The Ancient History of Vietnam
Before you begin your Vietnam tour, learning a bit more about the history of the location can help enhance your experience within the country. Vietnam’s ancient history begins with a legend of sorts, that tells the tale of the origins of the Vietnamese people. Legend states that the Vietnamese people came to be when a Chinese divinity, King De Minh, wooed an immortal mountain fairy; their union produced Kinh Duong, who in turn married the daughter of the Dragon Lord of the Sea. Their son, Lac Long Quan, is considered to be the first king of Vietnam. He married Au Co, a Chinese immortal, to keep peace between the two countries, and their son was the founder of the first Vietnamese dynasty, the Hung dynasty. The descendants of the immortals peopled the country, then called Van Lang, from the pristine beauty of the high northern peaks to the plateaus of the central highlands, to the verdant, spreading river valleys and the unbroken stretches of shoreline curving along the sinuous length of the country.
Vietnamese legend goes on to tell that the Hung dynasty lasted through 18 rulers, who each ruled for 150 years. The final Hung king was conquered around 258 B.C. by Thuc Phan, who annexed Van Lang to his own kingdom and ruled it until 207 B.C. This new country was then conquered by a neighboring warrior, a Chinese named Trieu Da. Trieu Da severed his ties with China, named his kingdom Nam Viet, and ruled his non-Chinese empire autonomously. In 111 B.C., nearly a century later, the Chinese overthrew Trieu Da’s successors and began a millennium-long reign of present-day Vietnam.
To solidify their control over the conquered country, the Chinese built roads, harbors, and waterways. They brought in ways to improve agriculture, from irrigation methods to better tools. While for the first few centuries the Chinese political rule was somewhat laissez-faire, by the first century A.D. the Chinese began to force their conquered people to become in all things Chinese—language, customs, fashion. As you will certainly witness during your Vietnam tour, the local people hold their traditions sacred. With the Chinese influence pressuring to overtake the Vietnamese culture, several rebellions sprang up over the centuries, but none were ever able to overthrow the rock-solid Chinese rule. None, that is, until the uprisings led by Ngo Quyen in the early 10th century which led to Vietnamese independence in 939 A.D.
For the next millennium, the Vietnamese people enjoyed independence and the subsequent development of their own unique culture. During this time Vietnam had several struggles against Chinese imperialism, but China was never again able to conquer a people who had become very protective of their culture, their way of life, and their autonomy. The Vietnamese did some conquering of their own between the 15th and 18th centuries, spreading their territory southward to access the rich lands of the river deltas. A Vietnam tour will likely include a visit to the region once known as Saigon (present-day Ho Chi Minh City). This region was conquered around 1700, and the land around it soon followed; save for the Soc Trang province, the Vietnam you tour today had established its current borders by 1757.
Once Vietnamese territory had spread to the south, divisions between the two halves of this narrow country were inevitable. Hanoi, the capital, was located in the north, but the northern rulers often had difficulty controlling the southern half of the country. The first division occurred in the mid-16th century, while the second, longer division began around 1620. At this time, the Nguyen family, who had long governed the southern provinces, rebelled against the Trinh family, who governed from northern Hanoi. The rift between north and south was open for nearly 200 years, lasting through military campaigns, a 100-year truce, and in the late 18th century, 30 years of chaos, revolution, and civil war. In 1802, with the help of the French military, Nguyen Anh (a southern ruler) finally defeated the northerners and set up himself as emperor of a once-again united Vietnam.
However, the French were not content merely to help the Vietnamese. Napoleon III decided to invade Vietnam in 1857—France decided she needed a bigger share in overseas colonialism, and though the Vietnamese resisted fiercely, the French conquered the country, province by province. By 1867, several southern territories were under French rule, and the area was named Cochinchina. By 1883 the French had reached Hanoi and the Red River delta, and both north and central Vietnam became French protectorates. The French rule, over the following decades, kept civil liberties only in the hands of the French—and far from the Vietnamese population. On the same scale, the French were exclusively involved in industry and business, which kept a middle-class Vietnamese population from developing.
