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Vietnam The Nguyen Dynasty and Expanding French Influence
In June 1802, Nguyen Anh adopted the reign name Gia Long to
express the unifying of the country--Gia from Gia Dinh (Saigon)
and Long from Thang Long (Hanoi). As a symbol of this unity, Gia
Long changed the name of the country from Dai Viet to Nam Viet.
For the Chinese, however, this was too reminiscent of the wayward
General Trieu Da. In conferring investiture on the new
government, the Chinese inverted the name to Viet Nam, the first
use of that name for the country. Acting as a typical
counterrevolutionary government, the Gia Long regime harshly
suppressed any forces opposing it or the interests of the
bureaucracy and the landowners. In his drive for control and
order, Gia Long adopted the Chinese bureaucratic model to a
greater degree than any previous Vietnamese ruler. The new
capital at Hue, two kilometers northeast of Phu Xuan, was
patterned after the Chinese model in Beijing, complete with a
Forbidden City, an Imperial City, and a Capital City. Vietnamese
bureaucrats were required to wear Chinese-style gowns and even
adopt Chinese-style houses and sedan chairs. Vietnamese women, in
turn, were compelled to wear Chinese-style trousers. Gia Long
instituted a law code, which followed very closely the Chinese
Qing dynasty (1644-1911) model. Under the Gia Long code, severe
punishment was meted out for any form of resistance to the
absolute power of the government. Buddhism, Taoism, and
indigenous religions were forbidden under the Confucianist
administration. Traditional Vietnamese laws and customs, such as
the provisions of the Hong Duc law code protecting the rights and
status of women, were swept away by the new code. Taxes that had
been reduced or abolished under the Tay Son were levied again
under the restored Nguyen dynasty. These included taxes on
mining, forestry, fisheries, crafts, and on various domestic
products, such as salt, honey, and incense. Another heavy burden
on the peasantry was the increased use of corvee labor to build
not only roads, bridges, ports, and irrigation works but also
palaces, fortresses, shipyards, and arsenals. All but the
privileged classes were required to work on such projects at
least sixty days a year, with no pay but a rice ration. The great
Mandarin Road, used by couriers and scholar-officials as a link
between Gia Dinh, Hue, and Thang Long, was started during this
period in order to strengthen the control of the central
government. Military service was another burden on the peasantry;
in some areas one out of every three men was required to serve in
the Vietnamese Imperial Army. Land reforms instituted under the
Tay Son were soon lost under the restored Nguyen dynasty, and the
proportion of communal lands dwindled to less than 20 percent of
the total. Although chu nom was retained as the national
script by Gia Long, his son and successor Minh Mang, who gained
the throne upon his father's death in 1820, ordered a return to
the use of Chinese ideographs.
Peasant rebellion flared from time to time throughout the
first half of the nineteenth century, fueled by government
repression and such calamities as floods, droughts, epidemics,
and famines. Minority groups, including the Tay-Nung, Muong, and
Cham, were also in revolt. Although they were primarily peasant
rebellions, some of these movements found support from, or were
led by, disaffected scholars or some of the surviving pretenders
to the Le throne. Vietnam's foreign relations were also a drain
on the central government during this period. Tributary missions
were sent biennially to the Qing court in Beijing, bearing the
requisite 600 pieces of silk, 200 pieces of cotton, 1,200 ounces
of perfume, 600 ounces of aloes wood, 90 pounds of betel nuts, 4
elephant tusks, and 4 rhinoceros horns. Other missions to pay
homage (also bearing presents) were sent every four years. At the
same time, Vietnam endeavored to enforce tributary relations with
Cambodia and Laos. In 1834, attempts to make Cambodia a
Vietnamese province led to a Cambodian revolt and to Siamese
intervention, with the result that a joint Vietnamese-Siamese
protectorate was established over Cambodia in 1847. Other foreign
adventures included Vietnamese support for a Laotian rebellion
against Siamese overlordship in 1826-27.
The most serious foreign policy problem for the Nguyen
rulers, however, was dealing with France through the French
traders, missionaries, diplomats, and naval personnel who came in
increasing numbers to Vietnam. The influnce of missionaries was
perceived as the most critical issue by the court and scholarofficials . The French Societe des Missions Etrangeres reported
450,000 Christian converts in Vietnam in 1841. The Vietnamese
Christians were for the most part organized into villages that
included all strata of society, from peasants to landowners. The
Christian villages, with their own separate customs, schools, and
hierarchy, as well as their disdain for Confucianism, were viewed
by the government as breeding grounds for rebellion--and in fact
they often were. The French presence did, however, enjoy some
support at high levels. Gia Long felt a special debt to Pigneau
de Behaine and to his two chief French naval advisers, JeanBaptiste Chaigneau and Philippe Vannier, both of whom remained in
the country until 1824. There were also members of the Vietnamese
court who urged the monarchy to undertake a certain degree of
westernization and reform in order to strengthen itself in the
areas of administration, education, and defense. In the southern
part of the country, Christians enjoyed the protection of Viceroy
Le Van Duyet until his death in 1832. Soon thereafter the Nguyen
government began a serious attempt to rid itself of French
missionaries and their influence. A series of edicts forbade the
practice of Christianity, forcing the Christian communities
underground. An estimated ninety-five priests and members of the
laity were executed by the Vietnamese during the following
quarter of a century.
In response, the missionaries stepped up their pressure on
the French government to intervene militarily and to establish a
French protectorate over Vietnam. During this period, French
traders became interested in Vietnam once more, and French
diplomats in China began to express the view that France was
falling behind the rest of Europe in gaining a foothold in Asia.
Commanders of a French naval squadron, permanently deployed in
the South China Sea after 1841, also began to agitate for a
stronger role in protecting the lives and interests of the
missionaries. Given tacit approval by Paris, naval intervention
grew steadily. In 1847 two French warships bombarded Tourane (Da
Nang), destroying five Vietnamese ships and killing an estimated
10,000 Vietnamese. The purpose of the attack was to gain the
release of a missionary, who had, in fact, already been released.
In the following decade, persecution of missionaries continued
under Emperor Tu Duc, who came to the throne in 1848. While the
missionaries stepped up pressure on the government of Louis
Napoleon (later Napoleon III), which was sympathetic to their
cause, a Commission on Cochinchina made the convincing argument
that France risked becoming a second-class power by not
intervening.
Data as of December 1987
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