Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh (1890-1869)
Background to Vietnam’s Nationalist Movements
Ancient Vietnam * Vietnam was once ruled by the Han and Tang Dynasties of China for over a thousand years until 939, and then from 1407 to 1428 * As such the Vietnamese had a strong sense of national identity, and also frequently put up violent resistance to foreign rulers. In the end Vietnamese resolve always overcame the patience and resources of the foreign rulers. * Northern Vietnam was ruled by the Trinh family, while the South was ruled by the Nguyen family. These, and other factors including the narrow strip of land joining the North and South of Vietnam, and the mountains in Central Vietnam dividing the two lands, the Vietnamese were thus also divided to a certain extent.
Colonial Vietnam * Early resistance to the French, led by patriotic Confucianist elites, was put down in the mid-1880s when guerrilla forces were defeated in Central Vietnam * Reforms by the French undermined the status of the traditional Confucianists and their power in Vietnam, and also eroded traditional customs, such as the replacement of the Chinese script, the traditional way of transmitting Confucian doctrine in Vietnam, by a transliteration based on the Latin alphabet, the kind we see used in Vietnam today. * After 1900 a new generation of revolutionaries arose in Vietnam, of which the most famous was Phan Boi Chau, a republican influenced by Sun Yat-sen and also the Meiji Restoration in Japan. These radicals were influenced by Chinese reformist intellectuals’ writings, but their knowledge of mass politics, understanding of the new world outside Vietnam, and use of strategy was indeed very limited. They later lost influence very quickly after Chau was arrested in South China, 1914. * At this time in Vietnam, there arose two new social classes: the urban middle class, and the proletariat. * The urban middle class comprised an upper and lower layer: * The upper layer
Background to Vietnam’s Nationalist Movements
Ancient Vietnam * Vietnam was once ruled by the Han and Tang Dynasties of China for over a thousand years until 939, and then from 1407 to 1428 * As such the Vietnamese had a strong sense of national identity, and also frequently put up violent resistance to foreign rulers. In the end Vietnamese resolve always overcame the patience and resources of the foreign rulers. * Northern Vietnam was ruled by the Trinh family, while the South was ruled by the Nguyen family. These, and other factors including the narrow strip of land joining the North and South of Vietnam, and the mountains in Central Vietnam dividing the two lands, the Vietnamese were thus also divided to a certain extent.
Colonial Vietnam * Early resistance to the French, led by patriotic Confucianist elites, was put down in the mid-1880s when guerrilla forces were defeated in Central Vietnam * Reforms by the French undermined the status of the traditional Confucianists and their power in Vietnam, and also eroded traditional customs, such as the replacement of the Chinese script, the traditional way of transmitting Confucian doctrine in Vietnam, by a transliteration based on the Latin alphabet, the kind we see used in Vietnam today. * After 1900 a new generation of revolutionaries arose in Vietnam, of which the most famous was Phan Boi Chau, a republican influenced by Sun Yat-sen and also the Meiji Restoration in Japan. These radicals were influenced by Chinese reformist intellectuals’ writings, but their knowledge of mass politics, understanding of the new world outside Vietnam, and use of strategy was indeed very limited. They later lost influence very quickly after Chau was arrested in South China, 1914. * At this time in Vietnam, there arose two new social classes: the urban middle class, and the proletariat. * The urban middle class comprised an upper and lower layer: * The upper layer