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Pre 20th Century History
Human habitation of Northern Vietnam goes back about 500,000 years according to archaeological evidence. The site of present-day Hanoi has been populated for at least 10,000 years. These first inhabitants formed a feudally organised society that first relied on hunting, fishing and gathering, later developing animal husbandry and agriculture. These tribes developed in relative isolation until about 2000 years ago.
The Han Chinese set up a military garrison near present-day Hanoi in 214 BC, using it as a base of operations that would eventually control most of modern Vietnam. The next 1000 years of Chinese rule introduced important technological innovations to the Vietnamese, including ploughs and irrigation systems. But rebellion simmered in every town, and the millenium was punctuated by revolution and resistance. This tradition of rebellion shaped Vietnam's national character.
Vietnamese rebels saw their chance when China's Tang dynasty collapsed. In 938, revolutionary leader Ngo Quyen gave the Chinese a sound whipping and established an independent Vietnamese state, but after his death the region fell into anarchy. In 980, Vietnam became a semi-independent client state of China, stabilising the situation all for the cost of a biannual tribute.
For the next 400 years, the site of present-day Hanoi served as the administrative seat for all of Vietnam. The Grand Royal enclosure, now the city's Old Quarter, was constructed and the nation's first university, the Temple of Literature, was founded during the first century of home rule. Attacks by the Khmers, Chinese and even Kublai Khan were repelled by national forces. All this was done with little Chinese interference.
The Chinese never forgot their plum province, however, and in 1400 they captured Hanoi again. National hero Le Loi's guerrilla tactics and peasant support eventually reclaimed Vietnamese independence. A period of nationalism and renewed interest in Confucianism followed, a reaction to increased discontent with Europeans, their values and their missionaries.
The missionaries didn't take the hint, however, and in 1858 several were killed. The French had an excuse to invade, and by 1867 south Vietnam was a French colony. Hanoi was captured in 1874. The impotent imperial court was allowed to remain, indulging itself in various coups and capers, but the French controlled the nation.
Modern History
As it had under Chinese rule, Vietnamese nationalism simmered quietly throughout the country, waiting for an opportunity. Young Nguyen Tat Thanh, better known by his alias Ho Chi Minh, thought that the end of WWI was a good opening, so he tried to present a plan for an independent Vietnam to US president Woodrow Wilson at the 1919 Versailles Peace Conference. Evidently, self-determination was for Europeans alone.
When France fell to Nazi Germany in 1940, the Vichy government allowed the Japanese to put troops in Vietnam. The United States knew enough not to count on any French resistance, instead opting to pump arms and funding into the communist-dominated Viet Minh forces. Their leader, Ho Chi Minh, graciously accepted and began harassing the Japanese mercilessly.
After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Ho called for a general uprising known as the August Revolution, and on September 2, 1945, Ho and his National Liberation Committee (with US officials at his side) declared the Democratic Republic of Vietnam independent at a rally in Ba Dinh Square.
The French were not pleased, and fought the Viet Minh tooth and nail for eight years, despite a massive military aid package from the USA and formal recognition by both China and the USSR. On May 7, 1954, the French threw in the towel and surrendered |
