° Vietnam ° Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)
° Ba Rja ° Da Nang ° Hue ° Nha Trang
The earliest Vietnamese state occupied only the Red River Delta, today the heart of northern Vietnam. In the 2nd century B.C. this state was absorbed into the empire of Han dynasty China, the Chinese calling it Nan-yüeh or Nan-viet. Thus began over 1,000 years of Chinese rule, during which the Vietnamese became familiar with Chinese political and social institutions, the Chinese writing system and Chinese learning and arts.
After winning their independence the Vietnamese continued looking to China for their models of culture, government and organization.
Culturally, Vietnam thus belonged to the "Confucian" world of East Asia. This distinguished it sharply from neighbouring states with Theravada Buddhist or Islamic cultures. The difference in cultural outlook between Vietnam and her Southeast Asian neighbours has long contributed to conflict in the region.
After gaining independence from China southward expansion added to cultural tensions. Military in organisation, the expansion was driven basically by the need to find farming land for a growing population. Between the 11th and 17th centuries it gradually extinguished the kingdom of Champa. It then took the Mekong Delta from the Khmers. During the 19th century the Thais challenged the Vietnamese advance and the French brought it to a halt by establishing a ‘protectorate’ over Cambodia in 1863.
The Tay Son Rebellion which broke out in Vietnam in 1771 swept away the Nguyen and Trinh regimes which had divided Vietnam. The rebels also repelled a Chinese invasion, and turned on Chinese merchants in Vietnam. They faltered only when faced with the task of practical government. A member of the southern Nguyen clan, Nguyen Anh, raised forces and by 1802 managed to subdue the rebel forces. He became the emperor Gia Long, first of Vietnam’s Nguyen emperors and the first ruler to preside over a united Vietnam for more than two centuries.
Gia Long, emperor from 1802 to 1820, recognised what an administrative and defence nightmare Vietnam’s geography had become by the early 19th century – two fertile deltas 1,000 kilometres apart, connected by a narrow coastal corridor. He established his capital in the centre of the country at Hué where he built a palace complex that was a scaled down replica of Peking’s Forbidden City. The symbolism was appropriate – Gia Long and his son Minh Mang (emperor 1820 –1841) would attempt to establish in Vietnam the most thorough copy yet seen of Chinese administrative concepts and methods. The attempt would prove a disaster.
From the 1830s onwards rebellion flared frequently in protest at the level of bureaucratic intervention in daily life, the rigidities and absurdities of mandarinal decrees and, above all, at the level of taxation demanded by the system. The renewed concern with Confucian models also diminished the ability of the Nguyen imperial government to deal realistically with the growing challenges from the West. Some members of the Vietnamese scholar class recognised the need to study the West, but they were in the minority.
French Catholic missionaries, who had been active in Vietnam since the mid-17th century, helped Gia Long defeat the Tay Son rebels and establish his imperial dynasty, assisting him with men and resources. By the mid-19th century there were an estimated 450,000 Catholic converts in Vietnam. In successive campaigns of repression, thousands of Christians and their priests were killed and Christian villages were levelled. The persecutions shocked Catholics in France, and unwittingly provided a pretext for French intervention in Vietnam.
In 1859 a French naval expedition seized Saigon, following an unsuccessful attempt on the then more significant port of Da Nang, which was close to Hué. Emperor Tu Duc faced rebellion in the north and in 1862 conceded to the French, who gained by treaty, Saigon and its three surrounding provinces. In 1869 the French seized three further adjoining provinces, thus completing the territory of the colony they would call Cochin China.
The French conquered the remainder of Vietnam between 1883 and 1885, in the course of a complicated conflict in the country’s north. The north had collapsed in chaos fomented by both Vietnamese and expatriate Chinese rebels. The Vietnamese imperial government had lost all capacity to control events. Both China and France regarded Vietnam as their ‘sphere of influence’ and sent forces; the French eventually repelling the Chinese.
The Washington Post
Friday, April 14, 1905
Hospital Ship at Saigon.Chicago, April 18.—A Chicago Daily News special from Saigon, Indo-China, says. "Rojestvensky's hospital ship arrived here last night to take on board provisions, coal, and medicines. It will leave to-morrow at midday to rejoin the main squadron."London, April 13 —British naval men comment on the lack of secrecy regarding Admiral Rojestvensky's movements since his arrival in far Eastern waters. The fact that he is keeping to the main trade route, although knowing his squadron
would constantly be sighted and reported by passing vessels, they consider clearly shows that the Russian admiral is keenly anxious to meet Admiral Togo and fight it out to a finish.Telegraphing from Hongkong, under date of April 13, the Dally Mail's correspondent says:
"The United States battle-ship Wisconsin and three torpedo-boat destroyers will start for Cavite this afternoon."
