Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
as 9,000 years ago. If this is so, the Vietnamese are among
the first people to practice settled agriculture. By the sec-
ond millenium BC, the inhabitants of the Red River delta
had created an advanced civilization based on foreign
trade and wet rice cultivation.
Then in the second century BC, the region was ab-
sorbed into the Han Empire, the Chinese calling it Nan-
Y ueh or Nan-Viet. Thus began over 1,000 years of
Chinese rule. Chinese writing was introduced along with
the Confucian classics, Chinese art and architecture, and
Mahayana Buddhism. This differentiated Vietnam from
the rest of mainland Southeast Asia with its Indian and
Theravada Buddhist ideals.
The peak of Chinese influence was during the Tang
Dynasty , whose rulers termed Vietnam Annam, or “the
pacified south.” In 939 the Vietnamese asserted their in-
dependence and remained free from Chinese dominance
except for a 20-year stint under the Ming Dynasty from
1407 to 1428. T Today, , Chinese influence is stronger in
Vietnam than in any other Southeast Asian country , with
the exception of Singapore.
or “national language,” it did not come into general use
immediately but was used to translate the Bible into Viet-
namese. Consequently , thousands of new converts were
gained.
Missionary activities eventually antagonized the au-
thorities, who feared a subversion of Confucianism.
Christianity was ultimately barred from both the north
and south, and European missionaries were either ex-
pelled or executed. In 1697, the French closed down
their small trading post at Hoi An.
FRANCE AND THE
MISSION CIVILISATRICE
French interests changed the history of the region for-
ever. In France, religious organizations demanded pro-
tection for their colleagues overseas. Commercial
interests feared the expansion of Britain in Burma and
the potential loss of the “China market.” The French at-
tacked Vietnam and in 1862 acquired three provinces in
the south, the opening of port cities, and the freedom to
propagate their religion. In 1867, French units seized the
remainder of the south and transformed the region into
the colony of Cochin China. Further, they assumed Viet-
namese rights in Cambodia and turned it into a protec-
torate. The French finished their conquest of all of
Vietnam in the mid-1880s. Shortly thereafter, France
completed its “balcony on the Pacific” by making Laos a
protectorate as well.
France' s civilizing mission was applied to an In-
dochinese Union comprising five territories or states:
north Vietnam, or T Tonkin (meaning “eastern capital”);
central Vietnam, known as Annam (from the Chinese
“the pacified south”); the colony of Cochin China in
South Vietnam; Laos; and Cambodia. A hierarchy of
French “residents” was installed to run the country .
The primary goals were economic—to exploit natu-
ral resources and open up markets for goods produced at
home. The French also emphasized the moral aspect of
their deeds, and the French citizenry believed that this
mission civilisatrice
(civilizing mission) would bring the
benefits of modern civilization to the “primitive peoples”
of the world. In fact, the civilizing mission was sub-
sumed by the greater goal of commercial profit. A small
colonial elite was educated in Western ways, but the
masses of people had only rudimentary exposure to
Western culture.
With all its faults, there was economic progress un-
der the French regime. A vigorous commercial and man-
ufacturing system emerged, although it was dominated
by foreigners including Chinese and Indians. Coal mining
EXPANSION AND EUROPEAN INFLUENCE
Vietnam was constantly under pressure to find more
farm land for its growing population. Between the
eleventh and the seventeenth centuries, it gradually ex-
tinguished the kingdom of Champa in what is today cen-
tral Vietnam. Subsequently , it acquired the Mekong Delta
from the Khmers. During the nineteenth century Viet-
nam would probably have gotten all of Cambodia had the
Thais not challenged their advance and the French not
established Cambodia as a “protectorate” in 1863. This
was the origin of the anti-Vietnamese sentiments in
Cambodia today .
Expansion of the Vietnamese state southward coin-
cided with the appearance of the Portuguese and other
European traders in the region. Vietnam' s first exposure
was in 1535, when a Portuguese ship entered the port of
Da Nang on the central coast. Within a few years the Por-
tuguese set up a trading post at Faifo (Hoi An). By the
seventeenth century several European powers had posts
along Vietnam' s coast.
The first Catholic mission arrived in 1615, when Je-
suits established a mission at Hoi An. Another mission
was set up at Thang Long (Hanoi). The Jesuit priest
Alexander de Rhodes organized a society to train mis-
sionaries to propagate the faith. However, he was known
more for his transliteration of the Vietnamese spoken
language into the Roman alphabet. Known as quoc ngu
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