Prehistory
Findings from the Thanh Hoa region in the north indicate the presence of Homo erectus between about 500,000 and 300,000 years ago. From about 10,000 BC several Mesolithic collector cultures existed. Two of the most widespread cultures have been named after the Băc Ninh and Hoa Binh finds in northern Vietnam (see the Hoabinh culture). When systematic agriculture first began to be conducted on mainland Southeast Asia is still debated. However, bronze production in Vietnam seems to have occurred both along the Red River and along the Mekong from about 1500 BC, possibly even earlier, to be judged by finds belonging to the late Neapolitan Phung Nguyễn culture in the north.
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The indigenous Bronze Age tradition culminated with the establishment of the larger chiefdom at least from about 500 BC. (see Đông-so’n), which is often associated with Viet immigration from the north. Now the art of working iron was also introduced. An over 600 hectare fortified Đông-So’n settlement with three concentric moat has been investigated at Cô Loa near Hanoi. Cô Loa has been identified by some researchers with the capital of the historical kingdom of Âu Lac, a research result that is nonetheless disputed. To see more information other than history, please visit Abbreviationfinder to learn more about climate, population, government, and economy for the country of Vietnam.
History
The early kingdoms
Within the present-day Vietnam’s borders there have been various ethnic national formations, linked to the Khmer, Cham and Viet people groups. The Mekong Delta was the center of Funan, a kingdom that collapsed in the 500s AD. and later became part of the Khmer kingdom of Angkor. The Cham-born Champar Empire, located in today’s central Vietnam, is mentioned in Chinese sources from about 200 AD. and was a significant power factor until the end of the 15th century. The country north of it, in and around the Red River delta, was a long-standing Chinese province. There had previously been a Viet Kingdom, Âu Lac. It was conquered in 207 BC of the South China Empire Nam Viễt, dating back to 111 BC was made part of the Chinese empire.
The people of the Red River Delta often revolted, but only when the Tang Dynasty in China went down in the 9th century were the Vietas able to re-establish their own kingdom, Viai Viễt, who successfully defended themselves against the Champaric Empire in the south and against the Chinese and Mongol emperors in the north. The most important Vietnamese dynasties were Ly (1009-1226), Trân (1225-1413) and Lễ (1428-1788). The Viet kings sent gifts (tributes) to the Chinese rulers as a sign of subordination, but ruled their kingdom. The court developed (as in Korea) its own Confucian state with officials trained in the classical Chinese scriptures. The capital was from 1010 Thăng Long (Hanoi), located in the middle of the fertile delta. An important reason for the state’s strong position was the rice growers’ need for an administration that could monitor the management of irrigation channels and ditches.
The Viet kings gradually conquered the Empire. Farmer soldiers were paid with conquered land, and thus a continuous migration took place south. The Champar Empire collapsed in the late 17th century. Subsequently, the Vietnamese also colonized the Mekong Delta, which was inhabited primarily by Khmer. In addition, Chinese who moved from China after the conquest of the Manchus in 1644. From the 16th century onwards, it was no longer the Viet King himself who led the expansion south. The Lễ dynasty had lost real power, and the country was ruled instead by two great-man families, Trinh in the north and Nguyễn in the south. At this time, the position of Buddhism was strengthened, while Christian mission was carried out. The split ended first as a result of the Tây So迂n uprising of 1771-88, whose leader, Nguyễn Huễ, succeeded in defeating both families, strike back a Chinese intervention army and form a united kingdom. After the death of the rebel king, the kingdom was re-conquered by the leader of the Nguyễn family Nguyễn Anh, who in 1802 proclaimed emperor by the name of Gia Long. A new, traditional Confucian kingdom,Viễt Nam (later called itself Đai Nam and referred to by the French by the Chinese name An Nam), was founded with Huễ as its capital. Palace and mausoleums were built after Chinese models. The Nguyễn dynasty established a strong state, which rivaled Siam to control the Khmer and Lao kings. But during the second half of the century, the new state, like Japan, did not succeed in acquiring European science and technology.
Under French rule
Namai Nam came into conflict with France, which sought support points for trade, mission and military expeditions to China. A series of French attacks between 1847 and 1884 forced the Nguyễn dynasty to relinquish sovereignty over its land and in 1887 became part of a new state formation: French Indochina. Northern and central Vietnam (Tonkin and Annam) became French protectors, and hand-picked heirs were allowed to continue to rule in Huễ. The Mekong delta had been conquered as early as 1859-62 and in 1864 made into a directly controlled French colony, Kochinkina.
A commercially oriented region was developed around Saigon, with exports of, among other things. rice and rubber. Here, European and Chinese traders in alliance with major Vietnamese landowners played the leading roles. The class differences were large in the south, while central and northern Vietnam maintained a more even ownership structure. No significant industrialization took place, but modernization nevertheless had major social consequences. Roads, railways, fortifications, hospitals, schools and prisons were built. An army and a police corps, the latter soon feared by most, were set up. This was funded by income from monopolies on opium, alcohol and salt and from hard taxes and forced labor. French Indochina was ruled by a general governor of Hanoi, with five territories under him: Tonkin, Annam, Kochinkina, Cambodia and Laos.
After 1900, modern nationalism emerged, first inspired by European, Japanese and Chinese role models, then by Russian communism. In the 1920s and 1930s, the nationalist party Viễt Nam Quôc Dân Đang (VNQĐ), the Indochina Communist Party (IKP) and a Trotskyist movement, as well as the religious sects Cao Đai and Hoa Hao, were formed. There were also reform groups linked to the court in Huễ and the upper class in Saigon, but only IKP managed to form organizations in all three parts of the country. Communist-led uprising was fought in 1930 and 1940.
From 1940, the French Vichy regime allowed the Japanese to use Indochina militarily. In this way, the colonial state could remain. But in the spring of 1945, the Japanese feared that the French would support an expected American invasion of Indochina and therefore attacked them in early March. The French army was quickly defeated, French military and civilians were imprisoned and with Japanese support a national Vietnamese government was formed in Huễ. However, it could not prevent a famine in the north in the summer of 1945, with about one million dead. In more and more provinces, youth joined Viễt-minh, a national liberation movement built up in the border area against China as early as 1941 by Communist leader Hô Chi Minh. The Japanese surrender on August 15, 1945, signaled a rebellion that became the most symbolic event in Vietnam’s modern history. People’s committees took power in all provinces, the Huễ government resigned, Emperor Bao Đai abdicated and September 2 (Vietnam National Day) proclaimed Hô Chi MinhDemocratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in Hanoi.
Shortly afterwards, British troops arrived in the south and Chinese in the north. The British armed French prisoners of war, received new forces from de Gaulle’s France and helped them crush the revolution in southern half of Vietnam. In the spring and summer of 1946, negotiations were held between France and DRV, which led to two preliminary agreements. However, after the Chinese withdrew their troops and Viễt-minh again strengthened their position in the French-controlled southern Vietnam, in December, full war, the so-called Indochina War (1946-54), broke out. Hô Chi Minh again became guerrilla leader. Following the Communist victory in 1949 in the Chinese Civil War, DRV was recognized in January 1950 by the socialist states and received massive Chinese military support. The Viễt-Minh guerrillas were converted into an army, which on May 7, 1954, defeated the French at Điễn-Biễn-phu.
It shared Vietnam.
In 1949, the French had persuaded Bao Đai to return as leader of a counter-revolutionary state with Saigon as its capital. It was recognized by the Western powers in 1950. At a 1954 Geneva Power Conference, Vietnam was provisionally divided at the 17th latitude into a North Vietnamese (DRV) and a South Vietnamese. In Saigon, the Catholic nationalist Ngô Đinh Diễm had then been appointed head of government, supported by the United States. In 1955, he expelled the French, organized a referendum that forced Bao Đai to resign, established the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) and suppressed all opposition. I DRV (North Vietnam) simultaneously carried out a land reform of the Chinese type, with great human losses. It was interrupted in 1956, and in 1959 the Communist Party decided to start a war of rebellion in the south, where local fighting had been going on for two years. During this war, the Vietnam War, both South and North Vietnam became heavily dependent on foreign aid. South Vietnam’s war eventually came under US leadership, and North Vietnam gained significant support from both China and the Soviet Union. The South Vietnamese Liberation Front FNLled the rebel war in the south, with the support of the Hanoi government. In 1963, South Vietnamese leader Ngô Đinh Diễm was overthrown in a military coup, and the Saigon regime went into a long crisis with several coups. FNL suffered heavy losses in the militarily failed Tễt offensive in 1968, but in 1969 a South Vietnamese Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRR) was recognized, recognized by China and the Soviet Union. Following a ceasefire agreement in Paris in 1973, the United States withdrew its troops. In April 1975, the North Vietnamese Army and the FNL marched into Saigon, marking the end of the Vietnam War.
Vietnam after 1975
After the end of the war with Saigon’s fall on April 30, 1975, a policy was introduced that aimed to solve the major social and economic problems that existed in the war-ravaged southern part of the country. The aim was to solve the major refugee problems, increase food production, i. through collectivisation, and to keep the economy functioning even though the significant influx of US investment has ceased. It also sought to socialize the economy through a policy that was becoming increasingly radical until private commerce was banned in 1978. In 1976, North and South Vietnam joined the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Foreign policy established Vietnam 1976-77 relations with many new countries and sought close relations with Laos and Cambodia, and a friendship and assistance pact with Laos was made in 1977. Relations with Cambodia deteriorated radically in 1977 and 1978, a conflict that led to Vietnam’s military intervention in late 1978 that toppled the Red Khmer from Cambodia power. Relations between Vietnam and China also deteriorated radically in 1978, leading to mass exodus of ethnic Chinese from northern Vietnam and to China interrupting all aid to Vietnam. In addition, in November 1978, Vietnam signed a friendship and aid pact with the Soviet Union. This development linked to the intervention in Cambodia led to a real war when China conducted a large-scale military operation against northern Vietnam in early 1979.
Economic policy did not lead to the desired result and foreign policy development also had a negative impact on the economy. This led to Vietnam introducing limited attempts to liberalize the economy in 1979. However, it was not until 1986 that the Communist Party officially adopted the so-called Môi policy(‘renewal policy’), which confirmed a more fundamental change. This policy was characterized by radical market economy reforms, and after a few difficult years in the late 1980s with bad harvests in mainly northern Vietnam, the new policy led to increased rice production, macroeconomic stability and good growth, but at the same time resulted in increased unemployment and deteriorated health care and training. Since the 1990s, Vietnam has strived to combine market economic growth with undisturbed political stability.
Foreign policy was characterized by the so-called Cambodia conflict in the period 1979-91. Until 1989, the Vietnamese army was involved in a military fight against Cambodian resistance groups, supported by China, Thailand and the United States. This put a strong strain on Vietnamese society and isolated Hanoi from both the western world and the countries of the Southeast Asian cooperation organization ASEAN. A dialogue with Cambodia began in the second half of the 1980s, and Vietnam gradually withdrew its troops in a process that was completed in 1989. The end of the Cold War and the normalized relations between China and the Soviet Union gave Vietnam greater foreign policy leeway. After the Cambodia conflict had been resolved in October 1991, Vietnam was able to normalize its relations with China and the ASEAN countries. Subsequently, significant investments were made in Vietnam by companies from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Australia.
The economic crisis in Asia 1997-98 hit Vietnam less severely than other countries in the region. However, it led to a decrease in foreign investment and a slowdown in economic growth. This led to discussions on a deeper renewal policy, which resulted in new reform processes. Economic growth then regained momentum. Expectations of continued development were high in Vietnam before the global economic crisis struck in the latter part of 2008.