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Vietnam, with its coastal strip, rugged mountainous interior, and two major deltas, became home to numerous cultures throughout history. Its strategic geographical position in Southeast Asia also made it a crossroads of trade and a focal point of conflict, contributing to its complex and eventful past. The firstAncient East Eurasian hunter-gatherers arrived at least 40,000 years ago. Around 4,000 years ago during theNeolithic period,Ancient Southern East Asian populations, particularlyAustroasiatic andAustronesian peoples, beganmigrating from southern China into Southeast Asia, bringing with themrice-cultivation knowledge,languages, and much of the genetic basis of the modern population of Vietnam.[1][2][3] In the first millennium BCE theĐông Sơn culture emerged, based on rice cultivation and focused on the indigenous chiefdoms ofVăn Lang andÂu Lạc.
Following the 111 BCEHan conquest of Nanyue, much of Vietnam cameunder Chinese dominance for a thousand years. The period nonetheless saw numerous uprisings, and Vietnamese kingdoms occasionally enjoyed de facto independence.Buddhism andHinduism arrived by the 2nd century CE, making Vietnam the first place which shared influences of bothChinese andIndian cultures.
Independence was regained when theNgô dynasty was established in 939, and the next millennium saw a succession oflocal dynasties:Ngô,Đinh,Early Lê,Lý,Trần,Hồ,Later Lê,Mạc,Revival Lê,Tây Sơn, and finallyNguyễn. During this period, Vietnam was periodically divided by civil wars, most notably theTrịnh–Nguyễn War of the 17th and 18th centuries, and subjected to foreign interventions by theSong,Yuan,Cham,Ming,Siamese,Qing, and finally the French. In their turn Vietnamese colonizers moved into theMekong Delta and parts of today's Cambodia between the 15th and 18th centuries.
Leveraging its military support for the ascendant Nguyễn dynasty and using the pretexts of protecting religious freedom and trading rights,France conquered Vietnam, dividing its territory into three separate regions, integrating them intoFrench Indochina in 1887. TheSecond World War brought a 5-year occupation byImperial Japan. In 1945 Vietnam wasproclaimed a republic, but athree-way conflict immediately broke out between communists, anti-communists, and France. In 1949 Vietnam was officiallyreunified as a partially autonomous member of theFrench Union. In practice, a communist insurgency led byHo Chi Minh had established arival state which exercised authority over most of the country. Following the French defeat, the country wasdivided into two states in July. As part of theCold War, a war quickly broke out between aNorth Vietnam supported by China and the Soviet Union, and aSouth Vietnam aided by the United States. It ended with thedefeat of the South in 1975 andunification under a communist government in 1976. Vietnam then fought awar with China in 1979 and wasbogged down in Cambodia from 1978 to 1989,[4][5] along with an economic disaster that led toĐổi Mới in late 1986. Vietnam normalized relations with China in 1991 and the United States in 1995.
Vietnam's modern demography consists of54 different ethnicities belonging to five major ethnolinguistic families:Austronesian,Austroasiatic,Hmong-Mien,Kra-Dai,Sino-Tibetan.[1] Among 54 groups, the majority ethnic group is theVietic-speakingKinh, alone comprising 85.32% of total population in the2019 census. The rest is made up of 53 other ethnic groups. Vietnam's ethnic mosaic results from the peopling process in which various peoples came and settled the territory, leading to the modern state of Vietnam by many stages, often separated by thousands of years over a duration of tens of thousands of years. Vietnam's entire history, thus, is an embroidery of polyethnicity.[1]
Early anatomically modern human settlement in mainland Southeast Asia dates back 65 to 10,5 kya (65,000 years ago), during theLate Pleistocene period.[1] Probably the foremost hunter-gatherers were theHoabinhians, a large group that gradually settled across Southeast Asia. As part of theInitial Upper Paleolithic wave, the Hoabinhians, along with theTianyuan man, are early members of the Ancient Basal East and Southeast Asian lineage deeply related to present-day East and Southeast Asians.[6][7]
An analysis of individuals from the Con Co Ngua site inThanh Hoa, Vietnam about 6.2 k cal BP, when restricted to Vietnamese comparisons, showed the closest distance to peoples from Mai Da Dieu, followed by present-day Vietnamese populations. Based on craniometric and dental nonmetric analysis, the Con Co Ngua individuals were phenotypically similar to Late Pleistocene Southeast Asians and modernMelanesians andAboriginal Australians.[8]
Human migration into Vietnam continued during theNeolithic period, characterized by movements ofAncient Southern East Asian populations that expanded from southern China into Vietnam and Southeast Asia. The earliest agricultural societies that cultivatedmillet andwet-rice emerged around 1700 BCE in the lowlands and river floodplains of Vietnam are associated with this Neolithic migration, indicated by the presences of majorpaternal lineages that are represented byEast Eurasian-affiliated Y-haplogroupsO,C2, andN.[9][10]
Starting from the third millennium BCE, rice farming-based agriculture spread from southern East Asia into Mainland and Insular Southeast Asia.[11] This technological spread was a result of the migration of East Asian agriculturalists that carriedAncient Southern East Asian ancestry. These Neolithic farmers took two routes: an inland route intoMainland Southeast Asia carried out byAustroasiatic speakers, and a maritime route that originated fromTaiwan byAustronesian speakers.[12][2][3]
In 2018, researchers conducted a genetic analysis on samples taken from two ancient burial sites innorthern Vietnam,Mán Bạc and Núi Nấp, dating from 1,800 BCE and 100 BCE, respectively. The individuals at Mán Bạc show a mix of East Asian farmer and East Eurasian hunter-gatherer ancestry, with close genetic affinity for modernAustroasiatic groups like theMlabri, theNicobarese, and theCambodians, while Nui Nap projects close to present-dayVietnamese andDai.[13] A 2018 study byGeorge van Driem et al. demonstrated that East Asian farmers intermixed with the native inhabitants and contrary to popular opinion, did not replace them. These farmers also shared ancestry with present-day Austroasiatic-speaking hill tribes themselves.[14]
TheCham people, who for over one thousand years settled incontrolled and civilized present-day central and southern coastal Vietnam from around the 2nd century AD, are of Austronesian origin. The southernmost sector of Vietnam, the Mekong Delta and its surroundings were, until the 18th century, of integral yet shifting significance within the AustroasiaticProto-Khmer – andKhmer principalities likeFunan,Chenla, theKhmer Empire and the Khmer kingdom.[15][16][17]
Situated on the southeast edge of monsoon Asia, much of ancient Vietnam enjoyed a combination of high rainfall, humidity, heat, favorable winds, and fertile soil. These natural sources combined to generate an unusually prolific growth of rice and other plants and wildlife. This region's agricultural villages held well over 90 percent of the population. The high volume of rainy season water required villagers to concentrate their labor in managing floods, transplanting rice, and harvesting. These activities produced a cohesive village life with a religion in which one of the core values was the desire to live in harmony with nature and with other people. The way of life, centered in harmony, featured many enjoyable aspects that the people held beloved, typified by not needing many material things, the enjoyment of music and poetry, and living in harmony with nature.[18]
Fishing and hunting supplemented the main rice crop. Arrowheads and spears were dipped in poison to kill larger animals such as elephants.Betel nuts were widely chewed and the lower classes rarely wore clothing more substantial than a loincloth. Every spring, a fertility festival was held which featured huge parties and sexual abandon.
TheRed River valley formed a natural geographic and economic unit, bounded to the north and west by mountains and jungles, to the east by the sea and to the south by theRed River Delta.[19] The need to have a single authority to prevent floods of the Red River, to cooperate in constructing hydraulic systems, trade exchange, and to repel invaders, led to the creation of the first legendary Vietnamesestates approximately 2879 BC. Ongoing research from archaeologists has suggested that the VietnameseĐông Sơn culture were traceable back to northern Vietnam,Guangxi andLaos around 1000 BC.[20][21][22]
Since around 2000 BC, stone hand tools and weapons improved extraordinarily in both quantity and variety. After this, Vietnam later became part of theMaritime Jade Road, which existed for 3,000 years between 2000 BC to 1000 AD.[23][24][25][26] Pottery reached a higher level of technique and decoration style. The early farming multilinguistic societies in Vietnam were mainly wet riceOryza cultivators, which became the main staple of their diet. During the later stage of the first half of the 2nd millennium BC, the first appearance of bronze tools took place despite these tools still being rare. By about 1000 BC, bronze replaced stone for about 40 percent of edged tools and weapons, rising to about 60 percent. Here, there were not only bronze weapons, axes, and personal ornaments, but also sickles and other agriculture tools. Toward the closure of the Bronze Age, bronze accounts for more than 90 percent of tools and weapons, and there are exceptionally extravagant graves – the burial places of powerful chieftains – containing some hundreds of ritual and personal bronze artifacts, such as musical instruments, bucket-shaped ladles, and ornament daggers. After 1000 BC, the ancient peoples of Vietnam became skilled agriculturalists as they grew rice and kept buffaloes and pigs. They were also skilled fishermen and bold sailors, whose long dug-out canoes traversed the eastern sea.
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According to a Vietnamese legend which first appeared in the 14th century bookLĩnh nam chích quái, the tribal chiefLộc Tục (c. 2919 – 2794 BC) proclaimed himself as Kinh Dương Vương and founded the state of Xích Quỷ in 2879 BC, that marks the beginning of theHồng Bàng dynastic period. However, modern Vietnamese historians assume, that statehood was only developed in theRed River Delta by the second half of 1st millennium BC. Kinh Dương Vương was succeeded bySùng Lãm (c. 2825 BC – 2525 BC). The next royal dynasty produced 18 monarchs, known as theHùng Kings, who renamed their countryVăn Lang.[27] The administrative system includes offices like military chief (lạc tướng), paladin (lạc hầu) and mandarin (bố chính).[28]Great numbers of metal weapons and tools excavated at various Phung Nguyen culture sites in northern Indochina are associated with the beginning of theCopper Age in Southeast Asia.[29] Furthermore, the beginning of theBronze Age has been verified for around 500 BC atĐông Sơn. Vietnamese historians usually attribute theĐông Sơn culture with the kingdoms ofVăn Lang,Âu Lạc, and theHồng Bàng dynasty. The localLạc Việt community had developed a highly sophisticated industry of quality bronze production, processing and the manufacturing of tools, weapons and exquisite Bronze drums. Certainly of symbolic value, they were intended to be used for religious or ceremonial purposes. The craftsmen of these objects required refined skills in melting techniques, in the lost-wax casting technique and acquired master skills of composition and execution for the elaborate engravings.[30][31]
The Legend ofThánh Gióng tells of a youth, who leads theVăn Lang kingdom to victory against the Ân invaders from the north, saves the country and goes straight to heaven.[32][33] He wears iron armor, rides an armored horse and wields an iron sword.[34] The image implies a society of a certain sophistication in metallurgy as well as An Dương Vương'sLegend of the Magic Crossbow, a weapon, that can fire thousands of bolts simultaneously, seems to hint at the extensive use of archery in warfare. The about 1,000 traditional craft villages of theHồng River Delta near and aroundHanoi represented throughout more than 2,000 years of Vietnamese history the national industrial and economic backbone.[35] Countless, mostly small family run manufacturers have over the centuries preserved their ethnic ideas by producing highly sophisticated goods, built temples and dedicated ceremonies and festivals in an unbroken culture of veneration for these legendary popular spirits.[36][37][38]
By the 3rd century BC, another Viet group, theÂu Việt, emigrated from modern-day southern China to the Hồng River delta and mixed with the indigenous Văn Lang population. In 257 BC, a new kingdom,Âu Lạc, emerged as the union of the Âu Việt and the Lạc Việt, with Thục Phán proclaiming himself "An Dương Vương" ("King An Dương"). Some modern Vietnamese believe that Thục Phán came upon theÂu Việt territory (modern-day northernmost Vietnam, westernGuangdong, and southern Guangxi province, with its capital in what is todayCao Bằng Province).[39]
In 207 BC, the formerQin generalZhao Tuo (Triệu Đà in Vietnamese) established an independent kingdom in the modern-dayGuangdong/Guangxi area of China's southern coast.[40] He proclaimed his new kingdom asNam Việt (pinyin: Nanyue), to be ruled by the Zhao dynasty.[40] Zhao Tuo later appointed himself a commandant of central Guangdong, closing the borders and conquering neighboring districts and titled himself "King of Nanyue".[40] In 179 BC, he defeated King An Dương Vương and annexed Âu Lạc.[41]
The period has been given some controversial conclusions by Vietnamese historians, as some considerZhao's rule as the starting point of the Chinese domination, since Zhao Tuo was a formerQin general; whereas others consider it still an era of Vietnamese independence as the Zhao family in Nanyue were assimilated into local culture.[42] They ruled independently of what then constituted theHan Empire. At one point, Zhao Tuo even declared himself Emperor, equal to the Han Emperor in the north.[40]
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In 111 BC, the ChineseHan dynasty conquered Nanyue and established its new territories, dividing Vietnam intoGiao Chỉ (pinyin: Jiaozhi), i.e. the Red River Delta;Cửu Chân fromThanh Hóa toHà Tĩnh; andNhật Nam (pinyin: Rinan), fromQuảng Bình toHuế. While governors and top officials were Chinese, the original Vietnamese nobles (Lạc Hầu, Lạc Tướng) from the Hồng Bàng period still managed in some of the highlands. During this period,Buddhism was introduced into Vietnam from India via theMaritime Silk Road, whileTaoism andConfucianism spread to Vietnam through the Chinese rulers.[43][44][45]
In February AD 40, theTrưng Sisters led asuccessful revolt against Han Governor Su Ding (Vietnamese: Tô Định) and recaptured 65 states (including modern Guangxi). Trưng Trắc, angered by the killing of her husband by Su Dung, led the revolt together with her sister, Trưng Nhị. Trưng Trắc later became the Queen (Trưng Nữ Vương). In 43 AD,Emperor Guangwu of Han sent his famous generalMa Yuan (Vietnamese: Mã Viện) with a large army to quell the revolt. After a long, difficult campaign, Ma Yuan suppressed the uprising and the Trung Sisters committed suicide to avoid capture. To this day, the Trưng Sisters are revered in Vietnam as the national symbol ofVietnamese women.[46]
Learning a lesson from the Trưng revolt, the Han and other successful Chinese dynasties took measures to eliminate the power of the Vietnamese nobles.[47] The Vietnamese elites were educated in Chinese culture and politics. During the end of theHan and beginning of theThree Kingdoms era, theGiao Chi prefectShi Xie professed allegiance to the emperor and thenWu—including sending a son as a hostage to ensure his loyalty—but is regarded by Vietnamese historiography has having been an autonomous warlord, posthumously deified by later Vietnamese monarchs.[48][49] According to Stephen O'Harrow, Shi Xie was essentially "the first Vietnamese".[50] Upon Shi's death, Wu ordered the separation of Guangzhou as a new province and the replacement of Shi's son as head of Giao Chi.Shi Hui rebelled but aimed for a peaceful resolution once the Wu army arrived. During negotiations, he and most of his brothers were executed and the remainder of his family demoted to common status. In 248 aYue woman,Triệu Thị Trinh (popularly known as Lady Triệu), led a revolt with her brother Triệu Quốc Đạt against the Wu Kingdom. Once again, the uprising failed. Eastern Wu sentLu Yin and 8,000 elite soldiers to suppress the rebels.[51] He managed to pacify the rebels with a combination of threats and persuasion. According to theĐại Việt sử ký toàn thư (Complete Annals of Đại Việt), Lady Triệu had long hair that reached her shoulders and rode into battle on an elephant. After several months of warfare she was defeated and committed suicide.[52] A more successful revolt occurred in the mid-260s when the county official Lü Xing (呂興) overthrew the rest of the Wu administration and reached out toWei's governor ofrecently conqueredShu. Wei and its successor stateJin held Giao Chi from 266 to 271, when Wu'sJiaozhi Campaign finally reconquered the area. It returned to Jin's control, however, following its complete annexation of Wu, ending the Three Kingdoms period.
At the same time, in present-dayCentral Vietnam, there was a successful revolt ofCham nations in 192. Chinese dynasties called it Lin-Yi (Lin village; Vietnamese:Lâm Ấp). It later became a powerful kingdom,Champa, stretching fromQuảng Bình to Phan Thiết (Bình Thuận). The Cham developed the firstnative writing system in Southeast Asia, oldest surviving literature of any Southeast Asian language, leading Buddhist, Hindu, and cultural expertise in the region.[53]
In the early first century AD, on the lowerMekong, the first Indianized kingdom of Southeast Asia which the Chinese called themFunan emerged and became the great economic power in the region, its prime cityÓc Eo attracted merchants and craftmen from China, India, and even Rome. The first ruler of Funan, QueenLiǔyè, got married withKaundinya, a man from the west with a magic bow. Kaundinya then became the ruler of Funan. Funan is said to be the first Khmer state, or Austronesian, or multiethnic. According to Chinese annals, the last king of Funan,Rudravarman (r. 514–545) sent many embassies to China. Also according to Chinese annals,Funan might have been conquered by another kingdom calledZhenla around AD 627, ending the kingdom of Funan.[54]
In the period between the beginning of the ChineseAge of Fragmentation and the end of theTang dynasty, several revolts against Chinese rule took place, such as those ofLý Bôn and his general and heirTriệu Quang Phục. All of them ultimately failed, yet most notable were those led by Lý Bôn and Triệu Quang Phục, who ruled the briefly independent Van Xuan kingdom for almost half a century, from 544 to 602, beforeSui Chinareconquered the kingdom.[55]
The ChamLâm Ấp kingdom, with capital located inSimhapura, became prosperous through benefiting from the ancient maritime trade routes from the Middle East to China. The wealthy of Lâm Ấp attracted attention from the Chinese Empire. In 605, emperor Yang Guang of theSui Empire ordered general Liu Fang, who had just reconquered and pacificed northern Vietnam, toinvade Lâm Ấp. The kingdom was quickly overwhelmed by the invaders who pillaged and looted Cham sanctuaries. Despite that, kingSambhuvarman of Lâm Ấp (r. 572–629) quickly reasserted his independence, beginning the unified period of Champa in 629.[56]
From the 7th to the 10th centuries, the Cham controlled the trade in spices and silk between China, India, the Indonesian islands, and theAbbasid empire inBaghdad. They supplemented their income from the trade routes not only by exporting ivory and aloe, but also by engaging in piracy and raiding. This period of prosperity and cultural flourishing is often referred to as the golden age of Champa.
In 875, a new Mahayana Buddhist monarch namedIndravarman II (r. 854–893) founded a new dynasty with Buddhism as state religion.[57] Indravarman II built a new capital city inIndrapura (modern-dayQuảng Nam) and a large Buddhist temple in Dong Duong. The dynasty of Indravarman II continued to rule until the late 10th century, when aVietnamese invasion in 982 murdered the ruling kingJaya Paramesvaravarman I (r. 972–982).[58] A Vietnamese usurper namedLưu Kế Tông took advance of unsettling situation and seized Indrapura in 983, declared himself the king of Champa in 986, disrupted the Cham kingdom. InVijaya (present-day Binh Dinh) from the south, a new Hindu dynasty was founded in 989 and relocated Cham capital to Vijaya in 1000.[59]
Champa and the emergingKhmer Empire hadwaged war on each other for three centuries, from the 10th to 13th century. The Khmer first invaded Champa in Kauthara (Khanh Hoa) in 950.[60] In 1080, they attacked Vijaya and central Champa. The Cham under Harivarman IV launched counteroffensive against the Cambodian and plundered temples across east of theMekong river. Tensions escalated during the next century.Suryavarman II of Khmer Empire invaded Champa in 1145 and 1149 after Cham ruler Indravarman refused to join with the Khmer campaign against the Vietnamese.[61] It was believed that Suryavarman II died during the war against Champa in 1150.[62] In 1177 Cham kingJaya Indravarman IV led a surprised attacked on Khmer capitalYasodharapura (Angkor) and defeated them at theBattle of Tonlé Sap.[63]
The new Cambodian ruler,Jayavarman VII, arose to power, repelled the Cham and began his conquest of Champa in 1190. He finally defeated the Cham in 1203 and put Champa under Khmer governance for 17 years. In 1220, as the Khmer voluntary withdraw from Champa, a Cham prince named Angsaraja proclaimedJaya Paramesvaravarman II of Champa and restored Cham independence.[64]
Champa expanded its commerce to the Philippines in the 1200s. TheHistory of Song notes that to the east of Champa through a two-day journey lay the country ofMa-i, at Mindoro, Philippines; while Pu-duan (Butuan) at Mindanao, need a seven-day journey, and there were mentions of Cham commercial activities in Butuan.[65] Butuan resented Champa commercial supremacy and their king, Rajah Kiling spearheaded a diplomatic rivalry for China trade against Champa hegemony.[66] Meanwhile, at the nation of the futureSultanate of Sulu which by then was still Hindu, there was a mass migration of men from Champa and they were locally known as Orang Dampuan, and they caused conflicts (which were then resolved) with the local Sulu people. They became the ancestors of the localYakan people.[67][68]
During the Tang dynasty, Vietnam was calledAnnam until AD 866. With its capital aroundBắc Ninh, Annam became a flourishing trading outpost, receiving goods from the southern seas. TheBook of the Later Han recorded that in 166 the first envoy from theRoman Empire to China arrived by this route, and merchants were soon to follow. The 3rd-centuryTales of Wei (Weilüe) mentioned a "water route" (the Red River) from Annam into what is now southernYunnan. From there, goods were taken over land to the rest of China via the regions of modernKunming andChengdu. The capital of Annam, Tống Bình orSongping (today Hanoi) was a major urbanized settlement in the southwest region of Tang Empire. From 858 to 864, disturbances in Annan gaveNanzhao, a Yunnan kingdom, opportunity to intervene the region, provoking local tribes to revolt against the Chinese. The Yunnanese and their local allies launched theSiege of Songping in early 863, defeating the Chinese, and captured the capital in three years. In 866, Chinese jiedushiGao Pian recaptured the city and drove out the Nanzhao army. He renamed the city to Daluocheng (大羅城,Đại La thành).
In 866, Annan was renamedTĩnh Hải quân. Early in the 10th century, as China became politically fragmented, successive lords from theKhúc clan, followed byDương Đình Nghệ, ruled Tĩnh Hải quân autonomously under theTang title ofJiedushi (Vietnamese: Tiết Độ Sứ), (governor), but stopped short of proclaiming themselves kings.
Since 905, Tĩnh Hải circuit had been ruled by local Vietnamese governors like an autonomous state.[69] Tĩnh Hải circuit had to paid tributes forLater Liang dynasty to exchange political protection.[70] In 923, the nearbySouthern Han invaded Jinghai but was repelled by Vietnamese leaderDương Đình Nghệ.[71] In 938, the Chinese state Southern Han once again sent a fleet to subdue the Vietnamese. GeneralNgô Quyền (r. 939–944), Dương Đình Nghệ's son-in-law, defeated the Southern Han fleet at theBattle of Bạch Đằng (938). He then proclaimed himself King Ngô, established a monarchy government inCổ Loa and effectively began the age of independence for Vietnam.
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The basic nature of Vietnamese society changed little during the nearly 1,000 years between independence from China in the 10th century and the French conquest in the 19th century. Viet Nam, named Đại Việt (Great Viet) was a stable nation, but village autonomy was a key feature. Villages had a unified culture centered around harmony related to the religion of the spirits of nature and the peaceful nature of Buddhism. While the sovereign was the ultimate source of political authority, a saying was, "The Sovereign's Laws end at the village gate". The sovereign was the final dispenser of justice, law, and supreme commander-in-chief of the armed forces, as well as overseer of religious rituals. Administration was carried out by mandarins who were trained exactly like their Chinese counterparts (i.e. by rigorous study of Confucian texts). Overall, Vietnam remained very efficiently and stably governed except in times of war and dynastic breakdown. Its administrative system was probably far more advanced than that of any other Southeast Asian states and was more highly centralized and stably governed among Asian states. No serious challenge to the sovereign's authority ever arose, as titles of nobility were bestowed purely as honors and were not hereditary. Periodic land reforms broke up large estates and ensured that powerful landowners could not emerge. No religious/priestly class ever arose outside of the mandarins either. This stagnant absolutism ensured a stable, well-ordered society, but also resistance to social, cultural, or technological innovations. Reformers looked only to the past for inspiration.[72]
Literacy remained the province of the upper classes. Originally, onlyChữ Hán was used to write, but by the 11th century, a set of derivative characters known asChữ Nôm emerged that allowed native Vietnamese words to be written. However, it remained limited to poetry, literature, and practical texts like medicine while all state and official documents were written inClassical Chinese. Aside from some mining and fishing, agriculture was the primary activity of most Vietnamese, and economic development and trade were not promoted or encouraged by the state.[73]
Ngô Quyền in 939 declared himself king, but died after only 6 years. His untimely death after a short reign resulted in a power struggle for the throne, resulting in the country's first major civil war, theupheaval of the Twelve Warlords (Loạn Thập Nhị Sứ Quân). The war lasted from 944 to 968, until the clan led byĐinh Bộ Lĩnh defeated the other warlords, unifying the country.[74] Đinh Bộ Lĩnh founded theĐinh dynasty in 968 and proclaimed himself Đinh Tiên Hoàng (Đinh the Majestic Emperor) and renamed the country fromTĩnh Hải quân toĐại Cồ Việt (literally "Great Viet"), with its capital in the city ofHoa Lư (Ninh Bình Province). In relations with China since Đinh Bộ Lĩnh, Vietnamese dynasties hadconsidered their leaders "kings" although they had still implicitly considered their leaders emperors.[75]
In 979, Emperor Đinh Tiên Hoàng and his crown princeĐinh Liễn were assassinated by Đỗ Thích, a government official, leaving his lone surviving son, the 6-year-oldĐinh Toàn, to assume the throne. Taking advantage of the situation,the Song dynasty invaded Đại Cồ Việt. Facing such a grave threat to national independence, the commander of the armed forces, (Thập Đạo Tướng Quân)Lê Hoàn took the throne, replaced the house of Đinh and established theAnterior Lê dynasty. A capable military tactician, Lê Hoan realized the risks of engaging the mighty Song troops head on; thus, he tricked the invading army into Chi Lăng Pass, then ambushed and killed their commander, quickly ending the threat to his young nation in 981. The Song dynasty withdrew their troops and Lê Hoàn was referred to in his realm as Emperor Đại Hành (Đại Hành Hoàng Đế).[76] Emperor Lê Đại Hành was also the first Vietnamese monarch who began the southward expansion process against the kingdom ofChampa.
Emperor Lê Đại Hành's death in 1005 resulted in infighting for the throne amongst his sons. The eventual winner,Lê Long Đĩnh, became the most notorious tyrant in Vietnamese history. He devised sadistic punishments of prisoners for his own entertainment and indulged in deviant sexual activities. Toward the end of his short life – he died at the age of 24 – Lê Long Đĩnh had become so ill, that he had to lie down when meeting with his officials in court.[77]
When the emperor Lê Long Đĩnh died in 1009, a palace guard commander namedLý Công Uẩn was nominated by the court to take over the throne, and founded theLý dynasty.[78][79] This event is regarded as the beginning of another golden era in Vietnamese history, with the following dynasties inheriting the Lý dynasty's prosperity and doing much to maintain and expand it. The way Lý Công Uẩn ascended to the throne was rather uncommon in Vietnamese history. As a high-ranking military commander residing in the capital, he had all opportunities to seize power during the tumultuous years after Emperor Lê Hoàn's death, yet preferring not to do so out of his sense of duty. He was in a way being "elected" by the court after some debate before a consensus was reached.[80]
The Lý monarchs are credited for laying down a concrete foundation for the nation of Vietnam. In 1010, Lý Công Uẩn issued theEdict on the Transfer of the Capital, moving the capital Đại Cồ Việt from Hoa Lư, a natural fortification surrounded by mountains and rivers, to the new capital, Đại La (Hanoi), which was later renamedThăng Long (Ascending Dragon) by Lý Công Uẩn, after allegedly seeing a dragon flying upwards when he arrived at the capital.[81][82] Moving the capital, Lý Công Uẩn thus departed from the militarily defensive mentality of his predecessors and envisioned a strong economy as the key to national survival. The third emperor of the dynasty, Lý Thánh Tông renamed the country "Đại Việt" (大越, Great Viet).[83] Successive Lý emperors continued to accomplish far-reaching feats: building a dike system to protect rice farms; founding theQuốc Tử Giám[84] the first noble university; and establishingcourt examination system to select capable commoners for government positions once every three years; organizing a new system of taxation;[85] establishing humane treatment of prisoners. Women were holding important roles in Lý society as the court ladies were in charge of tax collection. NeighboringDali kingdom'sVajrayana Buddhism traditions also had influences on Vietnamese beliefs at the time. Lý kings adopted bothBuddhism andTaoism as state religions.[86]
The Vietnamese during Lý dynasty had one major war withSong China, and a few invasive campaigns against neighboringChampa in the south.[87][88] The most notable conflict took place on Chinese territoryGuangxi in late 1075. Upon learning that a Song invasion was imminent, the Vietnamese army under the command ofLý Thường Kiệt, and Tông Đản usedamphibious operations to preemptively destroy three Song military installations atYongzhou, Qinzhou, and Lianzhou inGuangdong andGuangxi, and killed 100,000 Chinese.[89][90] The Song dynasty took revenge and invaded Đại Việt in 1076, but the Song troops were held back at theBattle of Như Nguyệt River commonly known as the Cầu river (Bắc Ninh) about 40 km from the current capital, Hanoi. Neither side was able to force a victory, so the Vietnamese court proposed a truce, which the Song emperor accepted.[91] Champa and the powerful Khmer Empire took advantage of Đại Việt's distraction with the Song to pillage Đại Việt's southern provinces. Together they invaded Đại Việt in 1128 and 1132.[92] Further invasions followed in the subsequent decades.[93]
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Toward the declining Lý monarch's power in the late 12th century, the Trần clan fromNam Định eventually rise to power.[94] In 1224, powerful court ministerTrần Thủ Độ forced the emperor Lý Huệ Tông to become a Buddhist monk andLý Chiêu Hoàng, Huệ Tông's 8-year-old young daughter, to become ruler of the country.[95] Trần Thủ Độ then arranged the marriage of Chiêu Hoàng to his nephewTrần Cảnh and eventually had the throne transferred to Trần Cảnh, thus begun theTrần dynasty.[96]
Trần Thủ Độ viciously purged members of the Lý nobility; some Lý princes escaped to Korea, includingLý Long Tường. After the purge, the Trần emperors ruled the country in similar manner to the Lý kings. Noted Trần monarch accomplishments include the creation of a system of population records based at the village level, the compilation of a formal 30-volume history of Đại Việt (Đại Việt Sử Ký) byLê Văn Hưu, and the rising in status of theNôm script, a system of writing for Vietnamese language. The Trần dynasty also adopted a unique way to train new emperors: when a crown prince reached the age of 18, his predecessor would abdicate and turn the throne over to him, yet holding the title of Retired Emperor (Thái Thượng Hoàng), acting as a mentor to the new Emperor.
During the Trần dynasty, the armies of theMongol Empire and the MongolYuan dynasty of China underMöngke Khan andKublai Khaninvaded Đại Việt in 1258, 1285, and 1287–88. Đại Việt repelled all attacks of the Yuan Mongols during the reign ofKublai Khan. Three Mongol armies said to have numbered from 300,000 to 500,000 men were defeated.[disputed –discuss] The key to Annam's successes was to avoid the Mongols' strength in open field battles and city sieges—the Trần courtabandoned the capital and the cities. The Mongols were then countered decisively at their weak points, which were battles in swampy areas such as Chương Dương, Hàm Tử, Vạn Kiếp and on rivers such as Vân Đồn and Bạch Đằng. The Mongols also suffered from tropical diseases and loss of supplies to Trần army's raids. The Yuan-Trần war reached its climax when the retreating Yuan fleet was decimated at theBattle of Bạch Đằng (1288). The military architect behind Annam's victories was Commander Trần Quốc Tuấn, more popularly known asTrần Hưng Đạo. To avoid further disastrous campaigns, the Tran and Champa acknowledged Mongol supremacy.[citation needed]
In 1288,Venetian explorerMarco Polo visited Champa and Đại Việt.It was also during this period that the Vietnamese waged war against the southern kingdom ofChampa, continuing the Vietnamese long history of southern expansion (known asNam tiến) that had begun shortly after gaining independence in the 10th century. Often, they encountered strong resistance from the Chams. After the successful alliance with Champa during the Mongol invasion, king Trần Nhân Tông of Đại Việt gained two Champa provinces, located around present-dayHuế, through the peaceful means of the political marriage of PrincessHuyền Trân to Cham kingJaya Simhavarman III. Not long after the nuptials, the king died, and the princess returned to her northern home to avoid a Cham custom that would have required her to join her husband in death.[97] Champa was made a tributary state of Vietnam in 1312, but ten years later they regained independence and eventually waged a 30-years long war against the Vietnamese, to regain these lands and encouraged by the decline of Đại Việt in the course of the 14th century. Cham troops led by kingChế Bồng Nga (Cham: Po Binasuor or Che Bonguar, r. 1360–1390) killed kingTrần Duệ Tông through a battle inVijaya (1377).[98] Multiple Cham northward invasions from 1371 to 1390 put Vietnamese capital Thăng Long and Vietnamese economy in destruction.[99] However, in 1390 the Cham naval offensive against Hanoi was halted by the Vietnamese generalTrần Khát Chân, whose soldiers made use of cannons.[100]
The wars with Champa and the Mongols left Đại Việt exhausted and bankrupt. The Trần family was in turn overthrown by one of its own court officials,Hồ Quý Ly. Hồ Quý Ly forced the last Trần emperor to abdicate and assumed the throne in 1400. He changed the country name toĐại Ngu and moved the capital toTây Đô, Western Capital (Thanh Hóa). Thăng Long was renamed Đông Đô, Eastern Capital. Although widely blamed for causing national disunity and losing the country later to theMing Empire, Hồ Quý Ly's reign actually introduced a lot of progressive, ambitious reforms, including the addition of mathematics to the national examinations, the open critique ofConfucian philosophy, the use of paper currency in place of coins, investment in building large warships and cannons, and land reform. He ceded the throne to his son, Hồ Hán Thương, in 1401 and assumed the title Thái Thượng Hoàng, in similar manner to the Trần kings.[101]
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After having been restored from Khmer domination in 1220, Champa continued to face another counter-power from the north. After their invasion of 982, the Vietnamese had been pushing war against Champa in 1020, 1044, and 1069, plundered Cham capital. In 1252 kingTran Thai Tong of the new dynasty of Dai Viet led an incursion into Cham territories, captured many Cham concubines and women. This might be the reason for the death of Jaya Paramesvaravarman II as he died in the same year. His younger brother, Prince Harideva of Sakanvijaya, was crowned asJaya Indravarman VI (r. 1252–1257). The new king was however assassinated by his nephew in 1257, who becameIndravarman V (r. 1257–1288).[102]
The new Mongol Yuan threat soon dragged two hostile kingdoms Champa and Dai Viet close together. The Yuan emperor Kublai demanded Cham submission in 1278 and 1280, both refused. In early 1283 Kublai sent a sea expedition led by Sogetu to invade Champa. The Cham retreated to the mountains, successfully waged a guerrilla resistance that bogged down the Mongols.[103] Sogetu was driven to the north, and later killed by joint Cham–Vietnamese forces in June 1285. Although having repulsed the Mongol yokes, the Cham king sent an ambassador to the great Khan in October 1285.[104] His successor,Jaya Simhavarman III (r. 1288–1307), married with a Vietnamese Queen (daughter of the ruling Vietnamese king) in 1306, and Dai Viet acquired two northern provinces.[105]
In 1307 the new Cham kingSimhavarman IV (r. 1307–1312), set out to retake the two provinces to protest against the Vietnamese agreement but was defeated and taken as a prisoner. Champa thus became a Vietnamese vassal state.[106] The Cham revolted in 1318. In 1326 they managed to defeat the Vietnamese and reasserted independence.[107] Royal upheaval within the Cham court resumed until 1360, when a strong Cham king was enthroned, known asPo Binasuor (r. 1360–90). During his thirty-year reign, Champa gained itsmomentum peak. Po Binasuor annihilated the Vietnamese invaders in 1377, ransacked Hanoi in 1371, 1378, 1379, and 1383, nearly had united all Vietnam for the first time by the 1380s.[108] During a naval battle in early 1390, the Cham conqueror however was killed by Vietnamese firearm units, thus ending the short-lived rising period of the Cham kingdom.[109] During the next decades, Champa returned to its status quo of peace. After much warfare and dismal conflicts, kingIndravarman VI (r. 1400–41) reestablished relations with the second kingdom of Dai Viet's rulerLe Loi in 1428.[109]
The Islamization of Champa began in the 8th century to 11th century, being faster proselytized during the 14th and 15th centuries.Ibn Battuta during his visit to Champa in 1340, described a princess who met him, spoke in Turkish, was literate in Arabic, and wrote out the bismillah in the presence of the visitor.[107] Islam further got more popular in Cham society after the fall of Champa in 1471.[110] After the death of Indravarman VI, succession disputes escalated into civil war between Cham princes, weakening the kingdom. The Vietnamese took advantage, raided Vijaya in 1446. In 1471 Dai Viet kingLe Thanh Tong conquered Champa, killed 60,000 people, and took away 30,000 prisoners included the Cham king and the royal family. Champa was reduced to the rump state ofPanduranga, which persisted to exist until being fully absorbed in 1832 by theVietnamese Empire.[110]
In 1407, under the pretext of helping to restore the Trần monarchs, ChineseMing troopsinvaded Đại Ngu and capturedHồ Quý Ly andHồ Hán Thương.[111] TheHồ family came to an end after only 7 years in power. The Ming occupying force annexed Đại Ngu into the Ming Empire after claiming that there was no heir to the Trần throne. Vietnam, weakened by dynastic feuds and the wars with Champa, quickly succumbed. The Ming conquest was harsh. Vietnam was annexed directly asa province of China, the old policy of cultural assimilation again imposed forcibly, and the country was ruthlessly exploited.[112] However, by this time, Vietnamese nationalism had reached a point where attempts to sinicize them could only strengthen further resistance. Almost immediately,Trần loyalists started a resistance war. The resistance, under the leadership ofTrần Quý Khoáng at first gained some advances, yet as Trần Quý Khoáng executed two top commanders out of suspicion, a rift widened within his ranks and resulted in his defeat in 1413.[113]
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In 1418,Lê Lợi was the son of a wealthy aristocrat inThanh Hóa, led theLam Sơn uprising against the Ming from his base of Lam Sơn (Thanh Hóa). Overcoming many early setbacks and with strategic advice fromNguyễn Trãi, Lê Lợi's movement finally gathered momentum. In September 1426, the Lam Sơn rebellion marched northward, ultimately defeated the Ming army in theBattle of Tốt Động – Chúc Động in south of Hanoi by using cannons.[114] Then Lê Lợi's forces launched a siege at Đông Quan (Hanoi), the capital of the Ming occupation. TheXuande Emperor of Ming China responded by sent two reinforcement forces of 122,000 men, but Lê Lợi staged an ambush and killed the Ming commander Liu Shan inChi Lăng.[113] Ming troops at Đông Quan surrendered. The Lam Sơn rebels defeated 200,000 Ming soldiers.[115]
In April 1428, Lê Lợi reestablished the independent of Vietnam under hisLê dynasty. Lê Lợi renamed the country back toĐại Việt and moved the capital back toThăng Long, renamed itĐông Kinh.
The Lê kings carried out land reforms to revitalize the economy after the war. Unlike the Lý and Trần kings, who were more influenced by Buddhism, the Lê kings leaned towardConfucianism. A comprehensive set of laws, theHồng Đức code was introduced in 1483 with some strong Confucian elements, yet also included some progressive rules, such as the rights of women. Art and architecture during the Lê dynasty also became more influenced byChinese styles than during previous Lý and Trần dynasties. The Lê dynasty commissioned the drawing of national maps and hadNgô Sĩ Liên continue the task of writing Đại Việt's history up to the time of Lê Lợi.
Overpopulation and land shortages stimulated a Vietnamese expansion south. In 1471, Đại Việt troops led by king Lê Thánh Tông invadedChampa andcaptured its capitalVijaya. This event effectively ended Champa as a powerful kingdom, although some smaller surviving Cham states lasted for a few centuries more. It initiated the dispersal of theCham people across Southeast Asia. With the kingdom of Champa mostly destroyed and the Cham people exiled or suppressed, Vietnamese colonization of what is now central Vietnam proceeded without substantial resistance. However, despite becoming greatly outnumbered by Vietnamese settlers and the integration of formerly Cham territory into the Vietnamese nation, the majority of Cham people nevertheless remained in Vietnam and they are now considered one of the key minorities in modern Vietnam. Vietnamese armies also raided the Mekong Delta, which the decaying Khmer Empire could no longer defend. The city ofHuế, founded in 1600 lies close to where the Champa capital of Indrapura once stood. In 1479, Lê Thánh Tông also campaigned againstLaos in theVietnamese–Lao War and captured its capitalLuang Prabang, in which later the city was totally ransacked and destroyed by the Vietnamese. He made further incursions westwards into theIrrawaddy River region in modern-day Burma before withdrawing. After the death of Lê Thánh Tông, Đại Việt fell into a swift decline (1497–1527), with 6 rulers in within 30 years of failing economy, natural disasters and rebellions raged through the country. European traders and missionaries, reaching Vietnam in the midst of theAge of Discovery, were at firstPortuguese, and started spreading Christianity since 1533.[116]
The Lê dynasty was overthrown by its general namedMạc Đăng Dung in 1527. He killed the Lê emperor and proclaimed himself emperor, starting theMạc dynasty. After defeating many revolutions for two years, Mạc Đăng Dung adopted the Trần dynasty's practice and ceded the throne to his son, Mạc Đăng Doanh, and he became Thái Thượng Hoàng.
Meanwhile,Nguyễn Kim, a former official in the Lê court, revolted against the Mạc and helped king Lê Trang Tông restore the Lê court in theThanh Hóa area. Thus a civil war began between the Northern Court (Mạc) and the Southern Court (Restored Lê). Nguyễn Kim's side controlled the southern part of Annam (from Thanhhoa to the south), leaving the north (including Đông Kinh-Hanoi) under Mạc control.[117] When Nguyễn Kim was assassinated in 1545, military power fell into the hands of his son-in-law,Trịnh Kiểm. In 1558, Nguyễn Kim's son,Nguyễn Hoàng, suspecting that Trịnh Kiểm might kill him as he had done to his brother to secure power, asked to be governor of the far south provinces around present-dayQuảng Bình toBình Định. Hoàng pretended to be insane, so Kiểm was fooled into thinking that sending Hoàng south was a good move as Hoàng would be quickly killed in the lawless border regions.[118] However, Hoàng governed the south effectively while Trịnh Kiểm, and then his son Trịnh Tùng, carried on the war against the Mạc. Nguyễn Hoàng sent money and soldiers north to help the war but gradually he became more and more independent, transforming their realm's economic fortunes by turning it into an international trading post.[118]
The civil war between the Lê-Trịnh and Mạc dynasties ended in 1592, when the army ofTrịnh Tùng conqueredHanoi and executed king Mạc Mậu Hợp. Survivors of the Mạc royal family fled to the northern mountains in the province ofCao Bằng and continued to rule there until 1677 whenTrịnh Tạc conquered this last Mạc territory. The Lê monarchs, ever since Nguyễn Kim's restoration, only acted as figureheads. After the fall of the Mạc dynasty, all real power in the north belonged to theTrịnh lords. Meanwhile, the Ming court reluctantly decided on a military intervention into the Vietnamese civil war, but Mạc Đăng Dung offered ritual submission to the Ming Empire, which was accepted. Since the late 16th century, trades and contacts between Japan and Vietnam increased as they established relationship in 1591.[119] TheTokugawa Shogunate of Japan and governorNguyễn Hoàng of Quảng Nam exchanged total 34 letters from 1589 to 1612, and a Japanese town was established in the city of Hội An in 1604.[119]
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In the year 1600, Nguyễn Hoàng also declared himself Lord (officially "Vương", popularly "Chúa") and refused to send more money or soldiers to help the Trịnh. He also moved his capital to Phú Xuân, modern-dayHuế. Nguyễn Hoàng died in 1613 after having ruled the south for 55 years. He was succeeded by his 6th son,Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên, who likewise refused to acknowledge the power of the Trịnh, yet still pledged allegiance to the Lê monarch.[120]
Trịnh Tráng succeeded Trịnh Tùng, his father, upon his death in 1623. Tráng ordered Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên to submit to his authority. The order was refused twice. In 1627, Trịnh Tráng sent 150,000 troops southward in an unsuccessful military campaign. The Trịnh were much stronger, with a larger population, economy and army, but they were unable to vanquish the Nguyễn, who had built two defensive stone walls and invested in Portuguese artillery.
TheTrịnh–Nguyễn War lasted from 1627 until 1672. The Trịnh army staged at least seven offensives, all of which failed to capture Phú Xuân. For a time, starting in 1651, the Nguyễn themselves went on the offensive and attacked parts of Trịnh territory. However, the Trịnh, under a new leader,Trịnh Tạc, forced the Nguyễn back by 1655. After one last offensive in 1672, Trịnh Tạc agreed to a truce with the Nguyễn LordNguyễn Phúc Tần.
As such, between 1600 and 1775, the two powerful families partitioned the country: the Nguyễn lords ruledĐàng Trong (the South), while the Trịnh lords controlled theĐàng Ngoài (the North).
The West's exposure to Annam and Annamese exposure to Westerners dated back to 166 AD[121] with the arrival of merchants from theRoman Empire, to 1292 with the visit ofMarco Polo, and the early 16th century with the arrival of Portuguese in 1516 and other European traders and missionaries.[121]Jesuits in the 17th century established a solid foundation of Christianity in both domains ofĐàng Ngoài (Tonkin) andĐàng Trong (Cochinchina).[122]Alexandre de Rhodes, a missionary from the Papal States, improved on earlier work by Portuguese missionaries and developed the Vietnamese Romanized alphabetchữ Quốc ngữ inDictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum in 1651.[123] The Nôm works ofGirolamo Maiorica are considered a milestone in the history of Vietnamese literature.[124] For over two hundred years, the majority of Christian works in Vietnam were produced inchữ Nôm.[125] The missionaries, primarily from Portugal, Italy, and Japan, played a key role in spreading the new faith. After four decades, the Jesuits were joined by theParis Foreign Missions Society (MEP),Dominicans,Discalced Augustinians, andFranciscans from variousRomance-speaking countries. By the end of the 18th century,Catholicism had become a firmly rooted part of Vietnam's spiritual and social landscape, particularly in Đàng Ngoài.[126] In the Đàng Trong court, many missionaries held official roles as royal physicians, mathematicians, and astronomers, valued for their scientific knowledge.[127][128]
Various European efforts to establish trading posts in Vietnam failed, but missionaries were allowed to operate for some time until the mandarins began concluding that Christianity (which had succeeded in converting up to a tenth of the population by 1700) was a threat to the Confucian social order since it condemned ancestor worship, among other practices. Vietnamese authorities' attitudes to Europeans and Christianity hardened as they began to increasingly see it as a way of undermining society while Catholics claimed that the authorities misunderstood their loyalism and patriotism.[129]
TheTrịnh–Nguyễn War gave European traders the opportunities to support each side with weapons and technology: the Portuguese assisted the Nguyễn in the South while the Dutch helped the Trịnh in the North. The Trịnh and the Nguyễn maintained a relative peace for the next hundred years, during which both sides made significant accomplishments. The Trịnh created centralized government offices in charge of state budget and producing currency, unified the weight units into a decimal system, established printing shops to reduce the need to import printed materials from China, opened a military academy, and compiled history books.
Meanwhile, the Nguyễn lords continued the southward expansion by the conquest of the remainingCham land. Việt settlers also arrived in the sparsely populated area known as "Water Chenla", which was the lowerMekong Delta portion of the formerKhmer Empire. Between the mid-17th century to the mid-18th century, as the former Khmer Empire was weakened by internal strife and Siamese invasions, the Nguyễn Lords used various means, political marriage, diplomatic pressure, political and military favors, to gain the area around present-daySaigon and the Mekong Delta. The Nguyễn army at times also clashed with theSiamese army to establish influence over the former Khmer Empire.
In 1771, theTây Sơn revolution broke out inQuy Nhon, which was under the control of the Nguyễn lord.[130] The leaders of this revolution were three brothers namedNguyễn Nhạc,Nguyễn Lữ, andNguyễn Huệ, not related to the Nguyễn lord's family. In 1773, Tây Sơn rebels took Quy Nhon as the capital of the revolution. Tây Sơn brothers' forces attracted many poor peasants, workers, Christians, ethnic minorities in theCentral Highlands andCham people who had been oppressed by the Nguyễn Lord for a long time,[131] and also attracted toethnic Chinese merchant class, who hope the Tây Sơn revolt will spare down the heavy tax policy of the Nguyễn Lord, however their contributions later were limited due to Tây Sơn's nationalistanti-Chinese sentiment.[130] By 1776, the Tây Sơn had occupied all of the Nguyễn Lord's land and killed almost the entire royal family. The surviving princeNguyễn Phúc Ánh (often called Nguyễn Ánh) fled toSiam, and obtained military support from the Siamese king. Nguyễn Ánh came back with 50,000 Siamese troops to regain power, but was defeated at theBattle of Rạch Gầm–Xoài Mút and almost killed. Nguyễn Ánh fled Vietnam, but he did not give up.[132]
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The Tây Sơn army commanded by Nguyễn Huệ marched north in 1786 to fight the Trịnh Lord,Trịnh Khải. The Trịnh army failed and Trịnh Khải committed suicide. The Tây Sơn army captured the capital in less than two months. The last Lê emperor,Lê Chiêu Thống, fled toQing China andpetitioned theQianlong Emperor in 1788 for help. The Qianlong Emperor supplied Lê Chiêu Thống with a massive army of around 200,000 troops to regain his throne from the usurper. In December 1788, Nguyễn Huệ–the third Tây Sơn brother–proclaimed himself EmperorQuang Trung and defeated the Qing troops with 100,000 men in a surprise 7-day campaign during the lunar new year (Tết). There was even a rumor saying that Quang Trung had also planned to conquer China, although it was unclear. During his reign, Quang Trung envisioned many reforms but died by unknown reason on the way march south in 1792, at the age of 40. During the reign of Emperor Quang Trung, Đại Việt was in fact divided into three political entities.[133] The Tây Sơn leader,Nguyễn Nhạc, ruled the centre of the country from his capitalQui Nhơn. Emperor Quang Trung ruled the north from the capital Phú XuânHuế. In the South, he officially funded and trained thePirates of the South China Coast – one of the most strongest and feared pirate army in the world late 18th century – early 19th century.[134] Nguyễn Ánh, assisted by many talented recruits from the South, capturedGia Định (Saigon) in 1788 and established a strong base for his force.[135]
In 1784, during the conflict betweenNguyễn Ánh, the surviving heir of the Nguyễn lords, and theTây Sơn dynasty, a French Roman Catholic prelate,Pigneaux de Behaine, sailed to France to seek military backing for Nguyễn Ánh. AtLouis XVI's court, Pigneaux brokered the Little Treaty of Versailles which promised French military aid in exchange for Vietnamese concessions. However, because of theFrench Revolution, Pigneaux's plan failed to materialize. He went to the French territory ofPondichéry (India), and secured two ships, a regiment of Indian troops, and a handful of volunteers and returned to Vietnam in 1788. One of Pigneaux's volunteers,Jean-Marie Dayot, reorganized Nguyễn Ánh's navy along European lines and defeated the Tây Sơn atQuy Nhon in 1792. A few years later, Nguyễn Ánh's forces capturedSaigon, where Pigneaux died in 1799. Another volunteer,Victor Olivier de Puymanel would later build theGia Định fort in central Saigon.[citation needed]
After Quang Trung's death in September 1792, the Tây Sơn court became unstable as the remaining brothers fought against each other and against the people who were loyal toNguyễn Huệ's young son. Quang Trung's 10-years-old sonNguyễn Quang Toản succeeded the throne, becameCảnh Thịnh Emperor, the third ruler of the Tây Sơn dynasty. In the South, lordNguyễn Ánh and the Nguyễn royalists were assisted with French, Chinese, Siamese and Christian supports, sailed north in 1799, capturing Tây Sơn's stronghold Quy Nhon.[137] In 1801, his force tookPhú Xuân, the Tây Sơn capital. Nguyễn Ánh finally won the war in 1802, when he sieged Thăng Long (Hanoi) and executedNguyễn Quang Toản, along with many Tây Sơn royals, generals and officials. Nguyễn Ánh ascended the throne and called himself EmperorGia Long. Gia is forGia Định, the old name of Saigon; Long is for Thăng Long, the old name ofHanoi. Hence Gia Long implied the unification of the country. TheNguyễn dynasty lasted untilBảo Đại's abdication in 1945. As China for centuries had referred to Đại Việt asAnnam, Gia Long asked the Manchu Qing emperor to rename the country, from Annam to Nam Việt. To prevent any confusion of Gia Long's kingdom withTriệu Đà's ancient kingdom, the Manchu emperor reversed the order of the two words to Việt Nam. The name Vietnam is thus known to be used since Emperor Gia Long's reign. Recently historians have found that this name had existed in older books in which Vietnamese referred to their country as Vietnam.[citation needed][when?]
The Period of Division with its many tragedies and dramatic historical developments inspired many poets and gave rise to some Vietnamese masterpieces in verse, including the epic poemThe Tale of Kiều (Truyện Kiều) byNguyễn Du,Song of a Soldier's Wife (Chinh Phụ Ngâm) by Đặng Trần Côn and Đoàn Thị Điểm, and a collection of satirical, erotically charged poems by a female poet,Hồ Xuân Hương.
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After defeating the Tây Sơn,Gia Long unified Vietnam under theNguyễn dynasty in 1802.[138] The early Nguyễn emperors had engaged in many of the constructive activities of its predecessors, building roads, digging canals, issuing a legal code, holding examinations, sponsoring care facilities for the sick, compiling maps and history books, and exerting influence over Cambodia and Laos.
Gia Long tolerated Catholicism and employed some Europeans in his court as advisors. His successors were more conservative Confucians and resisted Westernization.Minh Mạng began centralizing his authority according to neo-Confucian principles and sought to neutralize Catholic influence.[139] Minh Mạng, as well as the succeeding Nguyễn emperorsThiệu Trị andTự Đức, brutally suppressed Catholicism and pursued a 'closed-door' policy, perceiving the Westerners as a threat, following events such as theLê Văn Khôi revolt when a French missionary,Joseph Marchand, was accused of encouraging local Catholics to revolt in an attempt to install a Catholic emperor. Catholics, both Vietnamese and foreign-born, were persecuted in retaliation. There were frequent uprisings against the Nguyễns, with hundreds of such events being recorded in the annals. Trade with the West slowed during this period. The persecution of Catholics and the imposition of trade embargoes were soon used as excuses for France to invade Vietnam.
According to a 2018 study in theJournal of Conflict Resolution covering Vietnam-China relations from 1365 to 1841, the relations could be characterized as a "hierarchic tributary system".[140] The study found that "the Vietnamese court explicitly recognized its unequal status in its relations with China through a number of institutions and norms. Vietnamese rulers also displayed very little military attention to their relations with China. Rather, Vietnamese leaders were clearly more concerned with quelling chronic domestic instability and managing relations with kingdoms to their south and west."[140]
TheFrench colonial empire was heavily involved in Vietnam in the 19th century; often French intervention was undertaken to protect the work of theParis Foreign Missions Society in the country. In response to many incidents in which Catholic missionaries were persecuted, harassed and in some cases executed, and also to expand French influence in Asia,Napoleon III orderedCharles Rigault de Genouilly with 14 French gunships to attack the port ofĐà Nẵng (Tourane) in 1858. The attack caused significant damage, yet failed to gain any foothold, in the process being afflicted by the humidity and tropical diseases. De Genouilly decided to sail south and captured the poorly defended city ofGia Định (Saigon). From 1859 during theSiege of Saigon to 1867, French colonial troops expanded their control over all six provinces on the Mekong delta and formed a colony known asCochinchina.
A few years later, French troops landed inNorthern Vietnam (which they calledTonkin) and capturedHà Nội twice in 1873 and 1882. The French managed to keep their grip on Tonkin although, twice, their top commandersFrancis Garnier andHenri Rivière, were ambushed and killed fighting pirates of theBlack Flag Army hired by the mandarins. The Nguyễn dynasty surrendered to France via theTreaty of Huế (1883), marking the colonial era (1883–1954) in the history of Vietnam. France assumed control over the whole of Vietnam after theTonkin Campaign (1883–1886).French Indochina was formed in October 1887 fromAnnam (Trung Kỳ, central Vietnam), Tonkin (Bắc Kỳ, northern Vietnam) and Cochinchina (Nam Kỳ, southern Vietnam), with Cambodia and Laos added in 1893. Within French Indochina, Cochinchina had the status of a colony, Annam and Tonkin were nominally two Frenchprotectorates where the Nguyễn dynasty stillde jure ruled.
After the VietnameseNguyễn dynasty lost Gia Định, the island ofPoulo Condor, and three southern provinces to France with theTreaty of Saigon signed between the Nguyễn dynasty, Spain, and France in 1862, manyresistance movements in the south refused to recognize the treaty and continued to fight the French, some led by former court officers, such asTrương Định, some by farmers and other rural people, such asNguyễn Trung Trực, who sank the French gunship L'Esperance using guerilla tactics. In the north, most movements were led by former court officers, and fighters were from the rural population. Sentiment against the invasion ran deep in the countryside—well over 90 percent of the population—because the French seized and exported most of the rice, creating widespread malnutrition from the 1880s onward. And, an ancient tradition existed of repelling all invaders. These were two reasons that the vast majority opposed the French invasion.[141][142] However, Vietnam still became two protectorates ruled by France in1883, confirmed by theTreaty of Huế (1884).[143]
Some of the resistance movements lasted decades, withPhan Đình Phùng fighting in Central Vietnam until 1896, and in the northern mountains, former bandit leader Hoàng Hoa Thám fought until 1911. Even the teenage Nguyễn EmperorHàm Nghi left the Imperial Palace of Huế in 1885 with regentTôn Thất Thuyết and started theCần Vương ("Save the King") movement, trying to rally the people to resist the French. He was captured in November 1888 and exiled toFrench Algeria.
In Cambodia, which was also part of Indochina like Vietnam, the French restored the Kingdom of Cambodia as aProtectorate from its previous invader,Thailand,[144] which had invaded and devastated the country. This act also fulfilled a past promise by Spanish-Philippines to restore Cambodia,[145]a promise that was ultimately realized by the French and Vietnamese,[146] and both peoples being mostly Catholics. In 1887, Vietnamese protectorates and Cochinchina colony became parts of theFrench Indochinese Federation.
Guerrillas of theVăn Thân movement andCần Vương movement killed around a third of Vietnam's Christian population during the resistance war.[147] Decades later, two more Nguyễn emperors,Thành Thái andDuy Tân were also exiled to Africa for having anti-French tendencies. The former was deposed on the pretext of insanity and Duy Tân was caught in a conspiracy with the mandarinTrần Cao Vân trying to start an uprising. However, lack of modern weapons and equipment prevented these resistance movements from being able to engage the French in open combat. The various anti-French started by mandarins were carried out with the primary goal of restoring the old feudal society. However, by 1900 a new generation of Vietnamese were coming of age who had never lived in precolonial Vietnam. These young activists were as eager as their grandparents to see independence restored, but they realized that returning to the feudal order was not feasible and that modern technology and governmental systems were needed. Having been exposed to Western philosophy, they aimed to establish a republic upon independence, departing from the royalist sentiments of the Cần Vương movements. Some of them set up Vietnamese independence societies in Japan, which many viewed as a model society (i.e. an Asian nation that had modernized, but retained its own culture and institutions).[citation needed]
There emerged two parallel movements of modernization. The first was theĐông Du ("Travel to the East") Movement started in 1905 byPhan Bội Châu. Châu's plan was to send Vietnamese students to theEmpire of Japan to learn modern skills, so that in the future they could lead a successful armed revolt against the French. With PrinceCường Để, he started two organizations in Japan:Duy Tân Hội andViệt Nam Công Hiến Hội. Due to French diplomatic pressure, Japan later deported Châu.Phan Châu Trinh, who favored a peaceful, non-violent struggle to gain independence, led a second movement,Duy Tân Movement (vi., "Modernization"), which stressed education for the masses, modernizing the country, developing economy, fostering understanding and tolerance between the French and the Vietnamese, and peaceful transitions of power.[148][149] In 1907, he and associatesLương Văn Can,Nguyễn Quyền opened a patriotic modern school in Hanoi for young Vietnamese men and women. The school was calledTonkin Free School (Vietnamese:Đông Kinh Nghĩa Thục), used new translated books likeKang Youwei'sDatong Shu andLiang Qichao'sIce-Drinker's studio Collection (Vietnamese:Lương Khải Siêu – Đại đồng Thư, Khang Hữu Vi – Ẩm Băng thất Tùng thư) . He was a lecturer at the school, and Sào Nam's writings were also used. Lương Văn Can was the headteacher, Nguyễn Quyền was the school supervisor.Nguyễn Văn Vĩnh,Phạm Duy Tốn were responsible for applying for the open license of school. The purpose ofĐông Kinh Nghĩa Thục is "broaden the people's mind without taking money". Its ideas attacked the brutality of the French occupation of Vietnam, but also wanted to learn modernisation from the French. The school required scholars to renounce their elitist traditions and learn from the masses. It also offered the peasants a modern education.[150] The early part of the 20th century saw the growing in status of the RomanizedQuốc Ngữ alphabet for the Vietnamese language. Vietnamese patriots realized the potential ofQuốc Ngữ as a useful tool to quickly reduce illiteracy and to educate the masses. The traditional Chinese scripts or theNôm script were seen as too cumbersome and too difficult to learn. The use of prose in literature also became popular with the appearance of many novels; most famous were those from theTự Lực Văn Đoàn literary circle.[citation needed]
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As the French suppressed both movements, and after witnessing revolutionaries in action in China and Russia, Vietnamese revolutionaries began to turn to more radical paths. Phan Bội Châu created theViệt Nam Quang Phục Hội inGuangzhou, planning armed resistance against the French. In 1925, French agents captured him in Shanghai and spirited him to Vietnam. Due to his popularity, Châu was spared from execution and placed under house arrest until his death in 1940. In 1927, theViệt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng (Vietnamese Nationalist Party or VNQDĐ), modeled after theKuomintang in China, was founded, and the party launched the armedYên Bái mutiny in 1930 in Tonkin which resulted in its chairman,Nguyễn Thái Học and many other leaders captured and executed by the guillotine.[151][152]
Marxism was also introduced into Vietnam with the emergence of three separateCommunist parties; the Indochinese Communist Party, Annamese Communist Party and the Indochinese Communist Union, joined later by aTrotskyist movement led byTạ Thu Thâu. In 1930, theCommunist International (Comintern) sentNguyễn Ái Quốc to Hong Kong to coordinate the unification of the parties into theVietnamese Communist Party (CPV) with Trần Phú as the first Secretary General. Later the party changed its name to the Indochinese Communist Party as the Comintern, underStalin, did not favor nationalistic sentiments. Being a leftist revolutionary living in France since 1911, Nguyễn Ái Quốc (Ho Chi Minh) participated in founding theFrench Communist Party and in 1924 traveled to the Soviet Union to join the Comintern. Through the late 1920s, he acted as a Comintern agent to help build Communist movements in Southeast Asia. The communists rebelled with the 1930–31Nghệ-Tĩnh Soviets and1940 Cochinchina uprising against the French colonialists, but failed.
DuringWorld War II, the Japanese armyinvaded Indochina in September 1940, keeping theVichy French colonial administration in place as a puppet.[153] In 1941Ho Chi Minh arrived in northern Vietnam to form theViet Minh Front. Although it was supposed to be an umbrella group for all elements fighting for Vietnam's independence and democratic republic, it wasde facto dominated by theCommunist Party.[154] The Viet Minh had a modest armed force and during the war worked with the AmericanOffice of Strategic Services (OSS) to collect intelligence on the Japanese.
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On 9 March 1945, the Japanese removed Vichy France's control of Indochina. Under Japanese military occupation, emperorBảo Đại declared the short-livedEmpire of Vietnam withTrần Trọng Kim as the Prime Minister. Afamine broke out in 1944–45, leaving from 600,000 to 2,000,000 dead.[155][156]
Japan's defeat by theWorld War II Allies created apower vacuum for Vietnamese nationalists of all parties toseize power in August 1945, forcing EmperorBảo Đại to abdicate and ending theNguyễn dynasty on 25 August. On 2 September 1945,Ho Chi Minh of thecommunist Viet Minh read theProclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in Ba Đình flower garden, now known asBa Đình square, officially creating theDemocratic Republic of Vietnam.
On 2 September 1945, communist leaderHo Chi Minh proclaimed theDemocratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in Hanoi and held the position of chairman (Chủ tịch). On the same day, Japan signed atreaty to officially surrender to the Allies, leading to the official end ofWorld War II. The rule of the Viet Minh led by Hồ over all of Vietnam was ended 21 days later, however, by Franco-British military forcesattacking them south of the 16th parallel. The French colonialists tried to regain power in Vietnam while the non-communist and communist forces of Vietnam were in internal conflicts.[157][158][159][160] The northern part of Vietnam was initially occupied by the army of theRepublic of China led by GeneralLu Han, but later France received China's consent to advance to the North, which pushed the Viet Minh's DRV government to make peace with the French colonialists and legalize their return.[161] In fact, the British and Chinese military occupations in Indochina (including Vietnam) to disarm the Japanese and the return of the French to Indochina were recognized by theAllies.[162][163] At the initial stage, no country recognized the DRV government of the Viet Minh.[164]
On 6 March 1946, in a preliminary agreement, the Viet Minhaccepted that their state became afree one within the French Union while Cochinchina remained under French rule.[165][166] However the French Union was only established on 27 October 1946 when France adoptednew constitution.[167][168] The preliminary agreement stipulated that French troops would only stay in Vietnam for five years. The Viet Minh then demanded complete independence and unification of Vietnam within the French Union, butde Gaulle's French right-wing faction was rigid and only accepted Vietnam's high autonomy while arguing that the future of Cochinchina would be decided through a referendum with an undetermined date and method. The Viet Minh condemned France's establishment of an autonomous republic in Cochinchina even though this was a colony directly ruled by the French. The Viet Minh army also refused to come under French control, leading to sporadic clashes and the Viet Minh erecting barricades inHanoi.[169][170][171][172]
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In January 1946, Vietnam had itsfirst National Assembly election.[173][174][175][176] The DRV's first constitution was approved during the Congress session in early November 1946.
In late 1946, after Hồ's return from France, France attacked with a navalbombardment of Haiphong that killed over 6000 people;[177][178] The DRV government later attacked France inHanoi capital despite the agreements signed, leading to theFirst Indochina War on 19 December 1946.[179][180][181] InOperation Léa 1947, French army inflicting severe casualties on the Việt Minh. However it was strategically inconclusive because it failed to capture the Việt Minh leadership or seriously cripple its military forces.[182] In 1947, France wanted to find a political alternative to the Viet Minh in the name of anti-communism after the Viet Minh refused to surrender.[183][184][185] France decided to bring back the former Vietnamese emperorBảo Đại.[186][187][188][183] The Vietnameseanti-communist faction formed a political alliance inNanjing in February 1947, they supported cooperation with France and the Bảo Đại Solution.[183] AProvisional Central Government was formed in May 1948 and later signed a preliminary treaty with France inHạ Long Bay on 5 June, partly reuniting the protectorates ofAnnam andTonkin.[183][189] As part of decolonization after WWII when both the U.S. and USSR opposedcolonialism,[183] after negotiations between French left-wing government and Vietnamese anti-communist politicians led by Bảo Đại, France recognized nominal independence of Vietnam within theFrench Union and France gave up their claims to Cochinchina on8 March 1949, leading the establishment of theState of Vietnam, its capital was located inSaigon. The Accords took effect on 14 June 1949. It received final ratification by the French National Assembly on 29 January 1950 and was signed by French President Vincent Auriol on 2 February, abolishing theTreaty of Huế (1884).[190][183][191][192]
The establishment of pro-French Vietnamese state made this French colonial war in Indochina contain elements ofCold War conflict; the French sought to retake their new-style colony (Indochina) in the name of anti-communism and helping native states, no longer in the name of colonialism.[193][183] The United States recognized the State of Vietnam on 3 February 1950.[183] and established diplomatic relations on 17 February.[194] On 7 September 1951, the United States signed a treaty with State of Vietnam to provide direct economic aid to Vietnam, however military aid remained through France until February 1955.[195] France accepted Vietnam's independence in the future as long as France's interests were guaranteed through the French Union, the French Union was much different from the oldFrench colonial empire, Vietnam wasde facto still ruled by France but Vietnam's autonomy was much more extensive compared to pre-1945 period.[183][185][196] Vietnam regainedCochinchina after legal procedures in June 1949[197] and theState of Vietnam was officially proclaimed in July, with Bảo Đại becoming its Head of State (Quốc trưởng).[189] On 8 December 1950, the State of Vietnam was allowed to establish its own army and it fought side by side with the French army against communism.[198]
The fact that France was at a disadvantage during the war forced the French to accelerate the transfer of power to State of Vietnam. France was finally persuaded to relinquish its colonies in Indochina in 1954 when Viet Minh forcesdefeated the French at Dien Bien Phu. On 30 December 1954, theIndochinese Federation was completely dissolved.[199] In December 1955, State of Vietnam withdrew from the French Union.[200]
In China,communists (CCP) ofMao established their own state in October 1949. After theSoviets recognized the Viet Minh government in early 1950, underStalin's pressure, the government of the Viet Minh publicly declared itself a communist organization even though it had not yet defeated France and began implementingland reform in 1953.[201][202] Despite U.S. assistance from 1950, the French were persuaded to stop their war in Indochina after the Viet Minh with the help of communist China also from 1950 defeated them. China's help caused the Viet Minh's immature government apparatus and army were much improved.[203][204] The United States supported Bảo Đại's capitalist and anti-communist Vietnam.[183] On 21 July 1954, anagreement negotiated at Geneva, signed by the communist DRV and France, provisionally divided Vietnam along the 17th Parallel, withHo Chi Minh'sDRV government ruling theNorth fromHanoi andBảo Đại'sState of Vietnam, governing theSouth fromSaigon.[205][206][207] After the Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệmoverthrew emperor Bảo Đại, the State of Vietnam became theRepublic of Vietnam with Diệm being President (Tổng thống) in October 1955, still pursuingcapitalism andanti-communism.[208][209][210]
In October 1956, a year after replaced the State of Vietnam, the Republic of Vietnam formed its own parliament and created its own constitution.[211] On 28 April 1956, the last French forces left South Vietnam due to pressure from the U.S. and Diệm.[212]: 650 According to the 1954 Geneva agreement, a nation-wide election for a united administration was to be held in July 1956. The anti-communist State of Vietnam opposed the division of Vietnam, condemning the French High Command's arbitrarily handing over the North to the communists and setting a deadline for general elections, threatening to push all of Vietnam into communism.[213][214] while the United States merely "took note" of the ceasefire agreements and declared that it would "refrain from the threat or use of force to disturb them.[212]: 606 [215] Fearing that young Republic of Vietnam would fall to communism, which would create a big "red" wave, the United States immediately tried to prevent the spread of international communism from the North and restrain the influence of the Soviet Union.[193] To protect its ally from the threat of "communist invasion", the U.S. reorganizedMilitary Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) in Indochina into country-specific units and MAAG Vietnam was established on 1 November 1955.[216]: 20 Partitition came into force, but the promised elections were never held.
Between 1953 and 1956, the North Vietnamese government instituted various agrarian reforms, including "rent reduction" and "land reform".[217][218][219] ScholarBalasz Szalontai wrote that declassified documents of Hungarian diplomats living in North Vietnam at the time of the land reform provided a number of 1,337 land lords were executions and 23,748 imprisonments.[220] In the South, Diệm went about crushing political and religious opposition, imprisoning or killing of thousands.[221] South Vietnam never signed the 1954 Geneva Accords, and they claimed the North did not guarantee free elections as arguments for Saigon to refuse general elections to unify with Hanoi,[222] The U.S President Eisenhower wrote in 1954: "I have never talked or corresponded with a person knowledgeable in Indochinese affairs who did not agree that had elections been held as of the time of the fighting, possibly 80% of the population would have voted for the Communist Ho Chi Minh…".[223]
After failing to convince the Republic of Vietnam to hold general elections, North Vietnam decided to order itstheir guerrilla cadres in the South to fight Diệm in 1959.[225]
As a result of theVietnam War (1955–1975), thePeople's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) forces of the DRV unified the country undercommunist rule.[193][226] In thisCold War–era conflict[193] both North and South considered themselves the only legitimate representative of all of Vietnam. The war also spread toLaos andCambodia.[227] The PAVN defeated theRepublic of Vietnam Military Forces, who had received direct support from foreign militaries, primarily theUnited States.[228][229] The U.S. military presence in Vietnam peaked in April 1969, with 543,000 military personnel stationed in the country.[230][231] The North also had direct help from foreign armies, includingChina.[232]: 217 [233][234][235] Anti-communist Republic of Vietnam and its allies always had to deal with the invasion of PAVN forces from the North, although the U.S.- Republic of Vietnam coalition carried out air strikes on the North in retaliation.[236][237] After1972 invasion campaign, an agreement unfavorable to the Republic of Vietnam was signed between the U.S and North Vietnam.[238][239][240][241]
Sporadic conflicts continued right after the agreement before abig invasion of the North happened. With its advantage, the PAVN continued to fight and sent materiel and troops to the South after the agreement came into effect.[242][243] Americans sharply cut aid to Republic of Vietnam and no longer wanted to intervene militarily due to the costly and unpopular war while their relations with China improved to isolate the Soviet Union.[244] The globaloil crisis of 1973 further aggravated the situation for the South. Two years after the withdrawal of the last U.S. forces in March 1973, Republic of Vietnamfell to PAVN on 30 April 1975.[245][246] The defeat of Republic of Vietnam marked thatdissidents of the communist government no longer had any legal place of operation in Vietnam. After the fall of the Republic of Vietnam, for a year it had been administered by aRepublic of South Vietnam, ade facto communist government under the control of North Vietnam, before an official reunification under communism happened.[247] The war left Vietnam devastated, with thetotal death toll standing at between 966,000 and 3.8 million,[248][249][250] with many thousands more crippled by weapons and substances such asnapalm andAgent Orange. The government of Vietnam states that 4 million of its citizens were exposed to Agent Orange, and as many as 3 million have suffered illnesses because of it. These figures include the children of people who were exposed.[251] TheRed Cross of Vietnam estimates that up to 1 million people are disabled or have health problems due to contamination from Agent Orange.[252] The United States government became the side challenging these figures as being unreliable.[253]
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On 2 July 1976, the North and South Vietnam were officially re-united into a singlecommunist state, known as theSocialist Republic of Vietnam.[254][255][256] The government also renamed Saigon asHo Chi Minh City in honor of Ho, who died in 1969.
Vietnam's increasing closeness with the USSR in turn alarmed Chinese leadership, which feared encirclement by the USSR. The newly unified Vietnam joined theCouncil for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon) on 28 June 1978. Soviet military aid to Vietnam increased from $75–$125 million in 1977 to $600–$800 million in 1978. On 3 November 1978, Vietnam and the Soviet Union signed a formal military alliance.[257] Having unified North and South politically, the CPV still had to integrate them socially and economically. In this task, CPV policy makers were confronted with the South's resistance to communist transformation, as well as traditional animosities arising from cultural and historical differences between North and South. In the aftermath of the war, underLê Duẩn's administration, there were no mass executions of South Vietnamese who had collaborated with the U.S. or theRepublic of Vietnam government, confounding Western fears.[258] However, up to 300,000 ARVN officers and soldires were sent tore-education camps.[259] TheNew Economic Zones program was implemented by the Vietnamese government after theFall of Saigon. Between 1975 and 1980, more than 1 million northerners migrated to the south and central regions formerly under theRepublic of Vietnam.[260] This program, in turn, displaced around 750,000 to over 1 million Southerners from their homes and forcibly relocated them to mountainous forested areas.[260] Many South Vietnameseleft the country on their own by boats.
In the late 1970s, Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge regime started harassing and raiding Vietnamese villages at the common border. To neutralize the threat, thePAVNinvaded Cambodia in 1978 and overran its capital ofPhnom Penh, driving out the incumbentKhmer Rouge regime. In response, as an action to support the pro-Beijing Khmer Rouge regime, China increased its pressure on Vietnam, andsent troops into Northern Vietnam in 1979 to "punish" Vietnam. Relations between the two countries had been deteriorating for some time. Territorial disagreements along the border andin the South China Sea that had remained dormant during theVietnam War were revived at the war's end, and a postwar campaign engineered by Hanoi against the ethnic ChineseHoa community elicited a strong protest from Beijing. China was displeased with Vietnam's alliance with the Soviet Union.[261] During its prolonged military occupation of Cambodia in 1979–89, Vietnam's international isolation extended to relations with the United States. The United States, in addition to citing Vietnam's minimal cooperation in accounting for Americans who weremissing in action (MIAs) as an obstacle to normal relations, barred normal ties as long as Vietnamese troops occupied Cambodia. Washington also continued to enforce the trade embargo imposed on Hanoi at the conclusion of the war in 1975.
Throughout the 1980s, Vietnam received nearly $3 billion a year in economic and military aid from the Soviet Union and conducted most of its trade with the USSR and otherComecon countries. In December 1986,Nguyễn Văn Linh, who was elevated to CPV general secretary the following year, launched a campaign for political and economic renewal (Đổi Mới). His policies were characterized by political and economic experimentation that was similar to simultaneous reform agenda undertaken in the Soviet Union. Reflecting the spirit of political compromise, Vietnam phased out its re-education effort. The government stopped promoting agricultural and industrial cooperatives. Farmers were permitted to till private plots alongside state-owned land, and in 1990 the communist government passed a law encouraging the establishment of private businesses.[262][263] Bogged down in Cambodia and unable to defeat the remnants of the Khmer Rouge guerrillas, Vietnam withdrew its troops in 1989 and Cambodia restored multi-party pluralism a few years later.[264][265]
Both Vietnam and China planned the normalization of their relations in a secret summit inChengdu in September 1990, and officially normalized ties on 5 November 1991, before thefall of the Soviet Union the following month.[266]In February 1994, the United States lifted its economic embargo against Vietnam,[267] and in June 1995, theUnited States and Vietnam normalized relations.[268]After American PresidentBill Clinton visited Vietnam in November 2000, a new era in relations between the two countries began. No other U.S. leader had ever officially visited Hanoi and Clinton was the first to visit Vietnam since the 1975fall of Saigon.[269] Vietnam became an increasingly attractive destination for economic development. Over time, Vietnam has played an increasingly significant role on the world stage. Its economic reforms significantly changed Vietnamese society and increased Vietnamese relevance in both Asian and broader international affairs. Also, due to Vietnam's strategic geopolitical position near the intersection of the Pacific and Indian oceans, many world powers began to take on a much more favorable stance towards Vietnam.
On 11 January 2007, Vietnam became the 150th member of theWTO (World Trade Organization).[270] According to theWorld Bank, Vietnam became a development success story. Its economic reforms since the beginning ofĐổi Mới in late 1986 helped to change Vietnam from being one of the world's poorest nations to amiddle-income economy in one generation.[271][272]
However, Vietnam also became a country facing disputes, mostly withCambodia over their shared border,[273] and especially with China, over theSouth China Sea.[274] In 2016, PresidentBarack Obama became the 3rd U.S. Head of State to visit Vietnam.[275] His historic visit helped to normalize relations with Vietnam. This improvement of U.S.-Vietnam relations was further increased by the lifting of a lethal arms embargo, allowing the Vietnamese government to buy lethal weapons and modernize its military.[276]
On 27–28 February 2019, the2019 North Korea–United States Hanoi Summit was held between North Korean supreme leaderKim Jong Un and U.S. presidentDonald Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam.[277]
Vietnam became a country expected to be a newly industrialized country, and a regional power in the future. Vietnam became a country named as one of theNext Eleven nations, a term describing eleven economies which could haveBRIC-like potential to rival G7 nations.[278]
In 2021, General Secretary of the Communist Party,Nguyen Phu Trong, was re-elected for his third term in office, meaning he was Vietnam's most powerful leader in decades.[279]
In 2023, a three-person collective leadership was responsible for governing Vietnam. PresidentVo Van Thuong (since 2023),[280] Prime MinisterPham Minh Chinh (since 2021)[281] and the most powerful leader Nguyễn Phú Trọng (since 2011) as the Communist Party of Vietnam's General Secretary.[282]
During a visit to Vietnam on 10 September 2023, U.S. PresidentJoe Biden met General SecretaryNguyễn Phú Trọng. Following this, the Vietnamese government recognized the relationship between the United States and Vietnam as a "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership", emphasizing the increasing importance of bilateral links between the two countries.[283]
...In contrast, mainland East and Southeast Asians and other Pacific islanders (e.g., Austronesian speakers) are closely related to each other [9,15,16] and here denoted as belonging to an East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) lineage (Box 2). …the ESEA lineage differentiated into at least three distinct ancestries: Tianyuan ancestry which can be found 40,000–33,000 years ago in northern East Asia, ancestry found today across present-day populations of East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Siberia, but whose origins are unknown, and Hòabìnhian ancestry found 8,000–4,000 years ago in Southeast Asia, but whose origins in the Upper Paleolithic are unknown.
our results reject previously suggested sources of gene flow into the Tibetan lineage13,35,36, including deeply branching Eastern Eurasian lineages, such as the 45,000-year-old Ust'-Ishim individual from southern Siberia, the 40,000-year-old Tianyuan individual from northern China, and Hoabinhian/Onge-related lineages in southeast Asia (Supplementary Fig. 10), suggesting instead that it represents yet another unsampled lineage within early Eurasian genetic diversity. This deep Eurasian lineage is likely to represent the Paleolithic genetic substratum of the Plateau populations.
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