Although Ho Chi Minh remains the most memorable Vietnamese nationalist of the modern period, he was by no means the only one. Many Vietnamese, including several important leaders, fought against French colonialism in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Although these leaders were not successful at expelling the French from their homeland, their examples helped influence later leaders and foreshadowed the way those leaders would operate. The names Phan Dinh Phung and Phan Boi Chau may not be familiar to many outside Vietnam, but the movements they led helped influence the turbulent history of Vietnam in the middle part of the 20th century. Other movements that were not led by a single important figure were also influential in that they foreshadowed what techniques would work and what techniques would not work for later rebellions.
Conflict between Vietnam and the West began in the 19th century when the French began showing an ever increasing interest in what they called ÒIndochina.Ó By the 1840s, the French were sending merchants, diplomats, and soldiers to Vietnam and Catholic missionaries had been successful in converting almost half a million Vietnamese to Christianity. Like most non-Western countries, Vietnam had to deal with the difficult question of what they should do about the European foreigners. The French compensated for what they lacked in numbers with a technological advantage that made it difficult for the Vietnamese to impose their will in their own country.
Given the ever increasing threat that the French, especially its missionaries, posed to the Vietnamese Emperors, it is little wonder the Emperors began to persecute the French missionaries and their new converts after the death of Viceroy Le Duyet, who had been protecting Christians, in 1832. These efforts only exacerbated the already volatile relationship between the French and the Vietnamese, however, as the French took violent reprisals against the Vietnamese for their persecution of French missionaries. Partly to protect its missionaries and citizens in Vietnam and partly for its own imperial designs, France began serious efforts to annex Vietnam itself in 1857. That year, Louis-Napoleon became convinced of the necessity for military intervention and authorized the use of force.
The French invasion of Indochina began in late 1858 when the French captured the key city of Tourane and later Gia Dinh (later called Saigon and then Ho Chin Minh City). Although the French failed to gain the support of Vietnamese Christians and disease forced the French to eventually retreat from Tourane, 1858 marked the beginning of a prolonged French occupation of Vietnam as part of its Indochina colony. The French achieved a decisive victory in 1862 when they forced Vietnamese Emperor Tu Duc to sign the Treaty of Saigon. Among other things, this treaty gave the French control of three provinces in the South of Vietnam and gave French warships and missionaries freedom to travel throughout Vietnam.
The French continued to consolidate control over Indochina by gaining control of Cambodia in the 1860s and Hanoi itself in 1873. After losing his own palace to the French, Emperor Tu Duc was forced to recognize French authority over all of Cochinchina. A Vietnamese army defeated the French under Henri Riviere in 1882, but rather than forcing the French to give up their claims to Cochinchina and the rest of Indochina, defeat strengthened their resolve and convinced the French Parliament of the necessity of providing French commanders in Vietnam with additional men and funds to subdue any obstacles to French rule. Within two years, there were over 16,000 French troops in Vietnam.
Surprisingly, this military build-up did not deter Vietnamese nationalists from resisting foreign domination. Under the leadership of Confucian scholar Phan Dinh Phung, the supporters of the Can Vuong rebellion originally sought to reinstate the deposed Vietnamese Emperor Ham Nghi. The rebels, both scholars and peasants, suffered a major blow when Ham Nghi was captured by the French in 1888 although some of the rebels continued to resist until Phan Dinh Phung died in 1895. Despite its failure, the Can Vuong rebellion foreshadowed the way future nationalist movements would build a broad bass of support among both the scholars and peasants of Vietnamese.
While resistance to the French did not suddenly disappear in 1895, many Vietnamese had begun to accept foreign rule by the end of the 19th century. After all, the French did bring some good things with them to Vietnam. They built hospitals, schools, orphanages, believing in their own version of the Òwhite manÕs burdenÓ and the need to ÒcivilizeÓ the Vietnamese. While opportunities for native Vietnamese were limited and many, including children, ended up working long hours in harsh conditions in factories or in plantations, some native Vietnamese enjoyed some limited upward mobility. Some Vietnamese, especially those from well-to-do families traveled to Paris to study in France. Some of these students eventually obtained jobs in the French colonial government itself. In time, the French were even able to put a French educated Emperor, Bao Dai, on the throne as a powerless figurehead to Òrubber-stampÓ their rule.
