phan Bội Châu was inspired to create the Vietnam Quang Phục Hội movement in Guangzhou. From 1914 to 1917, he was imprisoned by Yuan Shikai's counter-revolutionary government. In 1925, he was captured by French agents in Shanghai and spirited to Vietnam. Due to his popularity, Phan Bội Châu was spared from execution and placed under house arrest, until his death in 1940.

Related Topics:
1905 - Phan Bội Châu - Japan - Cường Để - Sun Yat-Sen - 1911 - Quang Phục Hội - Guangzhou - 1914 - 1917 - Yuan Shikai - 1925 - Shanghai - 1940

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In 1940, Japan, coinciding with their ally Germany's invasion of France -- invaded Indochina. Keeping the German-controlled Vichy French colonial administration in place, the Japanese ruled from behind the scenes in parallel. As far as the Vietnamese were concerned, this was a double-puppet government. The symbolic Emperor Bảo Đại collaborated with the Japanese, just as he had with the French, causing no trouble and ensuring his lifestyle could continue.

Related Topics:
Japan - Germany - Indochina - Vichy French - Bảo Đại

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Meanwhile, in 1941 Ho Chi Minh, a trained Communist revolutionary, returned to Vietnam and joined the Viet Minh, which means "Vietnamese Allied." Ho was a founding member of the French Communist Party in the 1920s in Paris. He spent many years in Moscow and participated in the International Comintern. At the direction of Moscow, he first convinced everybody of his patriotic intention and absorbed the various Vietnamese revolutionist groups into the Viet Minh. In order to win trust he de-emphasised his Communist ties by dissolving the Indochinese Communist Party, which he had created in Hong Kong in 1930.

Related Topics:
1941 - Ho Chi Minh - Communist - Viet Minh - French Communist Party - Paris - Moscow - International Comintern - Indochinese Communist Party - 1930

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