Hotels

Tours:

ex Da Nang

Country Information

Tailored Tours

History & Culture

Activities  & Maps

Travel Insurance

Passport Renewals

Vietnam Visas

History | Culture

history

The archaeological excavations carried out recently have proved the presence of human beings in the territory of Vietnam since the Paleolithic Age or the Old Stone Age (300,000 - 500,000 years).  In the Neolithic Age (New Stone Age), Hoa Binh - Bac Son cultures (about 10,000 BC) had witnessed the development of agriculture and animal husbandry, including even the technique of paddy rice cultivation.  The Vietnamese as an ethnic group had been formed and developed early in the Red river and Ma river delta situated in northern part of the present-day Vietnam.  Generations to generations, people moved from highland and mountainous areas to the plains, developed new lands for cultivation.  They constructed a system of irrigation dams and dykes to tame the mighty Red River, the river that brought about several devastating floods every year.  It is the process of continuous labor to control water - to fight against flood, storm and drought, to build up irrigation dams and canals for agricultural cultivation that formed the paddy rice civilization and the commune culture.  In the Bronze Age, a unique and distinct civilization had been formed that reached a high level in technical skill as well as art - the brilliant Dong Son culture.  The recent ethnological, historical and archaeological studies and researches have asserted the existence of the Hung Kings' period in Van Lang Kingdom (later Au Lac Kingdom) about 1000 years BC.  In 200 BC, Au Lac Kingdom was invaded and annexed into the giant empire of the Han feudalism in the north.  After centuries of developing a civilization and economy based on the cultivation of irrigated rice, the Vietnamese began expanding southward in search of new rice lands.  Moving down the narrow coastal plain of the Indochina Peninsula, through conquest and pioneering settlement they eventually reached and occupied the broad Mekong River Delta.  Vietnamese history is the story of the struggle to develop a sense of nationhood throughout this narrow 1,500-kilometer stretch of land and to maintain it against internal and external pressures. The first major threat to Vietnam's existence as a separate people and nation was the conquest of the Red River Delta by the Chinese, under the mighty Han dynasty (206 B.C.-AD.  220), in the first century B.C.  At that time, and in later centuries, the expanding Chinese empire assimilated a number of small bordering nations politically and culturally.  Although Vietnam spent 1,000 years under Chinese rule, it succeeded in throwing off the yoke of its powerful neighbor in the tenth century. The Vietnamese did not, however, emerge unchanged by their millennium under Chinese rule.  Although they were unsuccessful in assimilating the Vietnamese totally, the Chinese did exert a permanent influence on Vietnamese administration, law, education, literature, language, and culture.  Their greatest impact was on the Vietnamese elite, with whom the Chinese administrators had the most contact.  The effects of this Sinicization (Hanhwa) were much less intensive among the common people, who retained a large part of their pre-Han culture and language.  China's cultural influence increased in the centuries following the expulsion of its officials, as Vietnamese monarchs and aristocrats strove to emulate the cultural ideal established by the Middle Kingdom.  Even for the Vietnamese elite, however, admiration for Chinese culture did not include any desire for Chinese political control.  In the almost uninterrupted 900 years of independence that followed China's domination, the Vietnamese thwarted a number of Chinese attempts at military re-conquest, accepting a tributary relationship instead.  During this period, learning and literature flourished as the Vietnamese expressed themselves both in classical Chinese written in Chinese characters and in Vietnamese written in chu nom, a script derived from Chinese ideographs. During the Chinese millennium, other cultural influences also reached the shores of the Red River Delta.  A thriving maritime trade among China, India, and Indonesia used the delta as a convenient stopover.  Among the array of goods and ideas thus brought to Vietnam was Buddhism from India.  While the Vietnamese aristocracy clung to Chinese Confucianism, during most periods the common people embraced Buddhism, adapting it to fit their own indigenous religions and world view.  As the Red River Delta prospered, its population began expanding southward along the narrow coastal plains.  The period from the twelfth century to the eighteenth century was marked by warfare with both the Cham and Khmer, the peoples of the Indianized kingdoms of Champa and Cambodia, who controlled lands in the Vietnamese line of march to the south.  The Cham were finally defeated in 1471, and the Khmer were forced out of the Mekong Delta by 1749.  Vietnamese settlers flooded into the largely untilled lands, turning them to rice cultivation.  The southward expansion severely taxed the ability of the Vietnamese monarchy, ruling from the Red River Delta, to maintain control over a people spread over such a distance.  The inability of the ruling Le dynasty to deal with this and other problems led to the partition of the country by the nobility in the sixteenth century.  After two hundred years of warfare between competing noble families, a peasant rebellion reunified the country in the late eighteenth century.  The rebels, however, were unable to solve the problems of a country ravaged by war, famine, and natural disasters and lost control to a surviving member of the Nguyen noble family.  Nguyen Anh took the reign name Gia Long (a composite derived from the Vietnamese names for the northern and southern capitals of the country during partition) and established a new centrally located capital at Hue in 1802.  Gia Long and his successors also were unable or unwilling to solve the persisting problems of the country, particularly the age-old dilemma of land alienation, the concentration of large tracts of land in the hands of a few and the resulting creation of vast numbers of landless peasants.  The monarchy and aristocracy grew more and more removed from the people by the mid-nineteenth century.  This period also climaxed the growth of European expansionism, as Western nations sought to carve out colonies in Asia and other parts of the non-Western world.  Between 1858 and 1873, the French conquered Vietnam, dividing it into three parts- Cochin China, Annam, and Tonkin - roughly corresponding to the areas referred to by the Vietnamese as Nam Bo (southern Vietnam), Trung Bo (central Vietnam), and Bac Bo (Northern Vietnam).  HCMC became the capital of a large area including present-day Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam in the late 19th century, with the French modeling the city after their own image.  Ho Chi Minh City today still wears its French influence for all to see with wide boulevards, French architecture and a devout Catholic population.  But the French never won over the hearts of the locals, so resorted to running the city as a ruthless, money-making enterprise based on opium, tea, coffee, rubber and alcohol.  French colonial rule was, for the most part, politically repressive and economically exploitative.  Vietnamese resistance in the early years was led by members of the scholar-official class, many of whom refused to cooperate with the French and left their positions in the bureaucracy.  The early nationalists involved themselves in study groups, demonstrations, production and dissemination of anti-colonialist literature, and acts of terrorism.  Differences in approach among the groups were exemplified by Phan Boi Chau, who favored using the Vietnamese monarchy as a rallying point for driving out the French, and Phan Chu Trinh, who favored abolishing the monarchy and using Western democratic ideas as a force for gradual reform and independence.  The success of these early nationalists was limited both by their inability to agree on a strategy and their failure to involve the Vietnamese peasantry, who made up the vast majority of the population.  After World War I, another Vietnamese independence leader arose who understood the need to involve the masses in order to stage a successful anti-colonial revolt.  Ho Chi Minh, schooled in Confucianism, Vietnamese nationalism, and Marxism Leninism , patiently set about organizing the Vietnamese peasantry according to Communist theories, particularly those of Chinese leader Mao Zedong. Anti--colonial groups sprang up in the decades prior to WWII, with the most organized being the Communist Party, who organized several successful strikes before the government initiated a brutal crackdown on their activities.  During WWII, the Japanese occupied French-held regions in Asia, however they - along with the French - met resistance from a force of communists called the Viet Minh.  Due to their opposition to the Japanese, Ho's forces received funding from the Americans and the Chinese.  Ho Chi Minh's declaration of Vietnamese independence after WWII sparked violent confrontations with the French, culminating in the French military defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954.  A peace agreement, negotiated in Geneva, divided Vietnam into north and south regions.  Ngo Dinh Diem, a communist-hater and fierce Catholic took control of the south, with Saigon his capital.  Almost a million refugees streamed from the communist north into Diem's region.  When it came time for an election, Diem, sure that he would lose to Ho Chi Minh, held a rigged referendum and declared himself president of the republic of Vietnam.  In December 1960 the north announced plans to 'liberate' the south with the formation of the National Liberation Front (known in the South as the Viet Cong).  Meanwhile, unrest at Diem's tyrannical rule was boiling over into massive demonstrations and even acts of immolation by Buddhist monks.  He was assassinated by his own troops in November 1963.  Throughout the 1960s, more and more American and other Western troops began pouring into Vietnam to assist the southerners in their guerilla-style war with the Viet Cong.  Over 500,000 USA troops were in Vietnam in 1969.  The following few years saw the US withdraw from the seemingly unending conflict.  In March 1975, with the Western forces long gone, the North mounted a surprise attack on South Vietnam's Central Highlands.  The South Vietnamese decided to concede some ground, so retreated to a more defensible position.  This unplanned withdrawal turned into a rout as the Southern army panicked and the Northern army kept marching.  South Vietnam's President Thieu resigned on 21 April 1975 and fled the country, leaving his deputy in charge.  He lasted a week, and his replacement survived for 43 hours before surrendering to the Communists.  The first official act of the North Vietnamese was to change the name of Saigon to Ho Chi Minh City.  After the collapse of the Soviet Union, though, the government - deprived of much-needed aid - had no choice but to seek reconciliation with the West.  Ho Chi Minh City has adapted well to this rapid change, with new buildings and a greater hope for the future.  Ho Chi Minh City stands poised to become one of Asia's great metropolises.

Economic renovation: Doi Moi:
Since 1986, the government launched the "Doi Moi" or all-round renovation process, stepping in the general development trend and the process of gradual globalization and regionalization.  The 6th Congress of Vietnam Communist Party in December 1986 strictly self-criticized its mistakes in the past years, assessing carefully its achievements, analyzing mistakes and drawbacks, setting forth all-round renovation policy.  With top priority being given to economic reform for creating a multi-sector market economy regulated by the Government’, at the same time consolidating legal environment and renovating Party’s and State’s structure.  Since then the Vietnamese economy became opened and transformed from centralized planned economy heavily based on imports to a market-oriented one.  The self-determination of financing was introduced.  All aimed at budget balancing and promoting exports.  As from 1989, Vietnam began to export about 1 - 1.5 ton of rice, inflation rate gradually decreased (the rate stood at 67.4% in 1990), living standards were improved, democracy got enhanced, national defense and internal security got firmly consolidated, the external relations were broadened freeing the country from blockage and isolation.   In June 1991, the VVII th Congress of the Vietnam Communist Party reaffirmed its determination to pursue the renovation process overcoming difficulties and challenges, stabilizing political situation, pushing back unfairness and negative activities, directing the country out of crisis.  The Congress also set forth the foreign policy of multi-lateralization and diversification the guideline "Vietnam wants to be friend all other countries in the International Community for Peace, Independence and Development".  With renovation process, Vietnam step by step surpassed many difficulties, hindrances, and achieved great results.  During the 1991-1998 period, the average economic growth rate (presented by the increase rate in GDP) reached 8%.  In 1999 the economy was seriously affected by the economic crisis in the region and natural calamities; it GDP growth was only 4,5%.  However, economic performance is inspiring in 2000 with GDP growth of 6,7% by first nine months.  By September 2000, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) reached $ 36 billion with 2,500 projects; inflation decreased from 67.1% (in 1991) to 6% (in 2000), living standards of the majority were improved.  The cultural and intellectual standard got further increased.  Generally, Vietnam has made a lot of progress in the fields of education, health care, culture and art, sports, family planning, public media, and other social activities.  The political situation, independence and sovereignty of the nation, national security and defense have been maintained stable, thus actively facilitating the "Doi Moi" process.  The political system from central to local level was consolidated; the State's rule and law has been firmly constructed and increasingly made perfect.  The foreign policy of independence and sovereignty multi-lateralization and diversification has brought about great results.  Now, Vietnam has established diplomatic relations with nearly 170 countries, trade relations with 165 countries, and attracting foreign investment from more than 70 countries and territories. 

CULTURE

It can be said that there were three layers of culture overlapping each other during the history of Vietnam: local culture, the culture that mixed with those of China and other countries in the region, and the culture that interacted with Western culture.  The most prominent feature of the Vietnamese culture is that it was not assimilated by foreign cultures thanks to the strong local cultural foundations.  On the contrary, it was able to utilize and localize those from abroad to enrich the national culture. 

The Vietnamese national culture emerged from a concrete living environment: a tropical country with many rivers and the confluence of great cultures.  The natural conditions (temperature, humidity, monsoon, water-flows, water-rice agriculture etc) exert a remarkable impact on the material and spiritual life of the nation, the characteristics and psychology of the Vietnamese.  The Vietnamese nation was formed early in the history and often had to carry out wars of resistance against foreign invaders, which created a prominent cultural feature: a patriotism that infiltrated and encompassed every aspect of life. 
 

The Vietnamese nation was primarily influenced through a process of anthropological cross-pollination between ancient Chinese and Indian cultures. 

As far as anthropology is concerned, the Vietnamese people have their origin in the Mongoloid race, which is scattered throughout northern and eastern Asia.  At present, there are about 54 Ethnic minority groups inhabiting Vietnam.  The Kinh (or Viet) people account for nearly 90 percent of Vietnam's total population. Major ethnic minority groups include the Tay, Thai, Muong, H'Mong, Dao, and Khmer. Each ethnic group has developed its own language and cultural identity, thus making the Vietnamese culture a well blended combination of different cultures.

The Viet language is recognized, however, as the official language and serves as a universal means of communication for all inhabitants of Vietnam. In the historical course of national development, all ethnic groups have been closely attached, sharing in the fight against foreign invaders, defending the country's territory, and gaining the right to national independence and self determination.