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On
August 31, 1858,
a French naval squadron attacked Da Nang, launching
several episodes of a war of colonial conquest waged by
French imperialism between 1858 and 1884 and resulting
in the total annexation of the country.
French imperialism, then in full expansion, was
attacking a decaying feudal monarchy. The Nguyen dynasty,
which had ascended the throne after repressing a large-scale
uprising, restored the feudal system and all of its
repressive institutions. Peasant revolts, however, continued
unabated, driving an administrative apparatus,
essentially made up of a body of mandarins trained in
very conservative and ritualistic Confucian ideology and
duplicated in the villages by a body of notables born into
the landlord class, into a tight corner. With a rudimentary
infrastructure, the royal court was unable to effectively
rule over a territory stretching from north to south
for more than 2,000 kilometers . It was in the most
vulnerable part, the south, that the French
colonialists began their aggression.
Faced
with French invasion, the Vietnamese side split into two
opposing parties, one arguing for compromise and the
other for resistance. The king and high-ranking court
dignitaries were afraid of the modern weapons used by
the French. They were also misled as to the objectives
of the French, believing that the French, having come
from so far away, were thinking less about conquering
the country than of obtaining trade concessions.
Moreover, the Nguyen monarchy, constantly suppressing
internal revolts, neither wanted to nor was able to
mobilize all the nation's energies to oppose the
aggression. All this prompted the king and court
dignitaries to implement a policy of hoa nghi
(peace and negotiation).
The
French government sanctioned the decision to conquer
Vietnam
in 1857. However, due to resistance by Vietnamese
patriots, it took the French 30 years to establish their
domination over the country
In 1887,
in compliance with the decree of the French King,
Indochina,
consisting of
Vietnam,
Cambodia
and
Laos,
was established. At that time, French social and
economic policies were expedited on a small scale, and a
policy on the exploitation of colonies was imposed on a
larger scale at the beginning of the 20th century.
French economic and social activities boosted the
country in many ways. The French concentrated
investments in the mining industry, as well as several
other industries. A number of large plantations, apart
from rice, appeared and economical crops, such as tea,
coffee, and rubber, were developed. Agricultural
products were being considered as commodities. These
changes in the economy resulted in a division between
the Vietnamese bourgeoisie and the working class.
The
education system was also modified. Three levels of
general education, infant, primary, and secondary, were
established. The old examination system was abolished in
1915, and schools for training administrative officers
in the French style were officially launched in 1917.
The
Governor General of
Indochina
decreed to restructure the mechanism of village
organization in 1904. This brought a strong resistance
to the French who wanted to create a new class of French
style landlords. The French colonialists imposed an
austere policy for the working class, especially for
tillers, and high taxes were imposed on farmers. The
French colonialists practiced a policy of obscurantism.
Vietnamese patriots with different ideologies struggled
to liberalize the country. One movement was the Dong Du
led by Phan Boi Chau. Those who followed the policy of
raising intellectual standards included Phan Chu Trinh
and the Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc Group. Nguyen Thai Hoc and
his fellows were sentenced to death as a result of these
protests. Nguyen Ai Quoc (or Ho Chi Minh) founded
Vietnam's
Communist Party (or the Indochinese Communist Party) in
1930. From this point, Communist were the primary
leaders of the national liberation movement.
While
seeking to maximize the use of
Indochina's
natural resources and manpower to fight the war,
France
cracked down on all patriotic mass movements in
Vietnam.
Indochina,
mainly
Vietnam,
had to provide
France
with 50,000 soldiers and 49,000 workers, who were
forcibly drafted from the villages to serve on the
French battlefront.
Indochina
also contributed 184 million pastries in the form of
loans and 336,000 tones of food. These burdens proved
all the heavier as agriculture was hard hit by natural
disasters from 1914 to 1917.
Lacking
a unified nationwide organization, the Vietnamese
national movement, though still vigorous, failed to take
advantage of the difficulties
France
was experiencing as a result of war to stage any
significant uprisings. The scholars' movement had
declined while new social forces were not yet strong
enough to promote large-scale campaigns.
The
Quang Phuc movement had planned to seize
Hanoi
through the combined action of patriots within the
country and a revolutionary army trained abroad. The
secret operation was betrayed, however, and many members
of the movement were arrested. Other members joined
different organizations, armed themselves with
rudimentary weapons, and sought to bring soldiers from
the local militia over to their side. On
January
6, 1919,
150 armed patriots attacked the garrison at Phu Tho.
Meanwhile, enemy posts in other provinces, such as Nho
Quan in Ninh Binh and Mong Cai near the Chinese border,
were besieged. However, the attacks failed. The Quang
Phuc had the intention of launching a series of attacks
against many military and administrative centers in
Tonkin,
but the plan was not implemented.
Again in
Tonkin,
on
August
31, 1917,
soldiers of the Thai Nguyen garrison held a mutiny under
the leadership of Sergeant Trinh Van Can, a former
partisan of Hoang Hoa Tham, and Luong Ngoc Quyen, a
member of the Quang Phuc movement. Joined by many
soldiers, the insurgents killed the French commander,
seized a large load of arms and munitions, and liberated
many political prisoners who then joined the ranks of
the combatants. The town of
Thai
Nguyen
was liberated. The insurgents, after a series of
discussions, gave up their plans for extending their
activities to other provinces. Instead, they dug in at
Thai Nguyen in the hope of consolidating their strength.
On September 4, the French retook the town, forcing the
insurgents to leave. Scattered in the mountainous region
around Thai Nguyen, the rebels continued their struggle
against 2,000 French troops for another six months.
In
Annam,
the most important event was the call for an uprising
made by King Duy Tan, who was enthroned in 1907, at the
age of seven, by the instigation of patriotic mandarins
and scholars, particularly Thai Phien and Tran Cao Van.
The principal forces on which King Duy relied were the
soldiers who were gathered in the thousands in
Hue
and about to leave for
France.
The signal for the start of the revolt should have been
given on
May 3,
1916.
Unfortunately, the secret was leaked and the French
disarmed the soldiers before the day of their departure.
Duy Tan attempted to flee the capital but was captured
and exiled to the
Island
of
Reunion.
Scattered armed groups were rapidly eliminated by the
French, and the patriots Thai Phien and Tran Cao Van
were executed.
In
Cochin china, patriotic activity manifested itself in
the early years of the century by the creation of
underground societies. The most important of which was
the Thien Dia Hoi (Heaven and Earth Association)
whose branches covered many provinces around
Saigon.
These associations often took the form of
political-religious organizations, and one of their main
activities was to punish traitors in the pay of the
French.
Connected to these secret societies, a movement led by a
former bonze, Phan Xich Long, was organized in 1913. Its
members, wearing white clothes and turbans, attacked the
cities with primitive weapons. Phan Xich Long was
eventually captured and executed by the French. In 1916,
underground societies in Cochin china tried to attack
several administrative centers, including the central
prison in
Saigon
and the residence of the local French governor. On the
night of February14, 1916, thousands of people armed
with knives and wearing amulets infiltrated
Saigon
and fought French police and troops who succeeded in
defeating them.
The
colonial administration, while harshly suppressing the
national movement, sought to appease the elite by
introducing a few paltry reforms, with promises of
important postwar reforms from the more generous
"liberal" governors. These promises were never
fulfilled. The fact that
France
succeeded in holding on to
Vietnam
during the war years was mainly due to the weakness of
the national movement. There were of' course patriots to
carry on the fight for national independence, but the
new and still embryonic social forces failed to give the
movement the necessary vigor and direction. Not until
these forces had further developed over subsequent
decades was the national movement able to be
revitalized.
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