French Colonial Vietnam

From the mid 19th Century, the French increased their pressure on the Nguyen emperors. There were excesses of the impoverished population, with the anger directed against French missionaries. In order to demonstrate strength as protector of Christian missions, they attacked the French gun-boats to port in 1858.

Shortly after, there also appeared gunboats on the Perfume River, which flowed through the capital city of Hue. From 1862, Vietnam had to cede territories to the French.

Until 1883, there were three named protectorates Annam, Cochin China and Tonkin that were founded. They had to accept the Vietnamese emperor. Thus Vietnam was under French colonial rule.

Following the introduction of a fiscal economy, the impoverishment of the population progressed. The Chinese minority dominated the economy of the country. The best way for the Vietnamese to be capable of a sustainable income, was a post in the colonial administration.

Subsequently Vietnamese students and intellectuals in Europe had, especially in France, ideas of nationalism and communism. The most significant among them was Ho Chi Minh who united in 1929 the communists working in Annam, Cochin China and Tonkin parties into a single party. The party in 1930 failed after the Yen Bai uprising and the execution of many of its members were decimated and weakened.

During the Second World War in 1941, the whole of Indochina and Vietnam were under the influence of Japan. After Ho Chi Minh returned in 1941 from exile, they soon formed more than 40 local resistance groups, a League for the Independence of Vietnam Viet Minh, under the acronym for the Defense of Japanese imperialism and French colonialism (see Vietnam) during the 2nd World War.

In March 1945 the Japanese Indochina ended the French colonial government set up by the Emperor Bao Dai. The U.S. supported the Viet Minh, the progress in the fight against Japanese occupation which achieved some success. After Japan’s surrender on 25th August 1945 Emperor Bao Dai abdicated. On 2nd September 1945 Ho Chi Minh proclaimed after the successful August Revolution, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

The Declaration of Independence appealed to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 for the declaration of human and civil rights of the French Revolution. Vietnam became the first independent republic in Southeast Asia.

After the Potsdam Conference, Vietnam fell into the dominion of the British. They had to ask the defeated Japanese to intervene in the rebellious south. In turn, they marched north in September 1945, the Chinese Nationalist troops had a mandate to disarm the Japanese. Despite a peace treaty with the Viet Minh, the French forced on 23rd September 1945 the restoration of its colonial regime in South Vietnam, so that on 5th October, French troops landed in the city of Saigon. Chinese and British forces handed Vietnam back to France.