History

Pre-Dynastic Era

According to Vietnamese myths, the first Vietnamese people were descended from the Dragon Lord Lac Long Quan and the Immortal Au Co. Legend has it that Lac Long Quan and Au Co had 100 sons before they split (50 went with their mother to the mountains and the other 50 went with their father to the sea). The eldest son became the first in a line of earliest Vietnamese kings, collectively known as Hung kings (Hung Vuong or Hong Bang Dynasty). The Hung kings called the country Van Lang; it was located on the Red River delta in present-day northern Vietnam. The people of Van Lang were referred to as the Lac Viet.

However, most Vietnamese historians consider the Dong Son civilisation that covered much of Southeast Asia to be the beginning of Vietnam's history. In 208 BC, a Qin Dynasty general named Trieu Da established a state called Nam Viet which encompassed southern China and the Red River Delta. The historical significance of the original Nam Viet remains controversial because some historians consider it a Chinese occupation while others believe it was an independent era. For most of the period from 111 BC to the early 10th century AD, Vietnam was under the rule of successive Chinese dynasties. Sporadic independence movements were attempted, but were quickly suppressed by Chinese forces.

939-1859: Dynastic Era

In 939 AD, the Vietnamese defeated Chinese forces at the Bach Dang River and gained independence after 10 centuries under Chinese control. They gained complete autonomy a century later. Renamed as Dai Viet, the nation went through a golden era during the Lý and Tran Dynasties. During the rule of the Tran Dynasty, Dai Viet defeated three Mongol attempts of invasion by the Yuan Dynasty. Following the brief Ho Dynasty, Vietnamese independence was briefly interrupted by the Chinese Ming Dynasty, but was restored by Le Loi, the founder of the Le Dynasty. Feudalism in Vietnam reached its zenith in the Le of the 15th century, especially during the reign of Emperor Le Thanh Tong. Between the 11th and 18th centuries, the Vietnamese expanded southward in a process known as nam tien (southward expansion). They eventually conquered the kingdom of Champa and much of the Khmer Empire.

Towards the end of the Le Dynasty, civil strife engulfed much of Vietnam. First, the Chinese-supported Mac Dynasty challenged the Le Dynasty's power. After the Mac Dynasty was defeated, the Le Dynasty was reinstalled, but with no actual power. Power was divided between the Trinh Lords in the North and the Nguyen Lords in the South, who engaged in a civil war for more than a hundred years. The civil war ended when the Tay Son brothers defeated both and established their new dynasty. However, their rule did not last long and they were defeated by the remnants of the Nguyen Lords with the help of the French, who established the Nguyen Dynasty.

1887-1954: French Colonialism

Vietnam's independence ended in the mid-19th century, when the country was colonised by the French Empire. The French administration enacted significant political and cultural changes to Vietnamese society. A Western-style system of modern education was developed, and Christianity was introduced in Vietnamese society. Developing a plantation economy to promote the exports of tobacco, indigo, tea and coffee, the French largely ignored increasing calls for self-government and civil rights. A nationalist political movement soon emerged, with leaders such as Phan Boi Chau, Phan Chau Trinh, Emperor Ham Nghi and Ho Chi Minh calling for independence. However, the French maintained dominant control of their colonies until World War II, when the Japanese war in the Pacific triggered the invasion of Indochina. The natural resources of Vietnam were exploited for the purposes of Japan's military campaigns into Burma, the Malay Peninsula and India. In the final years of the war, a forceful nationalist insurgency emerged under Ho Chi Minh, committed to independence and communism. Following the defeat of Japan, nationalist forces fought French colonial forces in the First Indochina War that lasted from 1945 to 1954. The French suffered a major defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu and shortly afterwards withdrew from the country. The countries that fought the Vietnam War divided the country at the 17th parallel into North Vietnam and South Vietnam during the Geneva Accords.

1959-1975: Vietnam War

The Vietnam War (also known as the Second Indochina War, the American War in Vietnam and the Vietnam Conflict) occurred from 1959 to April 30, 1975. The war successfully reunified the Vietnamese under a communist government which consisted of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV or North Vietnam) and the indigenous National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam, (also known the Viet Cong or VC). To a degree, the war may be viewed as a Cold War conflict between the US, its allies, and South Vietnam on one side, and the Soviet Union, its allies, the People's Republic of China, and North Vietnam on the other. Others, however, viewed the conflict as a civil war between communist and non-communist Vietnamese factions.

The communist-held North Vietnam was opposed by the United States for its close association with the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. Disagreements soon emerged over the organising of elections and reunification, and the US began increasing its contribution of military advisors even as Soviet-supplied arms and munitions strengthened communist forces. The controversial attack in 1964 on US ships in the Gulf of Tonkin triggered a US military assault on North Vietnamese military installations and the deployment of more than 500,000 troops into South Vietnam. US forces were soon embroiled in a vicious guerrilla war with the Viet Cong. North Vietnamese forces unsuccessfully attempted to overrun the South during the 1968 Tet Offensive and the war soon spread into neighbouring Laos and Cambodia. With casualties mounting, the US began transferring combat roles to the South Vietnamese military in a process known as Vietnamization. The effort had mixed results. The Paris Peace Accords on January 27, 1973 formally recognised the sovereignty of both sides. Under the terms of the accords all American combat troops were withdrawn by March 29, 1973. Limited fighting continued, but all major fighting ended until the North once again invaded in strength and overpowered the South on April 30, 1975. South Vietnam briefly became the Republic of South Vietnam, a puppet state under military occupation by North Vietnam, before being officially reunified with the North under Communist rule as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on July 2, 1976.

1975 - Present: Post War Vietnam

After their victory in the war, the Vietnamese communists banned other political parties, arrested suspects believed to have collaborated with the US and embarked on a mass campaign of collectivization of farms and factories. Reconstruction of the war-ravaged country was slow and serious humanitarian and economic problems confronted the communist regime. In 1978, the Vietnamese Army invaded Cambodia to remove their erstwhile allies, the Khmer Rouge, from power. This action worsened relations with China, which launched a brief incursion into northern Vietnam in 1979. This conflict caused Vietnam to rely even more heavily on Soviet economic and military aid.

Doi Moi

In a historic shift in 1986, the Communist Party of Vietnam implemented free-market reforms known as Doi Moi (Renovation). With the authority of the state remaining unchallenged, private ownership of farms and companies, deregulation and foreign investment were encouraged. The economy of Vietnam has achieved rapid growth in agricultural and industrial production, construction and housing, exports and foreign investment. It is now one of the fastest growing economies in the world.