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The Nguyen Dynasty
The Nguyen family independantly ruled southern Vietnam. Emporer Gia Long who was the founder of the Nguyen Dynasty, conquerd Vietnam before the French began to imperialize it. Vietnam went through various rulers and are still constanty afraid of another chinese invasion. -
France begins to colonize Vietnam
France came to Vietnam for Gold, God and Glory after the Nguyen Dynasty. They used God as an excuse to venture further into Vietnam, claiming that they wanted to protect Vietnam's catholic population. Really, the French just wanted to claim imperialistic power in Vietnam from other European countries. They also wanted control over the Mekong Delta and the Red River Delta. -
The Takeover of Vietnam
The French took over Vietnam in stages. In 1862 the emporer of Vietnam was forced to let France take over 3 provinces. In 1882 Vietnam was forced to become a French protectorate and then South Vietnam was taken over in 1867. Finally, in 1887 it became part of the colony of French indochina as a whole along with Lao and Combodia. -
French Rule
The French ruled absolutely. The econany wa run by the Bank of Indochina and private investors. The French ignored the Vietnamese people's requests and only wanted to expand the economy and westernize and "better" the people and culture. -
Nationalist Movements
Ho Chi Minh, a Vietnamese socialist activist, gave eight demands to the French at the Versailles Peace conference right after World War I. These demands included freedom of speech and representaion in the French parliament. France decined Minh's demands and more communist and nationalist parties came about like the indochinese Communist Party by Ho Chi Minh in 1930 and and Vietnamese Nationalist Party formed in 1927. -
Viet Mihn
During World War II, Japan occupied Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh saw this as an opportunity to create another nationalist force. He founded the Viet Mihn which was known as a "League for Vientnamese independance." U.S. leaders sided with Mihn against the Japanese and gave the Viet Mihn weapons to fight against Japan. They used guerilla tactics and widened the popularity of this new organization. -
Democratic Republic of Vietnam
The Japanese surrendered to end World War II. Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam to be independant and renamed it the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. France did not agree with Vietnam's independance and they still controlled Sorthern Vietnam while the Chinese controlled the North. -
Vietnam War
The Chinese pulled out of North Vietnam and the Viet Minh took over. The Vietnam War broke out when France declared that they wanted to reclaim the north from the Viet Minh. The U.S. sided with the French but could not overcome the guerilla tactics of the Viet Minh. At the same time, a new leader, Bao Dai was appointed to rule Vietnam. This decision was supported by the west but the Russians, Chinese and Eastern Europe believed that Ho Chi Minh should remain as the leader. -
North and South Divided
The French pulled out of Vietnam after their Parachute Regiment was conquered by the North Vietnamese. It was decided by the world's powers in Geneva that the country would be divded at the 17th parallel. Ho Chi Minh was to lead the north and Bao Dai was to lead the south. There was also supposed to be an election in 1956 deciding who would lead the whole counry. The election never happened and the split became permenent. -
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