Nguyễn dynasty
The Nguyễn dynasty was the last Vietnamese dynasty, preceded by the Nguyễn lords and ruling unified Vietnam independently from 1802 until the start of the French protectorate in 1883. Its emperors were members of the House of Nguyễn Phúc. During its existence, the Nguyễn empire expanded into modern-day Southern Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos through a continuation of the centuries-long Nam tiến and Siamese–Vietnamese wars. With the French conquest of Vietnam, the Nguyễn dynasty was forced to give up sovereignty over parts of Southern Vietnam to France in 1862 and 1874, and after 1883 the Nguyễn dynasty only nominally ruled the French protectorates of Annam as well as Tonkin. Backed by Imperial Japan, in 1945 the last Nguyễn emperor Bảo Đại abolished the protectorate treaty with France and proclaimed the Empire of Vietnam for a short time until 25 August 1945.
The House of Nguyễn Phúc established control over large amounts of territory in Southern Vietnam as the Nguyễn lords by the 16th century before defeating the Tây Sơn dynasty and establishing their own imperial rule in the 19th century. The dynastic rule began with Gia Long ascending the throne in 1802, after ending the previous Tây Sơn dynasty. The Nguyễn dynasty was gradually absorbed by France over the course of several decades in the latter half of the 19th century, beginning with the Cochinchina Campaign in 1858 which led to the occupation of the southern area of Vietnam. A series of unequal treaties followed; the occupied territory became the French colony of Cochinchina in the 1862 Treaty of Saigon, and the 1863 Treaty of Huế gave France access to Vietnamese ports and increased control of its foreign affairs. Finally, the 1883 and 1884 Treaties of Huế divided the remaining Vietnamese territory into the protectorates of Annam and Tonkin under nominal Nguyễn Phúc rule. In 1887, Cochinchina, Annam, Tonkin, and the French Protectorate of Cambodia were grouped together to form French Indochina.
The Nguyễn dynasty remained the formal emperors of Annam and Tonkin within Indochina until World War II. Japan had occupied Indochina with French collaboration in 1940, but as the war seemed increasingly lost, Japan overthrew the French administration on 9 March 1945 and the Nguyễn dynasty proclaimed independence for its constituent protectorates two days later. It also regained Cochinchina on 14 August 1945. The Empire of Vietnam under Nguyễn Emperor Bảo Đại was a nominally independent state but actually a Japanese puppet state during the last months of the war. It ended with the abdication of Bảo Đại following the surrender of Japan then August Revolution led by the communist Việt Minh in August 1945. This ended the 143-year rule of the Nguyễn dynasty. Bảo Đại was later restored to power to become head of state of the State of Vietnam in 1949 until the country became a republic in 1955.
Names
Việt Nam
The name Việt Nam is a variation of Nanyue, a name that can be traced back to the Triệu Dynasty of the second century BC. The term "" in Early Middle Chinese was first written using the logograph "戉" for an axe, in oracle bone and bronze inscriptions of the late Shang Dynasty, and later as "越". At that time it referred to a people or chieftain to the northwest of the Shang. In the early eighth century BC, a tribe on the middle Yangtze were called the Yangyue, a term later used for peoples further south. Between the seventh and fourth centuries BC Yue/Việt referred to the State of Yue in the lower Yangtze basin and its people. From the third century BC the term was used for the non-Chinese populations of south and southwest China and northern Vietnam, with particular ethnic groups called Minyue, Ouyue, Luoyue, etc., collectively called the Baiyue. The term Baiyue/Bách Việt first appeared in the book Lüshi Chunqiu compiled around 239 BC. By the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, educated Vietnamese called themselves and their people as người Việt and người Nam, which combined to become người Việt Nam. However, this designation was for the Vietnamese themselves and not for the whole country.The form Việt Nam is first recorded in the 16th-century oracular poem Sấm Trạng Trình. The name has also been found on 12 steles carved in the 16th and 17th centuries, including one at Bao Lam Pagoda in Hải Phòng that dates to 1558. In 1802, Nguyễn Phúc Ánh established the Nguyễn dynasty. In the second year of his rule, he asked the Jiaqing Emperor of the Qing dynasty to confer on him the title 'King of Nam Việt / Nanyue' after seizing power in Annam. The Emperor refused because the name was related to Zhao Tuo's Nanyue, which included the regions of Guangxi and Guangdong in southern China. The Qing Emperor, therefore, decided to call the area "Việt Nam" instead. Between 1804 and 1813, the name Vietnam was used officially by Emperor Gia Long.
Đại Nam
In 1839, under the rule of Emperor Minh Mạng's, the official name of the empire was Đại Việt Nam, and it was shortened to Đại Nam.Nam Triều
During the 1930s its government used the name Nam Triều on its official documents.Other names
Westerners in the past often called the kingdom Annam or the Annamite Empire. However, in Vietnamese historiography, modern historians often refer to this period in Vietnamese history as Nguyễn Vietnam, or simply Vietnam to distinguish with the pre-19th century Kingdom of Đại Việt.History
Background and establishment
Origin of Nguyễn clan
The Nguyễn clan, which originated in the Thanh Hóa Province had long exerted substantial political influence and military power throughout early modern Vietnamese history through one form or another. The clan's affiliations with the ruling elites dated back to the tenth century when Nguyễn Bặc was appointed the first grand chancellor of the short-lived Đinh dynasty under emperor Đinh Bộ Lĩnh in 965. Another instance of their influences materializes through Nguyễn Thị Anh, the empress consort of emperor Lê Thái Tông; she served as the official regent of Đại Việt for her son, the child emperor Lê Nhân Tông between 1442 and 1453.Lê dynasty's loyal vassal
In 1527, Mạc Đăng Dung, after defeating and executing the Lê dynasty's vassal, Nguyễn Hoằng Dụ in a rebellion, emerged as the intermediate victor and established the Mạc dynasty. He did this by deposing the Lê emperor, Lê Cung Hoàng, taking the throne for himself, effectively ending the once prosperous but declining later Lê dynasty. Nguyễn Hoằng Dụ's son, Nguyễn Kim, the leader of the Nguyễn clan with his allies, the Trịnh clan remained fiercely loyal to the Lê dynasty. They attempted to restore the Lê dynasty to power, igniting an anti-Mạc rebellion, in favor of the loyalist cause. Both the Trịnh and Nguyễn clan again took up arms in Thanh Hóa province and revolted against the Mạc. However the initial rebellion failed and the loyalist forces had to fled to the kingdom of Lan Xang, where king Photisarath allows them to establish an exiled loyalist government in Xam Neua. The Lê loyalists under Lê Ninh, a descendant of the imperial family, escaped to Muang Phuan. During this exile, the Marquis of An Thanh, Nguyễn Kim summoned those who were still loyal to the Lê emperor and formed a new army to begin another revolt against Mạc Đăng Dung. In 1539, the coalition returned to Đại Việt beginning their military campaign against the Mạc in Thanh Hóa, capturing the Tây Đô in 1543.Nguyễn's dominion in the south
In 1539, the Lê dynasty was restored in opposition to the Mạc in Thăng Long, this occurred after the loyalist's capture of Thanh Hoá province, reinstalling the Lê emperor Lê Trang Tông on the throne. However, the Mạc at this point still controls most of the country, including the capital, Thăng Long. Nguyễn Kim, who had served as leader of the loyalists throughout the 12 years of the Lê–Mạc War and throughout the Northern and Southern dynasties period, was assassinated in 1545 by a captured Mạc general, Dương Chấp Nhất. Shortly after Nguyễn Kim's death, his son-in-law, Trịnh Kiểm, leader of the Trịnh clan, killed Nguyễn Uông, the eldest son of Kim to take over the control of the loyalist forces. The sixth son of Kim, Nguyễn Hoàng, fears that his fate will be like his elder brother; therefore, he tried to escape the capital to avoid the purges. Later, he asks his sister, Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Bảo to ask Kiểm to appoint him to be the governor of far-south frontier of Đại Việt, Thuận Hóa. Trịnh Kiểm, thinking of this proposal as an opportunity to remove the power and influence of Nguyễn Hoàng away from the capital city, agreed to the proposal.In 1558, Lê Anh Tông, emperor of the newly-restored Lê dynasty appointed Nguyễn Hoàng to the lordship of the Thuận Hóa, the territory which have been previously conquered during the 15th century from the Champa kingdom. This event of Nguyễn Hoàng leaving Thăng Long laid the foundation for the eventual fragmentation and division of Đại Việt later down the road as the Trịnh clan would solidify their power in the North, establishing a unique political system where the Lê emperors would reign yet the Trịnh lords would rule. Meanwhile the descendants of the Nguyễn clan, through the bloodline of Nguyễn Hoàng would rule in the South; the Nguyễn clan, just like their Trịnh relatives in the north, recognize the authority of the Lê emperors over Đại Việt yet at the same time solely exercise political power over their own territory. The official schism of the two families however, would not begin until 1627, the first war between the two.
Nguyễn Phúc Lan chose the city of Phú Xuân in 1636 as his residence and established the dominion of the Nguyễn lord in the southern part of the country. Although the Nguyễn and Trịnh lords ruled as de facto rulers in their respective lands, they paid official tribute to the Lê emperors in a ceremonial gesture, and recognize Lê dynasty as the legitimacy of Đại Việt.