The history of Vietnam is one of the longest continuous histories in the world, with the oldest archaeological findings showing that people have been living there as far back as over a half million years ago. Ancient Vietnam was home to some of the world's earliest civilizations, with a cultural history of over 20,000 years - making them one of the world's first peoples who practiced agriculture. The Red River valley forms 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 the Red River Delta. The needs to have a single authority to prevent floods of the Red River, cooperation in constructing hydraulic systems, trade exchange, and fight against invaders, led to the creation of the first Vietnamese states in 2879 BC. The first truly influential part of history in Vietnam occurred during the Bronze Age, when the Đông Sơn culture was in Vietnam, dramatically advancing their level of civilization. Vietnam's peculiar geography made it a difficult country to attack, which is why Vietnam under Hùng Vương was for so long an independent and self-contained state. The Âns and Qins were among the earliest foreign aggressions of Vietnam, but the ancient Vietnamese regained control of their country soon after their invasions.
Once Vietnam did succumb to foreign rule, however, it proved unable to escape from it, and for 1,100 years, Vietnam had been successively governed by a series of foreign powers: the Hans, Eastern Hans, Eastern Wus, Cao Wei, Jins, Liu Songs, Southern Qis, Liangs, Suis, Tangs, and Southern Hans; leading to the losses of its writing system, language, and national identity. At certain periods during these 1,100 years, Vietnam was independently governed under the Triệus, Trưng Sisters, Anterior Lýs, Khúcs and Dương Đình Nghệ - although their triumphs and reigns were brief.
During the foreign rule of North Vietnam, several Indianized civilizations flourished in the central and south of what we know as Vietnam, particularly the Funanese and the Chams. The founders and rulers of these governments, however, were not native to Vietnam. From the 10th century onwards, the Vietnamese, emerging in their heartland of the Red River Delta, began to conquer these civilizations.
When Ngô Quyền (King of Vietnam) (939–944) restored sovereign power in the country, the next millennium Vietnam was under a series of great dynasties: Ngôs, Đinhs, Prior Lês, Lýs, Trầns, Hồs, Posterior Trầns, Later Lês, Mạcs, Trịnhs, Nguyễns, Tây Sơns and Nguyễns again. At various points during these 1,000 years of imperial dynasties, Vietnam was ravaged and divided by civil wars and repeatedly attacked by the Songs, Mongol Yuans, Chams, Mings, Dutch, Manchus, French, and the Americans. The Ming Empire conquered the Red River valley for a while before native Vietnamese regained control and the French Empire reduced Vietnam to a French dependency for nearly a century and followed by an occupation by the Japanese Empire. Political upheaval and Communist insurrection put an end to the monarchy after World War II and the country was proclaimed a republic.
Once Vietnam did succumb to foreign rule, however, it proved unable to escape from it, and for 1,100 years, Vietnam had been successively governed by a series of foreign powers: the Hans, Eastern Hans, Eastern Wus, Cao Wei, Jins, Liu Songs, Southern Qis, Liangs, Suis, Tangs, and Southern Hans; leading to the losses of its writing system, language, and national identity. At certain periods during these 1,100 years, Vietnam was independently governed under the Triệus, Trưng Sisters, Anterior Lýs, Khúcs and Dương Đình Nghệ - although their triumphs and reigns were brief.
During the foreign rule of North Vietnam, several Indianized civilizations flourished in the central and south of what we know as Vietnam, particularly the Funanese and the Chams. The founders and rulers of these governments, however, were not native to Vietnam. From the 10th century onwards, the Vietnamese, emerging in their heartland of the Red River Delta, began to conquer these civilizations.
When Ngô Quyền (King of Vietnam) (939–944) restored sovereign power in the country, the next millennium Vietnam was under a series of great dynasties: Ngôs, Đinhs, Prior Lês, Lýs, Trầns, Hồs, Posterior Trầns, Later Lês, Mạcs, Trịnhs, Nguyễns, Tây Sơns and Nguyễns again. At various points during these 1,000 years of imperial dynasties, Vietnam was ravaged and divided by civil wars and repeatedly attacked by the Songs, Mongol Yuans, Chams, Mings, Dutch, Manchus, French, and the Americans. The Ming Empire conquered the Red River valley for a while before native Vietnamese regained control and the French Empire reduced Vietnam to a French dependency for nearly a century and followed by an occupation by the Japanese Empire. Political upheaval and Communist insurrection put an end to the monarchy after World War II and the country was proclaimed a republic.
Pre-Dynastic era
The area now known as Vietnam has been
inhabited since Paleolithic times, and some archaeological sites in
Thanh Hóa Province purportedly date back several thousand years.
Archaeologists link the beginnings of Vietnamese civilization to the
late Neolithic, Early Bronze Age, Phung Nguyen culture, which was
centered in Vĩnh Phúc Province of contemporary Vietnam from about 2000
to 1400 BCE.
By about 1200 BCE, the development of
wet-rice cultivation and bronze casting in the Ma River and Red River
plains led to the development of the Dong Son culture, notable for its
elaborate bronze drums. The bronze weapons, tools, and drums of
Dong-Sonian sites show a Southeast Asian influence that indicates an
indigenous origin for the bronze-casting technology.
Many small, ancient copper mine sites
have been found in northern Vietnam. Some of the similarities between
the Dong-Sonian sites and other Southeast Asian sites include the
presence of boat-shaped coffins and burial jars, stilt dwellings, and
evidence of the customs of betel-nut-chewing and teeth-blackening.
The Red River |
Dynastic era
The legendary Hồng Bàng Dynasty of the
Hùng kings is considered by many Vietnamese as the first Vietnamese
state, known as Văn Lang. In 257 BCE, the last Hùng king lost to Thục
Phán, who consolidated the Lạc Việt tribes with his Âu Việt tribes,
forming Âu Lạc and proclaiming himself An Dương Vương. In 207 BCE, a
Chinese general named Zhao Tuo defeated An Dương Vương and consolidated
Âu Lạc into Nanyue. In 111 BCE, the Chinese Han Dynasty consolidated
Nanyue into their empire.
For the next thousand years, Vietnam was
mostly under Chinese rule. Early independence movements such as those
of the Trưng Sisters and of Lady Triệu were only briefly successful. It
was independent as Vạn Xuân under the Anterior Lý Dynasty between 544
and 602. By the early 10th century, Vietnam had gained autonomy, but
not.
In 938 CE, a Vietnamese lord named Ngô
Quyền defeated Chinese forces at the Bạch Đằng River and regained
independence after a millennium under Chinese control. Renamed as Đại
Việt (Great Viet), the nation went through a golden era during the Lý
and Trần Dynasties. During the rule of the Trần Dynasty, Đại Việt
repelled three Mongol invasions. Buddhism flourished and became the
state religion.
Following the brief Hồ Dynasty,
Vietnamese independence was momentarily interrupted by the Chinese Ming
Dynasty, but was restored by Lê Lợi, the founder of the Lê Dynasty.
Vietnam reached its zenith in the Lê Dynasty of the 15th century,
especially during the reign of Emperor Lê Thánh Tông (1460–1497).
Between the 11th and 18th centuries, Vietnam expanded southward in a
process known as nam tiến (southward expansion), and it eventually
conquered the kingdom of Champa and part of the Khmer Empire.
From the 16th century onwards, civil
strife and frequent infighting engulfed much of Vietnam. First, the
Chinese-supported Mạc Dynasty challenged the Lê Dynasty's power. After
the Mạc Dynasty was defeated, the Lê Dynasty was reinstalled, but with
no actual power. Power was divided between the Trịnh Lords in the North
and the Nguyễn Lords in the South, who engaged in a civil war for more
than four decades before a truce was called in the 1670s. During this
time, the Nguyễn expanded southern Vietnam into the Mekong Delta,
annexing the Champa in the central highlands and the Khmer land in the
Mekong.
The division of the country ended a
century later when the Tây Sơn brothers defeated both and established
their new dynasty. However, their rule did not last long and they were
defeated by the remnants of the Nguyễn Lords led by Nguyễn Ánh with the
help of the French. Nguyễn Ánh unified Vietnam, and established the
Nguyễn Dynasty, ruling under the name Gia Long.
French colonisation
Vietnam's independence was gradually
eroded by France—aided by large Catholic collaborator militias—in a
series of military conquests from 1859 until 1885 when the entire
country became part of French Indochina. The French administration
imposed significant political and cultural changes on Vietnamese
society. A Western-style system of modern education was developed, and
Roman Catholicism was propagated widely in Vietnamese society. Most of
the French settlers in Indochina were concentrated in Cochinchina
(southern third of Vietnam whose principal city was Saigon).
Developing a plantation economy to
promote the exports of tobacco, indigo, tea and coffee, the French
largely ignored increasing calls for self-government and civil rights. A
nationalist political movement soon emerged, with leaders such as Phan
Boi Chau, Phan Chu Trinh, Phan Dinh Phung, Emperor Hàm Nghi and Ho Chi
Minh fighting or calling for independence. However, the royalist Can
Vuong was defeated in the 1890s after a decade of resistance, and the
1930 Yen Bai mutiny of the Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang was put down easily.
The French maintained control of their colonies until World War II, when
the Japanese war in the Pacific triggered the invasion of French
Indochina in 1941.
With the defeat of France in Europe, the
French Third Republic transformed into the Vichy Regime, to which the
colony remained loyal. Heavily dependent on Nazi Germany, Vichy France
was forced to surrender control of French Indochina to Japan. The
natural resources of Vietnam were exploited for the purposes of the
Japanese Empire's military campaigns into the British Indochinese
colonies of Burma, the Malay Peninsula and India.
First Indochina War
Main articles: First Indochina War,
Democratic Republic of Vietnam, State of Vietnam, State of Vietnam
referendum, 1955, and Operation Passage to Freedom.
In 1941, the Viet Minh — a communist and
nationalist liberation movement — emerged under Ho Chi Minh to seek
independence for Vietnam from France as well as to oppose the Japanese
occupation. An estimated 2 million Vietnamese, or 10% of the population
then, died during the Vietnamese famine of 1944–45. Following the
military defeat of Japan and the fall of its Empire of Vietnam in August
1945, Viet Minh occupied Hanoi and proclaimed a provisional government,
which asserted independence on 2 September.
In the same year the Provisional French
Republic sent the French Far East Expeditionary Corps, which was
originally created to fight the Japanese occupation forces, in order to
pacify the liberation movement and to restore French rule. On November
20, 1946, triggered by the Hai Phong Incident, the First Indochina War
between Viet Minh and the French forces ensued, lasting until July 20,
1954.
Despite fewer losses — Expeditionary
Corps suffered one-third of the casualties of the Chinese and
Soviet-backed Viet Minh — during the course of the war, the French and
Vietnamese loyalists eventually suffered a major strategic setback at
the Siege of Dien Bien Phu, which allowed Ho Chi Minh to negotiate a
ceasefire with a favorable position at the ongoing Geneva conference of
1954. Colonial administration ended as French Indochina was dissolved.
According to the Geneva Accords of 1954 the forces of former French
supporters and communist nationalists were separated south and north,
respectively, with the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone, at the 17th
parallel north, between. A 300-day period of free movement was given,
during which almost a million northerners, mainly Catholic, moved south,
fearing persecution by the communists.
A partition of Vietnam, with Ho Chi
Minh's Democratic Republic of Vietnam in North Vietnam, and Emperor Bảo
Đại's State of Vietnam in the South Vietnam, was not intended to be
permanent by the Geneva Accords, and they expressly forbade the
interference of third powers. The State of Vietnam's Prime Minister Ngo
Dinh Diem toppled Bảo Đại in a fraudulent referendum organised by his
brother Ngo Dinh Nhu, and proclaimed himself president of the Republic
of Vietnam. The Accords mandated nationwide elections by 1956, which
Diem refused to hold, despite repeated calls from the North for talks to
discuss elections.
Vietnam War
Main articles: Vietnam War, North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, Buddhist crisis, Role of the
United States in the Vietnam War, ARVN, Viet Cong, Ho Chi Minh Trail,
and Operation Menu.
The pro-Hanoi Vietcong began a guerrilla
campaign in the late 1950s to overthrow Diem's government, which an
official Vietcong statement described as a "disguised colonial regime."
In the North, thousands of landowners were murdered by the communists
and famine broke out in the 1950s. In the South, Diem went about
crushing all opposition and tens of thousands were jailed or killed;
dissidents were routinely labelled as communists even if they were
anti-communist. Both Vietnams were police states with totalitarian
security systems.
In 1963, Buddhist discontent with Diem's
pro-Catholic discrimination erupted following the banning of the
Buddhist flag and the Hue Vesak shootings. This resulted in a series of
mass demonstrations during what is known as the Buddhist crisis. With
Diem unwilling to bend, Nhu orchestrated the Xa Loi Pagoda raids;
estimates of the death toll range into the hundreds. As a result,
America's relationship with Diem broke down and resulted in a coup that
saw Diem killed.
Diem was followed by a series of
military regimes that often lasted only months before being toppled by
another. With this instability, the communists began to gain ground.
There were more than a dozen governments before the pairing of Air
Marshal Nguyen Cao Ky and General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu took control of a
junta in mid-1965. Thieu gradually outmaneuvered Ky and cemented his
grip on power in fraudulent elections in 1967 and 1971.
To support South Vietnam's struggle
against the communist insurgency, the United States began increasing its
contribution of military advisers. US forces became embroiled in ground
combat operations in 1965 and at their peak they numbered more than
500,000. Communist forces attacked most major targets in South Vietnam
during the 1968 Tet Offensive, and although their campaign failed
militarily, it shocked the American establishment, and caused them to
think that the communists could not be defeated. Communist forces
supplying the Vietcong carried supplies along the Ho Chi Minh trail,
which passed through Laos and Cambodia. US president Richard Nixon
authorized Operation Menu, an SAC bombing campaign in Laos and Cambodia,
which he kept secret from the US Congress.
Its own casualties mounting, and facing
opposition to the war at home and condemnation abroad, the U.S. began
withdrawing from ground combat roles according to the Nixon Doctrine;
the process was subsequently called Vietnamization. The effort had mixed
results. The Paris Peace Accords of 27 January 1973, formally
recognized the sovereignty of Vietnam "as recognized by the 1954 Geneva
Agreements." Under the terms of the accords all American combat troops
were withdrawn by 29 March 1973. Limited fighting continued, before the
north captured the province of Phuoc Long in December 1974 and started a
full-scale offensive, culminating in the Fall of Saigon on 30 April
1975. South Vietnam briefly came under the nominal rule of a Provisional
Revolutionary Government while under military occupation by North
Vietnam. On 2 July 1976, North and South were merged to form the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Postwar period
The government embarked on a mass
campaign of collectivization of farms and factories. This caused an
economic collapse and resulted in triple-digit inflation. Reconstruction
of the war-ravaged country was slow, and serious humanitarian and
economic problems confronted the communist regime. Millions of people
fled the country in crudely built boats, creating an international
humanitarian crisis.
In 1978, the Vietnamese army invaded
Cambodia (sparking the Cambodian-Vietnamese War) which removed the Khmer
Rouge—who had been razing Vietnamese border villages and massacring the
inhabitants—from power, installing a regime whose leaders rule until
1989. This action worsened relations with China, which launched a brief
incursion into northern Vietnam (the Sino-Vietnamese War) in 1979. This
conflict caused Vietnam to rely even more heavily on Soviet economic and
military aid.
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