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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 piastres in the form of loans
and 336,000 tonnes 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 Cochinchina,
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 Cochinchina 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. |
