Under Chinese influence, vietnamese were deeply influenced by chinese culture. Even after the independence, vietnamese continued to maintain chinese government and culture.
Vietnam was linked to a Maritime silk route and Khmer Cambodians. This route brought goods, peoples and ideas. As a result slowly the influence of Chinese culture started reducing. French entered Vietnam in 1858 and colonised northern region of Vietnam around 1880s. They won Franco-Chinese war and got the control over Tonkin and Annam. Under French rule Vietnamese started realising their misery and sufferings which gave rise to Nationalist resistance.
In 1910, Trans-Indo-China rail network was built that linked the northern and southern parts of Vietnam to China. This network was laid upto Unan in China. The second line linked Vietnam to Siam i.e. Thailand of current time, via Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. French built canals and draining lands, in order to increase production in Mekong delta. The rice production increased. In 1931, Vietnam became third largest exporter of rice in the world. The colonial economy was based primarily on rice cultivation and rubber plantation. But these lands are owned by french and just a few Rich Vietnamese. So landlordism increased and hence Vietnamese Labour had to work for them with no improvement in economy. Hence standard of living of these peoples decreased.
Vietnam was colonised to increase the economy of France and introduce civilisation to Vietnam.
French claimed that the Vietnamese cultures, religions and traditions were outdated and should be replaced with modern ideas such as –
Talking Modern:
French policy makers suggested that if french is selected as language of education then Vietnamese would learn french civilization and culture and thus can become modern. It also help Vietnamese to understand french thoughts and ideas and hence would become loyal to french. They teach that, Vietnamese were backward and were not suitable to rule themselves so only french can establish peace in Vietnam. They also taught that vietnamese are suitable only for manual labour and not for mental work hence colonisation was necessary.
At the time of school leaving exam, French did not wanted to pass majority of vietnamese as this would lead to various problems such as losing jobs,etc hence in 1925, they passed, just 400 out of 1.7 million students.
Looking Modern:
To provide western education Tonkin Free School was started in 1907. In this school french spread the thinking that to be a modern Vietnamese had to look modern and hence this school encouraged adopting western style. In this school french teachers teach that just learning french is not sufficient for to be modern hence they encouraged adopting western styles like cutting traditional long hair and keeping short hair like western peoples.
Resistance in Schools:
Vietnamese teachers taught french books in their peoples. Due to this french education is criticized. Likewise student at different places, fought against the colonial government’s policy to restrict Vietnamese from white-collar jobs i.e. office jobs. Being educated and true patriot these educated peoples took the responsibility to fight against French for the benefit of Vietnam due to which both traditional rich Vietnamese and french were threatened.
Till 1920s, students formed various political parties such as Party of Young Annan. They also published journals such as “Annamese student”. Vietnamese were opposing french cultures and policies everywhere. Peoples of Vietnam would develop master-slave mentality in themselves so these peoples started opposing french education.
This battle against French education became a part of battle against colonialism and for independence. Health and Hygiene was another cause of colonial opposition. Incidence of Plague Strikes in Hanoi. French built Hanoi city with modern architecture and engineering skills. It was divided into two parts, the “modern” part for the french and the “native” part for Vietnamese.
Modern part was built as beautiful and clean city with wide road alongside trees ,intelligently built sewer systems. however no such facilities are provided in native part. Due to this rats and other such insects live comfortably in clean modern part especially in sewers. They use these large sewers to move around the city. Most importantly these sewers were ideal for their breeding habitat. As a result Modern part of the Hanoi was caught by bubonic plague in 1903.French hired vietnamese to caught the rats and paid them for each rat. Rat-catchers were paid only if they show tail of a killed rat. As a result rats were caught in thousands e.g. on 30 May, nearly 20000 rats were caught but still no sign of rat ending was visible. Rat hunt made the peoples of vietnam to work with collective support. As Vietnamese were not following french orders to catch rats they stopped the rat hunting program. This lead to spreading of plague all over in the area from 1903 to next years. The actions of rat catchers suggest various ways by which french were opposed in everyday life.
French wanted to have control over Vietnam as politically as well as on individual lives too. Vietnam’s religious beliefs were based on Buddhism, Confucianism and Local Practices. French missionaries did not liked Vietnamese honoring supernatural and hence decided to turn Vietnamese into Christianity. Huynh Phu So, known for performing miracles. He usually helped the poors to oppose useless expenditure, sale of child brides, gambling and use of alcohol and Opium. In 1939 he raised “Hoa Hao” movement to oppose the French. This movement gained popularity in Mekong Delta area. French tried to suppress this movement. They called Huynh Phu So a “Mad Bonze” they sent him to mental asylum. More interestingly the doctor who had to prove him insane, became his follower. Finally in 1941, French doctors declared him as sane. Then he was sent to Laos and many of his followers were put in concentration camps. The religious movements always had different and conflicting relationship with mainstream nationalism.
Taking the advantage of their conflicting relationships, political parties often tried to get their support.
French wanted to have control over Vietnam as politically as well as on individual lives too. With the help of military French attempted to reshape social and cultural life. Vietnam’s religious beliefs were based on Buddhism, Confucianism and Local Practices. French missionaries did not liked Vietnamese honouring supernatural and hence decided to turn Vietnamese into Christianity.They changed religions of large number of Vietnamese which helped them to strengthen their colonial control, but on the other hand it is interesting to know that these religion changing activities raised another ways to colonial resistance.
Conflicting Opinions Of Nationalists during The Nationalist Movement in Indo-China
The vision of modernization was different for different Vietnamese nationalists. Some believed their own traditions should be strengthened to resist the French domination, while some believed that Vietnamese should learn from French while opposing them. Due to these conflicting opinions complex debates were happened which were never resolved.
Phan Boi Chau (1867 – 1940)
The resistance to French domination is mainly led by “Confucian scholar-activists”. Phan Boi Chau, a educated person in Confucian tradition had formed Revolutionary Society (Duy Tan Hoi) in 1903 with prince Cuong De as the head. From then Phan became the major leader in anti-colonial resistance.
He met Chinese revolutionary Liang Qichao in Yokohama in 1905. With Liang’s influence and advice he wrote a book “The History of the Loss of Vietnam”. This book focused on two connected themes. First, they lose their authority of forming their own government and second, Breaking the bond between Vietnamese and Chinese that were bonded with shared culture. In his book Phan showed the traditional passionate expressions of reformers. This book was widely sold and read in Vietnam and China and a play was also made based on this book.
Phan Chu Trinh (1871 – 1926)
Phan Chu Trinh one of those nationalists who were strongly opposite to ideas of Phan Boi Chau.
He was influenced by the democratic ideals of west. He believed in establishing democratic republic in Vietnam instead of traditional monarchy or French colonialism.
He liked the french revolutionary ideals of freedom but he expressed dissatisfaction as they were not following it. He demanded legal and educational institutions, and, to develop agriculture and industries.
Other Ways of Becoming Modern: Japan and China
Japan and China were successful in resisting colonisation by western countries. Thus they were role model for Vietnamese. Vietnamese nationalist developed close relationship with these countries. Gradually, China and Japan became shelter for Vietnamese nationalists, like revolutionaries of other countries.
Go East Movement (1907 -1908)
In 1907 -1908 about 300 Vietnamese student went to Japan to get modern education.
Their objective was to drive out French from Vietnam, displace the french controlled empire and re-establish the traditional Nguyen empire.
With the strong network of revolutionaries they appealed Japanese and foreign revolutionaries to help them.
Influenced with Japan’s victory over Russia in 1907, Vietnamese students established a branch of Restoration Society in Tokyo.
But after 1908, Japan Ministry of Interior stopped them from doing so. As a result many students including Phan Boi Chau were forced to leave Japan and seek shelter in China and thailand.
Association for the Restoration of Vietnam:( Viet-Nam Quan Phuc Hoi)
In China, Vietnamese students were inspired by the way a movement led by Sun Yat-Sen displaced a long established monarchy and formed a republic nation.
These student formed Association for the Restoration of Vietnam. At this time their objective was to change traditional empire and establish a democratic republic in Vietnam.
The new republic of Vietnam was splitted in North Vietnam and South Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh took power in North while Bao Dai’s government took power in South. In South Bao Dai’s government was overthrown by Ngo Dinh Diem. He formed dictatorial government. He allowed christianity and banned buddhism. Anyone who opposed him was jailed or killed.
NLF i.e. National Liberation Front opposed this dominance and tried to unite North and South Vietnam with Ho Chi Minh. But Ho Chi Minh government from the north Vietnam and National Liberation Front from south Vietnam tried to unify the two halves. US watched this with fear as communists were gaining power so decided to take part in the war. US policy makers thought the victory of Ho Chi Minh government would set an example for other countries to become communist. As a result thousands of US troops arrived in Vietnam along with advanced technology weapons such as tanks, B52, and phosphorous bombs, and chemical weapons such as Napalm, and Agent Orange and started destroying people, villages and jungles.
The war proved costly to both Vietnamese as well as to US. From 1965 to 1972, more than 3,403,100 US Service personnel including 7,484 women fought in Vietnam out of them 47, 244 died and 303,704 were wounded. The lives, villages and environment of Vietnam was spoiled. In US peoples were opposing the government because the government involved in an unnecessary war. Media and films played dual role both supporting the war and blaming the war. e.g.John Wayne’s film “Green Berets(1968) supported the war while John Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now(1979) tried to show negative effects of the war blamed the war.
The power of nationalism encouraged Vietnamese to fight for the independence sacrificing their home, family and lives. Vietnamese shown the power of a small country to the US national.
The Ho Chi Minh Trail was a large network of footpaths and roads that were used to transport men and material from north Vietnam to south Vietnam, during the war with US. The trial was developed from 1950s. The trial had Support bases and hospitals along its way.
In some part of trail the supplies were transported by trucks but most of the times it is carried on back by the porters. These were mostly women. But US made efforts to destroy the trail. They continuously tried to break the trail by intensive bombing, but people rebuild it quickly. This shows Vietnamese efforts to gain maximum benefits out of limited resources.
Revolutionary Women
Traditionally, women in Vietnam got better equality than in China. With the growth of nationalist movement, the status of women in Vietnam started improving. Writers and political thinkers started showing women as revolutionaries. Some Heroes of Past Times are –
Trung Sisters:
In 1913, Phan Boi Chau wrote a play showing the lives of Trung sisters, who fought against chinese domination in 39-43 CE. He showed these sisters as patriots fighting to save Vietnam from China. These sisters resisted the Chinese for two years and later seeing their defeat they preferred to commit suicide instead of surrendering to the enemy.
Trieu Au:
In the third century, Trieu Au was an orphan in childhood and she used to live with her brother. On growing up she left the home and went into jungles. She organised a large army and fought against Chinese rule. Finally when her army was killed, she commit suicide in water. Nationalist honored her as she fought for the country
Women as Warrior:
In 1960s, magazines and journals published photographs of women as brave fighters such as rebel women shooting down the planes.
In literature women were depicted as young, brave and dedicated.
Women were not only presented as warriors but also presented as workers such as pictures showing rifle in one hand and hammer in other hand. Whether young or old these were shown as selflessly working and fighting for the country.
As a result many women joined the movement. They helped in nursing, building underground rooms and fighting too.
They built six airstrips, neutralized more than ten thousand bombs, transported more than ten thousand kg of cargo, weapons and food, and shot down fifteen planes.
Women in Time of Peace:
During 1970s peace talks reflected end of the war is near. At this time women were presented as workers working in agricultural cooperatives, factories, and production units rather than fighters.
Opposition Within US
The war between US and Vietnam is continued for very long time with no results. This war is called first television war. The battle scenes of this war were shown on television news channels. With which people came to know what US was really doing. Scholar Noam Chomsky called the war ‘the greatest threat to peace, to national self-determination, and to international cooperation’. In Paris-1974, US signed peace settlement with Vietnamese so the war between US and Vietnam was ended.