1. What are the main characteristics of Vietnamese History & Culture?

- Firstly, Vietnam has a long history filled with a lot of wars, especially resistant wars against foreign invaders. During
the Van Lang Au Lac civilization, Chao To conquered Au Lac in 179BC and then established Nan Yue Kingdom until
111BC when Han Dynasty replaced, starting 10 centuries of Chinese domination. During this period, there were a lot of
Vietnamese peoples uprisings against Chinese ruler such as uprising 2 sister Trung, Ms Trieu, Phung Hung, Ly Bi, Trieu
Quang Phuc, Finally, in 938AD, Ngo Quyen defeated Southern Han troops on Bach Dang River, beginning an
independent era of our country. After that, there was a civil war between 12 warlords until Dinh Bo Linh unified the
country. In the Earlier Le Dynasty, Le Hoan defeated Sung troops from China. After that, our army won against 0.5
million Mongolian Yuan troops when they attacked our country 3 times during Tran Dynasty. Later, Le Loi swept out
Ming troops, established Later Le Dynasty in 1427-1428. However, in the next period, Vienam faced a national division
into Northern Court, ruled by the Mac and Southern Court, ruled by the Le. When Mac collapsed in 1592, civil wars and
peasant wars took place, the most significant one is Trinh Nguyen War, which finally ended in the 18
th
century when 3
Tay Son brothers stood up. In 1788 1789, Nguyen Hue defeated 290,000 Tsing troops, only 5,000 survived, starting
Tay Son Dynasty. In 1858, Vietnam was attacked by French colonials. While fighting against the French, our army also
had to face 200,000 Tuong Gioi Thach troops from China. From 1846 to 1954, there was Indochina War which was a
resistant war against French imperialism. Soon after we defeated the French, we immediately faced The Vietnam War
which was a resistant war against American for nation salvation. The final general offensive and uprising 1975 totally
defeated the Neo-colonialism and unified our country. After seizing independence, Vietnam armies faced Southwest
Border War and fought against 600,000 Chinese troops in 1979. Up until now, we still have to fight over sea territory
against China.
- Secondly, Vietnam has special culture which has acculturation, or, cultural exchanges. The most important exchanges
are Sinicization and DeSinicization - the process whereby non-Han Chinese societies come under the influences of
dominant Han Chinese state and society and conversely, the elimination of Chinese influences. Sinicization includes
normal exchanges and compulsory exchanges which were the result of Chinese assimilation during 1000 years of
Chinese domination. However, Vietnam also went Desinicized, which means choosing the bets to improve. For example,
Vietnamese people did not completely use Han scripts but changing to Nom scripts, which was based on Chinese but
included newly invented characters meant to represent native Vietnamese words... Moreover, we even pronounced in
Han Vietnamese. Another acculturation is Westernization and Dewesternization, which started from the 16
th
century
until now. Like Sinicization, Westernization also had normal and compulsory exchanges, including the adoption of the
Latin alphabet and the spread of Catholicism and Protestantism which soon became a new religion in Vietnam.
Meanwhile, Dewesternization was shown through the process of how Vietnamese people build the structure of university
and education system. We learnt to apply Western technology. Art and music was also affected. Some foreign words that
we borrowed from Western languages were Vietnamized in pronunciation. Marxism was approved and adapted through
Ho Chi Minh ideology. Currently, Vietnam is in the process of Dewesternization to build up modern Vietnamese culture
with Vietnamese identity. On the other hand, Vietnamese culture also acquired Hinduisation, for example, My Son Holy
Land in the central Vietnam.
- Thirdly, Vietnamese history & culture has 2 cycles of civilization. The 1
st
one is Red River civilization, or Van Lang
Au Lac civilization, a civilization is full of cultural achievements. Van Lang and Au Lac were the 2 first states of
Vietnamese people. The reunion of tribes showed that we already had enough differentiations of classes and enough
strength to control and build up cannel along the Red River. If there had been no Van Lang Au Lac civilization, there
would be no Vietnam today. This civilization formed and built up the fundamental foundation of Vietnamese identity of
Vietnamese culture. After it collapsed, the country experienced 10 centuries of Chinese domination. However, with the
winning of Ngo Quyen in 938 against Southern Han on Bach Dang River, the 2
nd
era of Vietnamese civilization started
as Great Viet/ Dai Viet civilization during Ly Tran Later Le Dynasty. This civilization created a lot of new things.
Without Dai Viet civilization, there would be no Vietnam today too. Its collapse in the 16
th
century resulted in division,
civil wars and peasant wars. After that, Vietnam was put under colonization, bringing about the impoverishing living
standard. After the Doi Moi Policy in 1986, Vietnamese people hope to return to civilization with the new establishment
of Vietnamese Socialist.
- Finally, another

main characteristic is that Vietnamese history & culture has special development of socio-economic
formation. For instant, compared with European world which went through primitive communist, slave-owning mode of
production, federalism and capitalism, Vietnamese world also started with primitive communist, but then continued with
Asiatic mode of production, federalism and then semi-feudal colonial society along with colonial capitalism. European
culture had seeds of new society in old society, while remains of old society still existed in new society, but they only
lasted for a short time then stopped completely. Meanwhile, Vietnamese socio-economic formation did not stop at any
particular time. All mode of productions continuously existed throughout the history of the country up until 1945. For
example, primitive society was still on some mountainous areas. There were no landlords, just rich and poor people. In
other words, Vietnamese world experienced multi-mode of production.
2. What were relations between the Red River civilization and the formation of
Vietnamese identity?

- A countrys identity is the most distinguished element in culture, including changeable and unchangeable values.
Vietnamese identity includes 4 characteristics. Firstly, Vietnamese people have deep community mind. Living as a
community, Vietnamese people had strong and deep nationalism and patriotism. They treasured family values, village
values and country values. Secondly, Vietnamese identity includes flexibility and synthesis. In other words, they are
open-mindedness, Vietnamese people had no conservativeness, dogmatism, xenophobia and segregation. Besides, they
were known to had tolerance, especially religious tolerance. As we know, there were no religious wars throughout the
entire Vietnamese history. Vietnamese followed & respected, waiting for a favorable moment to upset. For example, in
politics and military, when the Vietnamese defeated an army, we sent delegation to excuse, organized diplomatic talk and
established the reasons for the army to withdraw, Another example in religion is that the Vietnamese combined
religions under Ly Tran Dynasty. When a Vietnamese person shouted Tri Pht i it included the three religions:
Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism in just one phrase. Thirdly, there was deep sentimentalism among the Vietnamese.
Relations between people was based on cooperation, no friends means no cooperation. They also used family position to
call the society, such as addressing older women as aunts, older men as uncles, etc. Finally, in Vietnamese identity, we
paid full respect to women. We called ci (female) for the biggest part such as Sng Ci (Big river), ngn ci
(thumb), We also called B im, B Quo, Hai B Trng, to show respect for women.
- From the 8
th
century BC to the 2
nd
century BC, Van Lang and Au Lac culture together formed the Red River
civilization, along with its identity. There were a lot of relations between the Red River civilization and the formation of
Vietnamese identity.
Even though it was not a nation yet, just only a strong ethnic group with national orientation, but it was the
primary or starting factor for nationalism later. Rising from the needs of controlling water from Red River, ancient Viet
tribes were needed to unify and make solidarity in order to survive. Wars and conflicts between primitive tribes taking
place during that period leaded to the reunion of Viet tribes. Also, archeologists has found many weapons in ancient
tombs, which shows that ancient Viet people believed that they could use in another world. Unlike ancient communes
such as Greek and Latin ones and German commune, Red River civilization was based on Asiatic commune, which had
only public ownership of land and had no private ownership. This resulted in the social stratification as a community,
forming the deep community mind of Vietnamese identity.
Also, the cultural exchanges during the Red River civilization formed the flexibility and synthesis of Vietnamese
identity. Its culture was influenced from North China and Southeast Asia, making a cultural combination and diversity.
Red River civilization is a result of combination and cultural exchanges in history. Vietnamese could not survive without
exchanges.
At that time, hunting and farming were Viet peoples basic methods to earn their living. The agricultural culture
formed the deep sentimentalism among Vietnamese people, which was the foundation of the formation of Vietnamese
identity.
On the other hand, with the long domination of Matriarchy in the previous time, the formation of Vietnamese
identity brought about the respect for women.
- All of these things combined together and founded the formation of Vietnamese identity. Before Chinese domination,
Vietnamese had had already independent culture and diversified civilization.



3. What were the processes of Sinicization and DeSinicization during over 10 centuries of
Chinese domination (Explain why the Vietnamese people could reserve Vietnamese
identity after over 10 centuries of Chinese domination)
- In theory, Sinicization means Chinalization the process whereby non-Han Chinese societies come under the
influences of dominant Han Chinese state and society. In the contrast, DeSinicization is the elimination of Chinese
influences. The combination of these 2 process are called cultural exchanges a rule for cultural development. In
culturology and socio-cultural anthropology, this is a special category.
- Sinicization and DeSinicization were resulted from the Chinese domination in Vietnam over 10 centuries. During and
after this period, Vietnamese people could still reserve Vietnamese identity because they knew how to practice special
acculturation. When Chao To conquered Au Lac in 179BC and Han Dynasty ruled the country in 111BC, Vietnam was
divided into administrative sub units, named as Chiao Chih (Giao Ch) and Chiu Chen (Cu Chn), which belonged to
Chiao Chou (Giao Chu). Later, Vietnam was called An Nam Colonial district While ruling Vietnam, Chinese enacted
some policies. They carried out bloody suppression in politics and military by hegemonism and ethnic cleasing . They
used Vietnamese people to rule Vietnamese people in the 2 controlled Chinese districts and autonomies of Vietnam in
villages which could not be controlled by the Chinese but the Vietnamese. They still kept the old system that
Vietnamese people used in the previous time having Military functionary and Literature under the chief. Moreover, the
Chinese rulers conducted economic exploitation which was part of their feudalist colonialism. They also enacted
immigration policy, which means bringing the Chinese to Vietnam to live, including prisoners, peasants, soldiers,
intellectuals, officials, landlords, merchants, ) More seriously, the Chinese did the cultural assimilation over Vietnam.
Vietnamese people had to learn Chinese writings, wear Chinese clothes, Until that time, Vietnam had only 2 groups
surviving: Au Viet & Lac Viet, the remaining 98% had been assimilated by the Chinese. In other words, Vietnamese
people knew how to desinicize.
- Even though Vietnamese could not keep the race identity (material), we could still keep the cultural identity (mental).
For the Sinicization, Vietnamese people experienced both normal exchanges and compulsory exchanges. Normal
exchanges, which means positive sides, were shown as how Vietnamese learnt Chinese, but Chinese also learnt
Vietnamese. In history, no exchange means no development. Therefore, everyone was free to choose, everyone has the
equal opportunity to learn together. However, there were also compulsory exchanges, which are known as assimilation -
Chinese authority wanted to assimilate Vietnamese into Chinese. Likewise, by DeSinicization, Vietnamese people not
only experienced normal exchanges by accepting, receiving, improving and adapting selectively, but also struggling
against assimilation through compulsory exchanges.
- The processes of Sinicization and DeSinicization took place mainly on language and religion the most 2 important
elements of an identity or a culture. In regard to language, Chinese wanted to destroy Vietnamese spoken language.
However, Vietnamese soon practiced the DeSinicization by selecting the best to improve. We accepted and learnt Han
script but still kept Vietnamese spoken language in the villages. We pronounced Han script in Vietnamese way, which
was called Han Viet pronunciation. We created our own national words. For example, we did not called the moon as
nguyt like the original Chinese but trng. Vietnamese people did not completely use Han scripts but changing to
Nom scripts, which was based on Chinese but included newly invented characters meant to represent native Vietnamese
words. This is also a way to enrich Vietnamese vocabulary.
- In the aspect of religion, the process of Sinicization and DeSinicization was shown as a combination of Confucianism,
Taoism and Chinese Buddhism. We accepted and selected advantages to follow. For example, Confucianism affected
most in education and politics. Vietnamese people respected intellectuals or learning. We gave prominence to social
bonds such as Tam cng (the relationship between emperor and servant, father and son, husband and wife) and Ng
thng/Five Virtues (humanism, etiquette, loyalty, intelligence and sincerity). However, Vietnamese people did not
follow the idea of not respecting manual labor and women in Confucianism, since we considered first my wife, second
my heaven (nht v nh tri) in daily cultural dialogues. Vietnamese people mainly followed Buddhism, parts of it
came from Chinese as Pht, the remaining came directly from India as Bt. We created new and unique combination of 3
religions, known as Tam gio ng nguyn. We leant Chinese orders and centralized monarchy court.
- The result of Sinicization and DeSinicization has some significances to Vietnamese culture. It was the best way to keep
Vietnamese indentity, the best way to develop, to be diversified more and more, the best way to enrich Vietnamese
culture. This is the foundation for the 2
nd
era of Vietnamese civilization Dai Viet/Great Viet civilization.

4. What were the formation and development of i Vit civilization under L Trn
Dynasty?
- i Vit civilization was formed under 3 historical needs: political, cultural and socio-economic.
Under political conditions, after more than 10 centuries of Chinese domination, Vietnamese people need to
protect and defend sovereignty and independence. Therefore, reunification and solidarity are the most important
conditions to prevent losing independence again when facing the danger of Chineses conquer. Moreover, we also had to
struggle against decentralization, which was the autonomy of villages and centralization, which was the reunion of
villages and tribes. In 968, After inh B Lnh stopped the anarchy of 12 warlords and unified the country, we needed
the strongest state, so we could not use Vn Lang u Lc structure. As a result, we learnt the Chinese model in politics:
we needed a centralized monarchy, in which the emperor was the son of the heaven with absolute power to decide
everything. Besides, we needed the strongest army to fight against enemies. For example, L Hon defeated Sung army
and established Earlier L Dynasty in 981. A perfect centralized monarchy was the most important condition for L
Trn civilization.
Under cultural conditions, Vn Lang u Lc origins continued to be kept. Community minds and filial piety
(ch Hiu) existed along with results of exchanges the culture forming after 10 centuries. Until L Trn Dynasty, it
was the combination of origins and creation that formed the cultural needs for i Vit civilization.
Under socio-economic conditions, we had a wet rice agriculture, which was a system of canals and dams to
control water. The Asiatic mode of production in our country before meant there was no private ownership, only public
ownership existed. After 10 centuries of Chinese domination, Chinese landlords had private ownership but the number
was very small, and Vietnamese landlords were even fewer. Therefore, at the 10
th
century, public ownership accounted
for of the area. Under L Trn Dynasty, we inherited, continued and developed capacity for wet rice agriculture,
which included labor, productivity, till the 16
th
century when i Vit civilization collapsed and caused famine and
death of starvation.
- The development of i Vit civilization was the top achievement of culture in terms of both material and intellectual
(or mental or spiritual) aspects.
Under material content, we built 10,000 kilometers of canals in North VN, which still exists until now. Thng
Long imperial citadel was 40 km
2
in total. In architecture, we built One Pillar Pagoda, Ph Minh Temple, Quy in
Tower, In handicrafts, we had Bt Trng village which was specialized in pottery, and many other villages with
specialization in ceramics, textile, bronze casting techniques, We also developed on-water transportation. This was the
top development of wet rice agriculture with high capacity of production.
Meanwhile, the intellectual content was the most important. The tolerance of religions in our country meant there
was a combination of 3 religions: Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. 3 within 1, 1 within 3. Vietnamese mind, spirit,
sentimental feelings were influenced by Buddhism while Vietnamese education, politics and social relations were based
on Confucianism, with 3 social bonds: Emperor servant, father son, husband wife and 5 virtues: benevolence,
righteousness, priority, intelligence and sincerity. Meanwhile, Taoism affected Vietnamese attitude to nature, in which
people enjoyed living together with the nature. We selected the best ones from 3 religions to form Vietnamese identity.
L Anh Tng established the school of 3 religions and taught simultaneously. Monks of 3 religions could be officials.
Moreover, these 3 religions also had influences in poetry and literature. Buddhism was applied in many areas, such as
military arts. In addition, we had a deep, special and unique nationalism, including a special art of political art and
military art to ensure national solidarity. Political art featured some special relationships: general army such as Trn
Hng o, emperor officials formed a royal family, and a good relation between majority and minority under political
marriages between princesses and chiefs of minorities. Military art consisted of diplomatic measures, segregation and use
of guerilla and regular armies to defeat Mongolians. For the law, we had writing court and criminal court. In education,
we established the 1
st
school named Quc T Gim.
In conclusion, if there had been no i Vit civilization, there would be no Vietnam today. Later generations continue to
inherit a lot from i Vit civilization.


5. What were the socio economic, political transformation during the period of 15
th

18
th
century?
First, we take a look at historical background. In 1400, H Dynasty was established until 1408 when Ming army invaded
our country. In 1428, L Li defeated them and established Later L Dynasty. In 1527 Mc ng Dung usurped the
throne of L emperors. Shortly after this, in 1533 i Vit was divided into 2 parts: the Northern Court ruled by Mc and
Southern Court of L emperors controlled by Nguyn Kim. In 1558, Nguyn Hong went to the south, which he wanted
to build up the southern area. In 1592, Southern Court defeated Northern Court, continuing the division of the country
with Trnh lords in the North and Nguyn lords in the South. From 1627 to 1672 there were civil wars with GianhRiver
was the boundary between 2 regions. Starting from 1771 in Quy Nhn, Nguyn Nhc, NguynH and Nguyn L
began the uprising. Then in 1785, Ty Sn army had Rch Gm Xoi Mt victory, defeated 50,000 Siamese troops.
After defeating Nguyn, in 1786, Ty Sn army passed GianhRiver and defeated Trnh. In November 1788, 290.000
Tsing troops headed by Soun Che Y came directly to Thng Long citadel. In December 1788, Nguyn Hu proclaimed
himself as the new emperor and made a counter-attack. Only 5000 Tsing troops were alive. New dynasty was established,
which meant new feudalization started until 1792 when Quang Trung died. However, in the south, Nguyn nh
recovered force and made a counter attack the north until 1802 when Ty Sn collapsed while Nguyn nh took the
throne and established Nguyn Dynasty. In late 18
th
century, the territory was as the present day by clearing the land.
The political changes during the period of 15
th
18
th
century had both negative side and negative side. For the negative
side, the most severe one was the division of the country into northern part and souther part during 3 centuries.
According to the historical law, reunion makes a country stronger and stronger; in contrast, division makes it weaker and
weaker. In addition, there were civil wars among feudalist groups such as Mc - Nguyn Kim, Trnh - Nguyn, Ty Sn -
Nguyn nh. Meanwhile, the positive side features peasant movements during 16
th
18
th
century. The strongest
development of peasant movements was peasant wars when 3 Ty Sn brothers stood up to defeated Trnh - Nguyn and
Tsing army. The reason for peasant wars was the contradiction notables, landlords, which were the collapse of political
regimes, and peasants. The significances of peasant wars included 3 ideas. First, they were dynamics for changing
society. Second, Ty Sn won feudalism while before, peasants were limited. However, peasants did not know how
historical rule to form a new society. After the winning, Ty Sn built up and established Ty Sn Court - Ty Sn
feudalism, but peasants could not represent mode of production. Third, we recognized and overcame historical limitation.
Ty Sn movements fought for both class interest and national interest. Not only did they stopped the deeper reasons for
national division by destroying Trnh - Nguyn but they defeated foreign invaders (Siamess and Tsing army)
The socio economic changes included land ownerships or land tenure. From 11
th
to 15
th
century, public ownership
dominated 2/3 of the land, while private land only accounted for 1/3. Public land included state-owning land and
communal land; private land owners included landlords and small peasants. However, in 18
th
century, there were changes
in direction of decreasing public land and increasing private land. 2/3 of public land reduced to only 1/3. The increase of
small peasants and landlords was positive. However, the peasant movements could not answer the question: What were
the historical needs? No class understood a cry for land, which was also land to the tiller. As a result, history failed
into crisis.
In addition, there were new factors in society. Seeds of capitalism appeared, which was higher development of
commodity economics, and seeds of wage labor. The establishment of handicrafts factories was the sign of
differentiation of classes. However, these elements were very small, and they developed very slowly or even did not
develop. The reason for this was the conservativeness of multi-mode production and feudalism. Poor peasants did not
dare to leave the villages or avoid feudalism. They continued to stay in the villages because of communal land, as for
every 6 years, communal land was redistributed and given to peasants, unlike European case when peasants left to form
factories. This caused a stagnation of the seeds of capitalism for a long time.
Socially, the structure of classes also experienced some changes. In the 18
th
century, the number of notables decreased
significantly while landlords increased very fast, along with tenants and small peasants. However, there was a deep
contradiction between landlords and peasants. Generally, no development of industry and progressive classes, which
were capitalist and workers resulted in no strata, no revolution in the society and led to comprehensive crisis.


6. Why did the Nguyn Court lose the independence of Vietnam in the late 19
th
century?
First, we take a look at the historical background during this period. On August 31
st
, 1858, French first came to Vietnam
in Nng. The failure in Nng battle made French turn to attack Gia nh. By 1862, through Nhm Tut agreement,
French controlled 3 eastern provinces: Bin Ha, Gia nh, nh Tng, along with 3 western provinces: Vnh Long, An
Giang, and H Tin by 1867. Southern Vietnam was put under control of French Colonial. In 1873, French attacked H
Ni citadel for the 1
st
time, Nguyn Tri Phng died. In 1874, by the 2
nd
agreement, Nguyn Court officially recognized
the domination of French in Vietnam. In 1882, French attacked H Ni secondly, Hong Diu committed suicide. In
August 1883, Nguyn Court signed Harmand agreement with the French before signing Patenotre treaty in 1884 as a
complete surrender agreement.
The reasons for losing the independence of Vietnam contain two aspects: objective and subjective. The objective reasons
also meant international conditions. In the 19
th
century, the world-wide capitalism changed for the 2
nd
time. In the 1
st

phase, capitalism of free competition changed into imperialism, which was monopolized capitalism, and France was
among imperialists. As a result, colonialism became the objective trend of capitalisms development. Because domestic
natural resources bacame smaller and smaller, and domestic labor, manpower, manforce became limited, the need to
expand and find out new natural resources, new market, new sources of cheap labor was necessary. Imperialists wanted
to get more higher monopoly interest in colonies, which was the deep reason of colonizing the world colonization.
Therefore, imperialist colonized a lot of countries, especially Asia, Latin America and Africa. This was the objective
process of colonization. Most of the countries were colonized by Western countries; however, some could avoid
colonization. Thailand and Japan were sample cases. It depended on the talented leadership of the country. In Japan, the
authority practiced the exact policies through Meiji reform, which was similar to capitalist revolution. They wanted to
modernize the country, which meant industrialism and capitalism. The reform covered many fields, including improving
foreign, capitalizing Japanese economy, infrastructure for capitalism. Education was prioritized by focusing on modern
subjects such as Mathematics and Physics. In Vietnam, Nguyn Trng Ts proposal featured similar suggestions like
Japan, but T c emperor did not accept, and he did not allow to apply into economy. As a result, Vietnam fell down
significantly. Meanwhile, Thailand belonged to the buffer area of Britian and France, so it was put under balanced
influence of these 2 countries. Thailand emperors practiced open-door policies. In Asia especially, feudalish authority
was the most important. If they had good policies to adapt the situations, which was subjective.
In Vietnam, subjective reaons in Vietnam belonged to the responsibility of Nguyn Dynasty because they made a lot of
mistakes in internal and external policies. They practiced the wrong model for the development of the country, making
Vietnam weaker and weaker and soon become a delicious decoy for foreign invaders. In economics, Nguyn Court
practiced closed-door policy, which meant stopping exchange with foreigners. They paid attention but followed obsolete
agriculture with low capacity and productivity. The absolute ownership of landlord class resulted in reactionary attitude
in economic development, as it supported feudalism which was the negative sign of history in the 19
th
century. Nguyn
Court gave a lot of barriers to stop import and export, such as heavy tax. Handicraft and industry had no condition to
develop. Besides, there was no development in monetary system, which meant no modernization in economy.
In social policy, there was a deep contradiction between landlord class and small, tenant peasants. There were many
peasants uprisings under 4 independent emperors during this period because peasants had to pay tax, labor levies and
rice rent to landlords, sometimes including interest, as peasants had no land to cultivate, so they had to rent land from
landlords. Meanwhile, Nguyn Dynasty controlled communal land and public land. Landlords became notables in
villages and controlled private land and communal land. The redistribution of communal land was practiced in the way
which was more beneficial to landlords and led to inequality in society. At that time, the feudalist class, which included
notables and bureaucratic rank became ruling class, while ruled class were peasants, laborers,
In political policy, Nguyn Court copied Tsing feudalist monarchy, which emphasized on centralized power. The
bureaucratic system became dictatorship. In the court, the imperial censor could not criticize the emperor when he made
mistakes, which led to corruption as a whole. Even though Nguyn Trng T wrote many proposals to T c emperor
from 1861 to 1871 after traveling around many countries to reform the country similar to Meiji reform, the king and
other officials ignored because they did not understand Western countries.
In military, Nguyn army were very weak because they did not have modern weapons, so they could not modernize the
army. In addition, they did not have enough training and lacked strategies to defend independence of the country. There
was no strong navy, as well as powerful warships.
In culture, education had no change, but traditional education could not develop the country. For example, Hn scripts
and Chinese ancient books from classic scholars were too difficult to learn. Besides, Nguyn Court paid attention to only
Confucianism with absolute respect. The Sung Confucianism was reactionary ideology to protect obsolete relationship
between the king and servants. It defended feudalism monarchy and made many mistakes. Traditionally, Vietnamese
were very open-minded and flexible towards religion. But Nguyn did not accept new religion and stopped that tradition
by killing a lot of Catholic believers of Christianity but still could not stop it.
On the other hand, Nguyn Court had wrong strategies when French attacked in negotiation peace. There were many
favorable moments for Vietnamese to counter-attack but Nguyn Court did not take advantages, which was a wrong
national defense policy. During 1858 and 1861, there were only 1000 French troops but Nguyn army did not dare to
counter attack, which was unreasonable. In 1862, we had a suitable time to ounter-attack, but Nguyn signed negotiation
agreement, which was also unreasonable.


7. What were the cultural, socio-economic transformations in Vietname under the French
domination and exploitation in the early 20
th
century?
First, we take a look at the historical background, after the Patenotre agreement in 1884, from 1897 to 1913, French
practiced the phase I of exploitation program under General Governor Paul Doumer, which focused on establishing
infrastructure for mining industry. From 1914 to 1918, because of World War I, French stopped exploitation but after
this, in from 1919 to 1928, under the General Albert Sarraut, French practiced phase II of exploitation, which focused on
agricultural exploitation in Mekong Delta but still continued to exploit mining in North and Central Vietnam. The
colonial objective of French was colonial exploitation: hunting for higher monopoly interest on the basis of exploiting
cheap labor, raw material resources.
In Vietnam particularly and Indochina generally, the colonial policies covered many aspects. In politics, French practiced
division to rule - using Vietnamese to beat Vietnamese, along with bloody suppression. In culture, they practiced
assimilation through Westernization and stupid people policy. In economics, the colonial exploitation was aimed to
search for more and more super interests.
To summarize, the basic policies contained four things.
First, French recognized the most important thing for them was to keep multi-mode of production in socio-
economic formation. Before French domination, Vietnam already had 3 modes of production: primitive, Asiatic and
feudalist. When coming to Vietnam, French declared to civilize Vietnamese. Instead of the stopping old modes of
production and developing modern ones, which was the responsibility of revolution, French continued to develop such
old modes. No modernization meant no civilization. Besides, French introduced a new style of relation into Vietnam:
colonial capitalism new industry, commerce, banking system, transportation, were controlled by French.
Second, French wanted to keep Vietnam in the orbit of world-wide market of French colonialism. For 50 years
from 1890 to 1939, the first 9 years was trade deficit, or import overbalance, while the remaining 41 years was trade
surplus, or export overbalance. By doing this, French was successful in hunting for super interests, but in the society,
Vietnamese people suffered from impoverishment.
Third, French gave privileges and concession, or special support to French businessmen. They did not have to
compete because they received priority to monopoly: buying at low prices but selling at expensive prices to get more
monopoly interests
Fourth, French wanted to limit industrialization. They focused on exploiting industry, especially mining industry
such as coals for exportation. However, they limited manufacturing industry, such as making chemicals, food, textile,
rubber, because they did not want Vietnam to compete with French industry.
Under the French domination in the early 20
th
century, Vietnam experienced some changes in both negative and positive
sides.
In economics, the economic traite policy was economy milked. To be more specific, Vietnam was cows for
milking, and French was selfish colonialism because they got many benefits but they did not supply good grass for
Vietnamese cows. Every 100 franc produced, 90 was sent directly to France, but only 10 was for reinvestment. For
nearly 1 century, there had been not yet industrialization, but there were some good signals in the economy. New
economic structure was formed in direction of modernization, and new process of capitalist urbanization appeared with
new-styled cities such as Si Gn, H Ni, Hi Phng, which were economic centers, especially Si Gn was a seaport
city. Compared to the pre-colonial era, the industry now included both traditional handicraft and modern industry, which
contained exploiting coals, tin, gold, wolfram, and manufacturing electricity, water, chemicals, mechanicals, textile,
food, tobacco, rubber, Agriculture was basically the same as in the previous time, as obsolete agriculture still
dominated Vietnamese economic structure. There were still traditional ploughs with low productivity, obsolete
equipment but new plantation. In commerce, import and export were modernized, from shipping through small boats and
ships to sea ships. Transportation was improved by moving on water with large and modern sea ships and sea ports such
as Si Gn, Hi Phng and on ground with a big railroad system and a system of routes . There was a national road from
the north to the south of Vietnam. In the pre-colonial era, there was still no financial or banking system, but in the
colonial era, French established Indochina Bank to issue money.
In society, the differentiation of classes also had transformation. In the pre-colonial time, in the structure of class
there were only landlords, feudalist strata and peasants. These classes still existed in the colonial era, but landlords
developed very strongly. Great landlord class accounted for 2.4% of the owners, owning 48.3% of area in Cochinchina.
Meanwhile, peasants became impoverished, causing a negative sign in the history. Despite this, there were still some
positive changes. New classes was formed, with the appearance of capitalist class, small bourgeoisie which included
intellectuals and small traders, and workers class which was also called proletariat. Currently, there were 2 basic social
contradictions in the society: national contradiction between Vietnamese and French colonist and class contradiction
between landlords and peasants.
In culture. There was acculturation of Westernization and Dewesternization. French started to teach history of
France and Vietnamese national language as a foreign language. Vietnamese had to struggle against cultural assimilation
by keeping and developing Vietnamese spoken language, Vietnamese writings and history of Vietnam. The process of
Dewesternization included the formation of Quc Ng writing. Vietnamese national writing was Romanized and
Latinized in pronunciation. In religion, Christianity and Catholicism were introduced to Vietnam. Vietnamese people had
chances to approach new ideology, new poetry, and new style of literature.
In conclusion, we should recognize both sides of the transformation. Even though negative side was mainly considered,
positive side was very necessary for Vietnamese to continue developing.


8. Which was the crisis of way for national salvation from the late 19
th
until the early 20
th

century?
First, we take a look at the historical background. Since the attack of French in 1858, Nguyn Dynasty always released
the wrong strategies for national defense. From 1861 to 1867 there were many patriotic uprising of Nguyn Trung Trc,
Trng nh, Th Khoa Hun, but most of them fell down. In July 1883, T c passed away. During only a few
months from November 1883 to early 1884, there were 3 emperors: Dc c, Hip Ha, Kin Phc. In May 1884, Hm
Nghi enthroned. In July 1885, Cn Vng proclamation, which meant loyalty to emperor was released in order to
call for the support from people to fight against French.
From the late 19
th
century to the early 20
th
century, there were 3 patriotic movements significantly. For the late 19
th

century movement, the most remarkable one was Cn Vng proclamation with typical uprisings: Ba nh (1886
1887) in Thanh Ha, Bi Sy (1883 1892) in Hng Yn, Hng Kh (1886 1892) in H Tnh and Hong Hoa Thm
(1884 1913) in Bc Giang, which was a peasant movement. The reasons for the failure of these uprisings was because
there was no good preparation because it could not make solidarity among different uprisings. The ideology of Cn
Vng uprisings was feudalism, but feudalist class (Hu Court) had no leading role in defending independence. Hm
Nghi patriotic but he could not represent the feudalist class. The Patenotre agreement in 1884 already meant surrendering
completely. All Cn Vng uprisings followed feudalist ideology, and they wanted to recover feudalism influenced by
Confucianism, which was obsolete and no longer suitable. After the failure of Cn Vng, Vietnamese patriotics fell into
crisis of way for national salvation.
The early 20
th
century patriotic movements were influenced from China and Japan. In China, Kang Yew Wei and Liang
Ki Chao were reformists who wanted to change from feudalist to democracy, which affected Confucianists in Vietnam.
In Japan, the Meiji reform spread the inspiration to Phan Bi Chu and Phan Chu Trinh, resulted in new patriotic
movements. According to Phan Bi Chus ideology, from 1904 to 1908, he sent Vietnamese students to Japan to study
as he wanted to count on Japanese assistance. However, French discovered and discussed with Japanese authority to
expel Vietnamese out of Japan. After that, Phan Bi Chu returned to China. After the uprisings of Chinese Nationalist
Party led by Sun Yat Sen in 1911, he continued to go to Thailand and organized patriotic activities. French sent some
spies to China to capture Phan Bi Chu in Shanghai and sentenced his life. Meanwhile, according to Phan Chu Trinhs
ideology, he believed he could build up cooperation with French. In fact, it was impossible because French wanted to
invest Vietnam and search for surplus interest. They did not want to cooperate with Vietnam for development. Phan
Chu Trinh mistook when recognizing the nature of French colonialism. The failure of the early 20
th
century patriotic
movements was because they was in the wrong way. Phan Bi Chu made mistakes when thinking that because Japan
had similarities in culture with our country. He did not recognized the major of Japanese were emperorlism. Moreover,
Phan Bi Chu and Phan Chu Trinh did not understand the socio-economic transformation and social contradictions
between French and Vietnamese, landlords and peasants. They did not know who were enemies. Phan Bi Chu
recognized exactly that French was one enemy, but French was not the only enemy. He did not know the role of farmers
and peasant class, which accounted for 90% of the population. Phan Chu Trinh recognized exactly the feudalism, as he
criticized Khi nh emperor, but he did not know all the feudalist class. He wanted to reform many things but it did not
change much at all. He did not recognize exactly enemies and the role of peasant class as well, resulted in crisis of way.
To be deeper, it was the crisis of progressive class, which was leading class. In the early 20
th
century, before World War I,
worker class was very small, so they did not take the leading role in society. Phan Bi Chu & Phn Chu Trinh learned
capitalism but un Vietnam, there was no capitalist, as it was in ideology only. The historical limitation was that Phan Bi
Chu and Phan Chu Trinh were very talented but at that time, there was no leading class, so they could not overcome
historical limitation.
The 3
rd
patriotic movements were after World War I. In 1920s, Vietnam had some influences from China with Three
people slogan: independence happiness - freedom, France with French revolution ideology, and Soviet Union,
especially the October Revolution. In 1919 mid 1920s, among the capitalist class, reformism was promoted with the
establishment of Constitutional Party by Bi Quang Chiu. He wanted to practiced political reform. In 1923, Vietnamese
people struggled against the monopoly of Si Gn port. Movements by small bourgeoisie and intellectuals developed as
well. In press, there were appearances of progressive newspapers such as Cracked Bell by Nguyn An Ninh, LAnnam,
Times of Indochina, The voice of people, to criticize French colonialism strongly. In addition, struggles of the mass
were strained to call for releasing Phan Bi Chu from sentence his life to outside prison, organizing Phan Chu Trinhs
funeral and demonstration. Besides, many political parties appeared such as Party of Mind by Phm Hng Thi in
Guangzhou, Vietnamese Revolutionary Party, Party of Youths, Aspiration of Youths Party by Nguyn An Ninh,
Association of Revolutionary Youths by Nguyn i Quc. The reasons for the failure of these movements were partly
the same as previous periods ones. We were practicing the wrong ways to save the country. No party recognized exactly
the enemies and the way for national salvation. They recognized French colonialist but they did not know landlord class
was the 2
nd
enemy of Vietnamese people. Therefore, they did not know basic contradictions in Vietnamese society after
World War I. Moreover, they did not recognize exactly the revolutionary forces. Vietnamese Nationalist Party by
Nguyn Thi Hc did not have slogans like Chinese Nationalist Party, which paid attention to landlords, workers and
peasants. The crisis of no leading class resulted in a spontaneous process. Methodology was wrong because it caused
separation, no solidarity, no unification. Vietnam continued to fall into crisis.
To overcome this crisis, there were influences from October Revolution and Nguyn i Qucs activities. In 1911,
Nguyn Tt Thnh left Si Gn for seeking national salvation. He respected Phan Bi Chu, Phan Chu Trinh but he
recognized something wrong, so he would like to seek another way. In 1920, Nguyn i Quc became the 1
st
communist
of Vietnam and participated to be a member of French Communist Party. In the next 10 years, he wanted to disseminate
Marxism and Leninism into Vietnam, which was a new way for national salvation. In August 1925, he established
Association of Revolutionary Youths. From 1925 to 1928, he practiced a lot of activities, such as publishing Youths
newspaper, opening training classes to prepare for the formation of the party in Guangzhou, publishing many books to
make clear new way for national salvation. He pointed out who were enemies of Vietnamese people, who were the
revolutionary forces, who were our friends to cooperate, The role of communist party was dignified. Finally, in
February 1930, Nguyn i Quc established Vietnamese Communist Party on the basis of reunifying 3 communist
parties at that time. This was the final point for crisis of way for national salvation.


9. What were reasons for the victory of the August Revolution in 1945?
After the establishment of Vietnamese Communist Party in 1930, which later changed to Indochina Communist Party,
we had a preparation of 15 years, divided into 3 periods of movements until the August Revolution in 1945, which took
only 2 weeks. This victory gave declaration for independence of Vietnam.
There were 2 kinds of reason for the victory of the August Revolution in 1945: objective and subjective. The failure of
fascism in the World War II was the most important objective reason. In 1945, Japanese fascists surrendered, which was
a very favorable condition for Vietnamese revolution, as Japanese army fell into posture of dilemmas. When the World
War II started in 1939, the face of the world was divided into 2 sides: Allied Army (Ally) which included United States,
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, France, and Axe of Fascism, which included Germany, Italia and Japan. From
1939 to 1943, Fascist was almost in active posture, but in 1943, after the counter-attack of Red Army of Soviet Union in
the Battle of Stalingrad, which was considered as the turning-point of the European theatre of the war, the situation
changed when Fascist turned into passive posture. In late 1944 - early 1945, many Eastern European countries were
liberated. In May 1945, German fascism collapsed, bringing about the failure of fascism in general. This was the
favorable moment for Vietnamese to up rise. Many Western historians considered this was the most important reason for
our victory of the August Revolution in 1945, but we had to recorrect that opinion, because the subjective reasons were
the most important.
The subjective reasons belonged to the leadership of Indochina Communist Party headed by H Ch Minh, and heroism
of Vietnamese people. To be more specific, it was thanks to the long preparation for the August Revolution during 15
years and the talented leading role in art of mastering favorable moments. With H Ch Minhs short manifesto and Trn
Phs thesis, throughout 15-year preparation, Vietnamese Communist Party would lead people to gain the government by
struggles of the mass in economics and politics, then develop to military struggles and wait for favorable moments for
military uprisings. It was clear that the revolutionary forces included peasants, proletariat, small bourgeoisie, national
capitalist, We needed international solidarity from colonial people in Western countries and international proletariat.
In the high tide 1930 1931, the Soviet Union in Ngh - Tnh was the first preparation for the future. It built up
revolutionary government but soon be suppressed bloodily by French and collapsed. However, it left some deep
significances behind the failure. It demonstrated Vietnamese Communist Partys lines Vietnamese revolution by making
solidarity among classes. In addition, it left many good lessons and experiences on how to organize uprisings for the
future.
The 1936 1939 phase was for democratic movements, which was the 2
nd
preparation. The appearance and development
of Fascism became new and the most important danger of the world, as it would destroy socialism and many democratic
countries. Every country needed to focus on struggling Fascism internationally. As a result, Vietnam had to change
tactics to struggle and started a new movement so-called as Indochina Democratic Movement. We focused on
struggling Fascism who was the direct enemy. In this situation, we reaffirmed direct enemies were reactionary
colonialists, Fascists and their followers. We used a lot of semi-legal measures. Combined with secret activities of the
communist party, we utilized opportunities to make propaganda, which was a good chance to disseminate Marxism,
Leninism and revolutionary lines of the communist party.
The 3
rd
preparation - 1939 1945, was the direct preparation for the August Revolution, which was divided into 3
periods. From 1939 to 1941, we prepared lines for the revolution through 3 meetings of Central Committee of Indochina
Communist Party: 6
th
(11.1939), 7
th
(11.1940), and 8
th
(5.1941) in which Nguyn i Quc attended after returning to
Vietnam. In 1940, Nguyn i Quc predicted the failure of fascism, so that was the time for many countries, including
Vietnam to uprise, The 3 meetings made clear the ways for the August Revolution. They pointed out the most important
objective was national liberation. There were 2 strategic objectives: defeating French for national independence and
beating landlord class for land-to-the-tiller slogan. For a long time, we did not know the exact answer which was more
important. After that, the preceding slogan was replaced to get land from enemies (French, reactionary landlords) and
redistribute land to poor peasants and landless peasants. This was very important to build up solidarity. Besides, we built
up national solidarity through Front front for great national solidarity including many classes, ranks, strata, In the
8
th
meeting, Vit Minh Front was established. The most critical standard was patriotic individuals. Above all, the most
important was the preparation of military uprisings, which was the direct responsibility to decide the favorable moments,
forces, for uprisings and to make clear formation of uprisings in Vietnam. Local uprisings were practiced first as the
pre-conditions for general uprisings when having favorable moment.
From 1941 to March 9
th
1945, we prepared revolutionary forces and bases. We defined the political forces with the
establishment of Vit Minh Front, which included many organizations for women, youths, peasants, for national
salvation. For the military forces, after the collision of Bc Sn uprisings in 1940, H Ch Minh established small unit
guerrillas called Bc Sn guerrillas, then developed to army for national salvation platoon. On December 22th 1944,
the National-liberating Vietnamese army for propaganda was founded. We built up bases in mountainous provinces in
North Vietnam: Cao Bc Lng H Tuyn Thi. In February 1941, Nguyn i Quc returned to Cao Bng, he
established Cao Bng base. After Bc Sn uprisings, Cao Bng was connected with Bc Sn - V Nhai base, which was
the foundation for Vit Bc base.
In the 3
rd
period from March 9
th
to August 1945, we prepared local uprisings. From Fall 1940 to March 1945, Japanese
and French co-dominated Vietnam, but on March 9
th
, Japanese upset French domination in just one night to gain power.
In early 1945, the imbalance between Allied Army and Fascism led to the risk that Fascism was on the verge of collapse.
In the future, Allied Army would come to Indochina to disarm Japanese. Therefore, the only way for Japanese was to
upset French. This was the new favorable moment for local uprisings. We focused on resistance to Japanese fascists and
mobilized against them. We organized political struggles and mass movements to avoid terrible famine, which made
more than 2 million people die of starvation. We developed military units and established Vit Bc base in June 1945.
There were also local uprisings in mountainous areas. As soon as H Ch Minh predicted Japanese surrender, he sent
messages to representatives and waited until August 1945, when new favorable moment came, he hold national
conference in Tn Tro to officially uprise. Since the first uprising on August 14
th
, it was only 2 weeks for general
uprisings. We took advantage of the good time, which was soon after Japanese surrender but before Allied Army came to
Vietnam to disarm Japanese. Why we did not organize revolution before that time was because the imbalance of power
between Vietnamese revolutionaries and Japanese fascists, who have hundreds thousands troops and many modern
weapons. At that time, Japanese could suppress Vietnamese easily. And why we also did not do that after that time was
because in the north of Vietnam was Chiang Kai Shek troops, and the south of Vietnam was British army, followed by
French army, which was very crowded and strong.