The history of Vietnam is an eventful story marked by foreign occupations and successive wars of resistance. Since its early days, Vietnam has been concerned with defending itself against its powerful northern neighbor, expansionist China. The country has developed with various fortunes, progress and setbacks, like that of all nations..
Vietnam is a country born from a complex ethnic mix. The Vietnamese people are of Chinese origin, descendants of the Yue populations who migrated south. The word Yue, meaning "beyond" or "distant", was then designated for all the Chinese people living south of the Yangtze. These populations, including ethnic tribes such as the Muong and Tay, would have mixed during their migration with the Melano-Indonesians, slowly leading to the ethnic mix that exists in Vietnam today.
However, archaeological excavations carried out in 1920 have revealed that the early history of Vietnam could feature the existence of civilization prior to these migrations, which would have existed in the north of present-day Vietnam. Since 1960, archaeologists have worked to prove the existence of this civilization, which they date back to 4000 years BC. Discoveries tend to indicate that states existed in Vietnam between 2800 BC. BC and the third century BC and possibly even beyond.
For more than a thousand years, Vietnam was a possession of China after the Han dynasty took control of the area where North Vietnam is now. The first part of this millennium of occupation ceased when a revolt broke out following the assassination of the notable Thi Sách. With the support of the Việt people, the Trưng sisters, widows and sisters-in-law of the deceased led this rebellion, which unfortunately proved unsuccessful.
The second half of this millennium of occupation further subdued Vietnam, with the influence of Ma Yuan who imposed new rules on the Vietnamese people in order to avoid any insurgency. It is in the context of the struggle for independence from China that a Vietnamese national consciousness was forged: the Vietnamese nation which is gradually emerging remains nonetheless marked by state structures inspired by those of China. In 939, the country became independent from China, while remaining a vassal state, after a revolt led by Ngo Quyen. He spared his relations with the Chinese Empire by continuing to pay a tribute.
From the tenth century, the expansion of the Vietnamese to the south, via a process of territorial conquest called the “Nam Tien” (the "march to the South") was fully underway while simultaneously struggling to defend the territory from the Champa Empire and the Mongol Empire. This is a period when several rival dynasties also competed for sovereignty.
Until the 15th century, the people had to share the territory of present-day Vietnam with the Champa Empire. The defeat of the Champa army forced the Chams to retreat to a reduced territory and to accept Viet domination. Khmer territories were also conquered during the march towards the South. The history of Vietnam, therefore, merges with that of other peoples such as the Hoas (Vietnamese of Chinese origin), the Khmer Krom (Khmer minority) and the Chams (Cham Empire).
From the end of the 16th century to the end of the 18th century, Vietnam experienced a few centuries of respite and a total reunification of the country, but it was without counting the rivalry between the Trinh family dominating the North, and the Nguyen family the South. The rivalry between these two noble families eventually led to an open war after which Trinh was left in control of Northern Vietnam and Nguyen, with Hue as its base, occupied the south and continued to expand southwards into the territory of the Chams and Cambodians. Eventually, Trinh power falls between 1771 and 1786 and the Nguyen dynasty becomes the last Vietnamese dynasty, reigning over Vietnam more or less independently from 1802 to 1883.
Vietnam then experienced a short period of peace, quickly interrupted in the second half of the 19th century by the interference of French admirals.
In the 19th century, the history of Vietnam witnessed the influence of many European nations and France, in particular, became heavily involved in Vietnam under the pretext of protecting Catholic missionaries. In 1855 French intervention in Vietnam accelerated and in August 1858, the fleet led by Admiral Rigault de Genouilly began the siege of Tourane and seized Da Nang Bay. This was followed by the signing of the treaties of 1862 and 1874 placing Vietnam under the tutelage of France.
French Indochina, a new geographical entity, is officially established, comprising Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, marking a new era in the history of Vietnam. For reasons of administrative convenience, Vietnam was immediately split into three distinct entities during the period of French colonization: Tonkin in the North, Annam in the Center and Cochinchina in the South.
This abdication of national sovereignty was to lead the Vietnamese patriots in a relentless struggle against France, concretized by numerous and frequent armed uprisings throughout the nation. From Phan Boi Chau to Ho Chi Minh, several revolts have taken place. The Vietnamese resistance to the French colonization succeeded one another, from revolts and peasant rebels to those of the scholars, but all were repressed due to poor organization. It was not until the end of the Second World War that Vietnam gained independence thanks to the international economic situation./p>
During the Second World War from 1940 to 1945, the Japanese invaded the territory and ended French Indochina. The arrival of the Japanese did not bring peace to the Vietnamese people, on the contrary, Japan established its new empire and subdued the Vietnamese again. The confrontation between the Japanese army and the French military on March 9, 1945 resulted in chaos, from which France emerged defeated.
Political chaos ensued: on March 11, Emperor Bao Dai, collaborating with the Japanese, proclaimed the independence and reunification of the country. On August 10, the Viet Minh, an assembly of former Indochinese communist leaders, entered into open conflict with the Japanese. On September 2, 1945, on Ba Dinh Square in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and became the president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The emperor Bao Dai, having abdicated, becomes "special adviser" of the first government of the Republic.
However, Vietnam’s independence was not recognized by the French until 1954 when they were defeated by the Viet Minh at the battle of Điện Biên Phủ, which marked the end of a period of sometimes bloody clashes between the Viet Minh and the colonial army. It was only upon signing the 1954 Geneva Conference that France officially renounced any claim to Indochina territory.
The great joy of the Vietnamese people was short lived during this period of history in Vietnam. The 1954 Geneva Conference which ratified the ceasefire agreements between France and the Viet Minh also decreed the division of the territory into two portions, along a line of demarcation formed by the 17th parallel. Thus, the departure of the French gave way to two separate entities: the Democratic Republic of Việt Nam in the north led by Hồ Chí Minh and the Republic of Vietnam in the south by Ngô Đình Diệm.
LThe communist north allied with the USSR and received support from China to oppose the nationalist south, and the US military intervened by offering aid to South Vietnam. Opponents of the Diệm regime led a coup and deposed him in 1963 for his discrimination against Buddhists, while the US continued to support the government of South Vietnam, fearing that communism would spread to other countries in the Region. The United States then bombed North Vietnam in March 1965 sparking the start of the Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War.
The bombings carried out by the American army did not end until 1968, and the war continued until 1979. After the death of Ho Chi Minh in 1969, the northern Communist Party was disordered and split in two, including the pro-Soviets and the pro-Chinese. Between 1973-1975 the United States prepared to withdraw from the country and leave South Vietnam at the mercy of its adversaries. It was only in 1975, the Vietnam War ended completely when the northern regime conquered Saigon and renamed it Ho Chi Minh City.
After the fall of Saigon in 1975, the country finally reunified on July 2, 1976. The two existing republics gave way to the Socialist Republic of Việt Nam with Hanoi as its capital.
During and after this long period in the history of Vietnam filled with submission to foreign countries and war, Vietnam’s economy suffered greatly. The reunification of the country also led to the exodus of opponents of the new regime from the southern part of Vietnam. In January 1979, when the Third Indochina War broke out, the Vietnamese army entered the war against the Khmer Rouge by attacking Cambodia.
It was not until the dawn of the 1980s that Vietnam finally found peace after a perpetual struggle against the domination of foreigners. After a short period of decline and the following stabilization of the economy since the reunification, Vietnam began to open up in 1986, adopting a policy that quickly lifted the country out of economic and diplomatic difficulties. Vietnam’s policy focused on the diversification and strengthening of its relations as well as on an active integration into the international scene. In recent years, the country has enjoyed a stable period of peace and economic growth.
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