The Catholic Church in Vietnam is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of bishops in Vietnam who are in communion with the Pope in Rome. Vietnam has the fifth largest Catholic population in Asia, after the Philippines, India, China and Indonesia. There are about 7 million Catholics in Vietnam, representing 7.4% of the total population.[1] There are 27 dioceses (including three archdioceses) with 2,228 parishes and 2,668 priests.[2] The main liturgical rites employed in Vietnam are those of the Latin Church.
A variant of the Lord's Prayer in Vietnamese (Kinh Thiên Chúa 經天主) written in chữ Nôm in the book, 聖教經願 Thánh giáo kinh nguyện.Vietnamese Hail Mary in chữ Nôm and chữ Quốc ngữ, late 18th century.
The first Catholic missionaries visited Vietnam from Portugal and Spain in the 16th century. The early Catholic missions in Vietnam achieved modest success among local populations. Only after the arrival of Jesuits in the first decades of the 17th century did Christianity began to gain converts within the local populations in both domains of Đàng Ngoài (Tonkin) and Đàng Trong (Cochinchina).[3] These missionaries were mainly Italians, Portuguese, and Japanese. Two priests, Francesco Buzomi and Diogo Carvalho, established the first Catholic community in Hội An in 1615. Between 1627 and 1630, Avignonese Alexandre de Rhodes and Portuguese Pero Marques converted more than 6,000 people in Tonkin.[4]
In the 17th century, Jesuit missionaries including Francisco de Pina, Gaspar do Amaral, Antonio Barbosa, and de Rhodes developed an alphabet for the Vietnamese language, using the Latin script with added diacritic marks.[5] This writing system continues to be used today, and is called chữ Quốc ngữ (literally "national language script"). Meanwhile, the traditional chữ Nôm, in which Girolamo Maiorica was an expert, was the main script conveying Catholic faith to Vietnamese until the late 19th century.[6]
Since the late 17th century, French missionaries of the Foreign Missions Society and Spanish missionaries of the Dominican Order were gradually became active in evangelization in Vietnam. Other missionaries active in pre-modern Vietnam were Franciscans (in Cochinchina), Italian Dominicans & Discalced Augustinians (in Eastern Tonkin), and those sent by the Propaganda Fide.
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The French missionary priest and Bishop of AdraaPigneau de Behaine had a significant influence in Vietnamese history towards the end of the 18th century. He had come to southern Vietnam to evangelize. In 1777, the Tây Sơn brothers killed the ruling Nguyễn lords. Nguyễn Ánh was the most senior member of the family to have survived, and he fled into the Mekong Delta region in the far south, where he met Pigneau.[7] Pigneau became Nguyễn Ánh's advisor.[8][9] Pigneau reportedly hoped that by playing a role in assisting Ánh attain victory, he would be in position to gain important concessions for the Catholic Church in Vietnam and helping its expansion throughout Southeast Asia. From then on he became a political and military advisor.[10]
At one stage during the civil war, the Nguyễn were in trouble, so Pigneau was dispatched to seek French aid. He was able to recruit a band of French volunteers.[11] Pigneau and other missionaries acted as procurement agents for Nguyễn Ánh, purchasing munitions and other military supplies.[12] Pigneau also served as a military advisor and de facto foreign minister until his death in 1799.[13][14] From 1794, Pigneau took part in all campaigns. He organized the defense of Diên Khánh when it was besieged by a numerically vastly superior Tây Sơn army in 1794.[15] Upon Pigneau's death,[16] Gia Long's funeral oration described the Frenchman as "the most illustrious foreigner ever to appear at the court of Cochinchina".[17][18]
By 1802, when Nguyễn Ánh conquered all of Vietnam and declared himself Emperor Gia Long, the Catholic Church in Vietnam had three dioceses as follows:
Diocese of Eastern Tonkin: 140,000 members, 41 Vietnamese priests, 4 missionary priests and 1 bishop.
Diocese of Western Tonkin: 120,000 members, 65 Vietnamese priests, 46 missionary priests and 1 bishop.
Diocese of Central and Southern Cochinchina: 60,000 members, 15 Vietnamese priests, 5 missionary priests and 1 bishop.[19]
Gia Long tolerated the Catholic faith of his French allies and permitted unimpeded missionary activities out of respect to his benefactors.[20] The missionary activities were dominated by the Spanish in Tonkin and the French in the central and southern regions.[21] At the time of his death, there were six European bishops in Vietnam.[21] The population of Christians was estimated at 300,000 in Tonkin and 60,000 in Cochinchina.[22]
Three Catholics confess their faith and refuse to step over the cross.
The peaceful coexistence of Catholicism alongside the classical Confucian system of Vietnam was not to last. Gia Long himself was Confucian in outlook. As Crown Prince Nguyễn Phúc Cảnh had already died, it was assumed that Cảnh's son would succeed Gia Long as emperor, but, in 1816, Nguyễn Phúc Đảm, the son of Gia Long's second wife, was appointed instead.[23] Gia Long chose him for his strong character and his deeply conservative aversion to Westerners, whereas Cảnh's lineage had converted to Catholicism and were reluctant to maintain their Confucian traditions such as ancestor worship.[24]
Lê Văn Duyệt, the Vietnamese general who helped Nguyễn Ánh—the future Emperor Gia Long—put down the Tây Sơn rebellion, unify Vietnam and establish the Nguyễn dynasty, and many of the high-ranking mandarins opposed Gia Long's succession plan.[25] Duyệt and many of his southern associates tended to be favourable to Christianity, and supported the installation of Nguyễn Cảnh's descendants on the throne. As a result, Duyệt was held in high regard by the Catholic community.[26] According to the historian Mark McLeod, Duyệt was more concerned with military rather than social needs, and was thus more interested in maintaining strong relations with Europeans so that he could acquire weapons from them, rather than worrying about the social implications of westernization.[26] Gia Long was aware that Catholic clergy were opposed to the installation of Minh Mạng because they favored a Catholic monarch (Cảnh's son) who would grant them favors.[26]
Minh Mạng began to place restrictions on Catholicism.[27] He enacted "edicts of interdiction of the Catholic religion" and condemned Christianity as a "heterodox doctrine". He saw the Catholics as a possible source of division,[27] especially as the missionaries were arriving in Vietnam in ever-increasing numbers.[28] Duyệt protected Vietnamese Catholic converts and westerners from Minh Mạng's policies by disobeying the emperor's orders.[29]
Minh Mạng issued an imperial edict, that ordered missionaries to leave their areas and move to the imperial city, ostensibly because the palace needed translators, but in order to stop the Catholics from evangelizing.[30] Whereas the government officials in central and northern Vietnam complied, Duyệt disobeyed the order and Minh Mạng was forced to bide his time.[30] The emperor began to slowly wind back the military powers of Duyệt, and increased this after his death.[31] Minh Mạng ordered the posthumous humiliation of Duyệt, which resulted in the desecration of his tomb, the execution of sixteen relatives, and the arrests of his colleagues.[32] Duyệt's son, Lê Văn Khôi, along with the southerners who had seen their and Duyệt's power curtailed, revolted against Minh Mạng.
Khôi declared himself in favour of the restoration of the line of Prince Cảnh.[33] This choice was designed to obtain the support of Catholic missionaries and Vietnamese Catholics, who had been supporting the Catholic line of Prince Cảnh. Lê Văn Khôi further promised to protect Catholicism.[33] In 1833, the rebels took over southern Vietnam,[33][34] with Catholics playing a large role.[35] 2,000 Vietnamese Catholic troops fought under the command of Father Nguyễn Văn Tâm.[36]
The rebellion was suppressed after three years of fighting. The French missionary Father Joseph Marchand, of the Paris Foreign Missions Society was captured in the siege, and had been supporting Khôi, and asked for the help of the Siamese army, through communications to his counterpart in Siam, Father Jean-Louis Taberd. This showed the strong Catholic involvement in the revolt and Father Marchand was executed.[34]
The failure of the revolt had a disastrous effect on the Christians of Vietnam.[35] New restrictions against Christians followed, and demands were made to find and execute remaining missionaries.[36] Anti-Catholic edicts to this effect were issued by Minh Mạng in 1836 and 1838. In 1836–37 six missionaries were executed: Ignacio Delgado, Dominico Henares, José Fernández, François Jaccard, Jean-Charles Cornay, and Bishop Pierre Borie.[37][38] The villages of Christians were destroyed and their possessions confiscated. Families were broken apart. Christians were branded on the forehead with tà đạo, “false religion.” It is believed that between 130,000 and 300,000 Christians died in the various persecutions. The 117 proclaimed saints represent the many unknown martyrs.
From 1954 to 1975, Vietnam was split into North and South Vietnam. During a 300-day period where the border between the two sides was temporarily open, many North Vietnamese Catholics fled southward out of fear that they would be persecuted by the Viet Minh.
In a country where Buddhists were the majority,[39][40][41][42][43][44][45][excessive citations] President Ngô Đình Diệm's policies generated claims of religious bias even though he sponsored and supported many Buddhist organizations, and Buddhism flourished under his regime.[46] As a member of the Catholic minority, he pursued policies which antagonized the Buddhist majority.[neutrality is disputed] The government was biased towards Catholics in public service and military promotions, and the allocation of land, business favors and tax concessions.[47] Diệm once told a high-ranking officer, forgetting the man was from a Buddhist background, "Put your Catholic officers in sensitive places. They can be trusted."[48] Many officers in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam converted to Catholicism to better their prospects.[48] The distribution of firearms to village self-defense militias intended to repel Việt Cộng guerrillas saw weapons only given to Catholics.[49] Some Catholic priests ran their own private armies,[50] and in some areas[which?] forced conversions, looting, shelling and demolition of pagodas occurred.[when?][how?][why?][51][bettersourceneeded]
Some villages converted en masse in order to receive aid or avoid being forcibly resettled by Diệm's regime.[52] The Catholic Church was the largest landowner in the country, and its holdings were exempt from reform and given extra property acquisition rights, while restrictions against Buddhism remained in force.[53][54] Catholics were also de facto exempt from the corvée labor that the government obliged all citizens to perform; U.S. aid was disproportionately distributed to Catholic majority villages. In 1959, Diem dedicated his country to the Virgin Mary.[55]
The white and gold "Vatican flag" was regularly flown at all major public events in South Vietnam.[56] The newly constructed Huế and Đà Lạt universities were placed under Catholic authority to foster a Catholic-influenced academic environment.[57]
In May 1963, in the central city of Huế, where Diệm's elder brother Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục was archbishop, Buddhists were prohibited from displaying the Buddhist flag during the sacred Buddhist Vesak celebrations.[58] A few days earlier, Catholics were encouraged to fly religious—that is, papal—flags at the celebration in honour of Thục's anniversary as bishop.[59] Both actions technically violated a rarely enforced law which prohibited the flying of any flag other than the national one, but only the Buddhist flags were prohibited in practice.[59] This prompted a protest against the government, which was violently suppressed by Diệm's forces, resulting in the killing of nine civilians. This in turn led to a mass campaign against Diệm's government during what became known as the Buddhist crisis. Diệm was later deposed and assassinated on 2 November 1963.[60][61] Recent scholarships reveal significant understandings about Diệm's own independent agenda and political philosophy.[62] The Personalist Revolution under his regime promoted religious freedom and diversity to oppose communism's atheism. However, this policy itself ultimately enabled religious activists to threaten the state that supported their religious liberty.[63]
There have been meetings between leaders of Vietnam and the Vatican, including a visit by Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng to the Vatican to meet Pope Benedict XVI on 25 January 2007. Official Vatican delegations have been traveling to Vietnam almost every year since 1990 for meetings with its government authorities and to visit Catholic dioceses. In March 2007, a Vatican delegation visited Vietnam and met with local officials.[64] In October 2014, Pope Francis met with Prime Minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng in Rome. The sides continued discussions about the possibility of establishing normal diplomatic relations, but have not provided a specific schedule for the exchange of ambassadors.[65] The Pope would again meet Vietnamese leader Trần Đại Quang and his associates in Vatican in 2016.[66]
Vietnam remains as the only Asian communist country to have an unofficial representative of the Vatican in the country and has held official to unofficial meetings with the Vatican's representatives both in Vietnam and the Holy See—which does not exist in China, North Korea and Laos—due to long and historical relations between Vietnam and the Catholic Church dating to before the period of French colonization in Southeast Asia. These relations have improved in recent years, as the Holy See announced they will have a permanent representative in Vietnam in 2018.[67][68]
Restrictions on Catholic life in Vietnam and the government's desired involvement in the nomination of bishops challenges to dialogue. In March 2007, Thaddeus Nguyễn Văn Lý (b. 1946), a dissident Catholic priest, was sentenced by Vietnamese court in Huế to eight years in prison on grounds of "anti-government activities". Nguyen, who had already spent 14 of the past 24 years in prison, was accused of being a founder of a pro-democracy movement Bloc 8406 and a member of the Progression Party of Vietnam.[69]
On 16 September 2007, the fifth anniversary of the Cardinal Nguyễn Văn Thuận's death, the Catholic Church began the beatification process for him.[70] Benedict XVI expressed "profound joy" at the news of the official opening of the beatification cause.[71] Vietnamese Catholics reacted positively to the news of the beatification. In December 2007, thousands of Vietnamese Catholics marched in procession to the former apostolic nunciature in Hanoi and prayed there twice aiming to return the property to the local church.[72] The building was located at a historic Buddhist site until it was confiscated by the French authorities and given to Catholics, before the communist North Vietnamese government confiscated it from the Catholic Church in 1959.[73] This was the first mass civil action by Vietnamese Catholics since the 1970s. Later the protests were supported by Catholics in Hồ Chí Minh City and Hà Đông, who made the same demands for their respective territories.[74] In February 2008, the governments promised to return the building to the Catholic Church.[75] However, in September 2008, the authorities changed their position and decided to demolish the building to create a public park.[76]
↑ Nguyen, Phi-Vân (2018). "A Secular State for a Religious Nation: The Republic of Vietnam and Religious Nationalism, 1946–1963". The Journal of Asian Studies. 77 (3): 741–771. doi:10.1017/S0021911818000505. hdl:1993/34017. The spiritual dimension of the Republic's Personalist Revolution did not involve state interference in all religious activities. Instead, it promoted religious freedom and diversity, provided that the spiritual values they propagated opposed communism's atheism. ... The Republic pledged to defend freedom of religion—at least initially—and promoted religious diversity. Ironically, it was precisely because the state could guarantee neither religious equality nor absolute noninterference in religious affairs that religious groups started to challenge its authority.
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Journal articles
Alberts, Tara (2012). "Catholic Written and Oral Cultures in Seventeenth-Century Vietnam". Journal of Early Modern History. 16 (4–5): 383–402. doi:10.1163/15700658-12342325.
Chu, Lan T. (2008). "Catholicism vs. Communism, Continued: The Catholic Church in Vietnam". Journal of Vietnamese Studies. 3 (1): 151–192. doi:10.1525/vs.2008.3.1.151.
Cooke, Nola (2004). "Early Nineteenth-Century Vietnamese Catholics and Others in the Pages of the Annales de la Propagation de la Foi". Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 35 (2): 261–285. doi:10.1017/S0022463404000141. S2CID153524504.
Cooke, Nola (2008). "Strange Brew: Global, Regional and Local Factors behind the 1690 Prohibition of Christian Practice in Nguyễn Cochinchina". Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 39 (3): 383–409. doi:10.1017/S0022463408000313. hdl:1885/27684. S2CID153563604.
Du, Yuqing (2022). "Reconfiguring Inculturations: Hội Đồng Tứ Giáo and Interfaith Dialogues in Eighteenth-Century Vietnam". Journal of Vietnamese Studies. 17 (2–3): 38–63. doi:10.1525/vs.2022.17.2-3.38. S2CID250519251.
Hansen, Peter (2009). "Bắc Di Cư: Catholic Refugees from the North of Vietnam, and Their Role in the Southern Republic, 1954–1959". Journal of Vietnamese Studies. 4 (3): 173–211. doi:10.1525/vs.2009.4.3.173.
Hoang, Tuan (2019). "Ultramontanism, Nationalism, and the Fall of Saigon: Historicizing the Vietnamese American Catholic Experience". American Catholic Studies. 130 (1): 1–36. doi:10.1353/acs.2019.0014. S2CID166860652.
Hoang, Tuan (2022). ""Our Lady's Immaculate Heart Will Prevail": Vietnamese Marianism and Anticommunism, 1940–1975". Journal of Vietnamese Studies. 17 (2–3): 126–157. doi:10.1525/vs.2022.17.2-3.126. S2CID250515678.
Keith, Charles (2008). "Annam Uplifted: The First Vietnamese Catholic Bishops and the Birth of a National Church, 1919–1945". Journal of Vietnamese Studies. 3 (2): 128–171. doi:10.1525/vs.2008.3.2.128.
Luria, Keith P. (2017b). "Catholic Marriage and the Customs of the Country: Building a New Religious Community in Seventeenth-Century Vietnam". French Historical Studies. 40 (3): 457–473. doi:10.1215/00161071-3857016.
Nguyen, Phi-Vân (2016). "Fighting the First Indochina War Again? Catholic Refugees in South Vietnam, 1954–59". Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia. 31 (1): 207–246. doi:10.1355/sj31-1f.
Ngô, Lân (2022). "Prophets and Zealots: The 1873 Synodal Document, Nonconformist Confucianism, and the Vietnamese Clergy". Journal of Vietnamese Studies. 17 (2–3): 64–92. doi:10.1525/vs.2022.17.2-3.64. S2CID250515444.
Nyan, Francis (2011). "Half-Brothers: The Frères des Écoles Chrétiennes in Vietnam, 1900–1945". Journal of Vietnamese Studies. 6 (3): 1–43. doi:10.1525/vs.2011.6.3.1.
Ramsay, Jacob (2004). "Extortion and Exploitation in the Nguyễn Campaign against Catholicism in 1830s–1840s Vietnam". Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 35 (2): 311–328. doi:10.1017/S0022463404000165. S2CID143702710.
Tran, Anh Q. (2022). "Catholicism and the Development of the Vietnamese Alphabet, 1620–1898". Journal of Vietnamese Studies. 17 (2–3): 9–37. doi:10.1525/vs.2022.17.2-3.9. S2CID250513843.
Trân, Claire Thi Liên (2005). "The Catholic Question in North Vietnam: From Polish Sources, 1954–56". Cold War History. 5 (4): 427–449. doi:10.1080/14682740500284747. S2CID154280435.
Trân, Claire Thi Liên (2013). "The Challenge for Peace within South Vietnam's Catholic Community: A History of Peace Activism". Peace & Change: A Journal of Peace Research. 38 (4): 446–473. doi:10.1111/pech.12040.
Trân, Claire Thi Liên (2020). "The Role of Education Mobilities and Transnational Networks in the Building of a Modern Vietnamese Catholic Elite (1920s–1950s)". Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia. 35 (2): 243–270. doi:10.1355/sj35-2c. S2CID225458221.
Trần, Claire Thị Liên (2022). "Thanh Lao Công [Young Christian Workers] in Tonkin, 1935–1945: From Social to Political Activism". Journal of Vietnamese Studies. 17 (2–3): 93–125. doi:10.1525/vs.2022.17.2-3.93. S2CID250508860.
Michaud, Jean (2004). "Missionary Ethnographers in Upper-Tonkin: The Early Years, 1895–1920". Asian Ethnicity. 5 (2): 179–194. doi:10.1080/1463136042000221876. S2CID55551641.
Pham, Ly Thi Kieu (2019). "The True Editor of the Manuductio ad linguam Tunkinensem (Seventeenth- to Eighteenth-Century Vietnamese Grammar)". Journal of Vietnamese Studies. 14 (2): 68–92. doi:10.1525/vs.2019.14.2.68. S2CID181585717.
Trần, Claire Thị Liên (2013a). "Communist State and Religious Policy in Vietnam: A Historical Perspective". Hague Journal on the Rule of Law. 5 (2): 229–252. doi:10.1017/S1876404512001133. S2CID154978637.
Việt Minh is the common and abbreviated name of the League for Independence of Vietnam, which was a communist-led national independence coalition formed at Pác Bó by Hồ Chí Minh on 19 May 1941. Also known as the Việt Minh Front, it was created by the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP) as a national united front to achieve the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
The Nguyễn dynasty was the last Vietnamese dynasty, which was preceded by the Nguyễn lords and ruled the unified Vietnamese state independently from 1802 to 1883 before being a French protectorate. During its existence, the 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. They later cancelled treaties with France and were the Empire of Vietnam for a short time until 25 August 1945.
Articles related to Vietnam and Vietnamese culture include:
Gia Long, born Nguyễn Phúc Ánh (阮福暎) or Nguyễn Ánh, was the founding emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty, the last dynasty of Vietnam. His dynasty would rule the unified territories that constitute modern-day Vietnam until 1945.
Minh Mạng or Minh Mệnh was the second emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty of Vietnam, reigning from 14 February 1820 until his death, on 20 January 1841. He was the fourth son of Emperor Gia Long, whose eldest son, Nguyễn Phúc Cảnh, had died in 1801. He was well known for his opposition to French involvement in Vietnam, completing the final Vietnamese conquest of Champa, temporary annexation of Cambodia, and his rigid Confucian orthodoxy.
The majority of Vietnamese do not follow any organized religion, instead participating in one or more practices of folk religions, such as venerating ancestors, or praying to deities, especially during Tết and other festivals. Folk religions were founded on endemic cultural beliefs that were historically affected by Confucianism and Taoism from ancient China, as well as by various strands of Buddhism. These three teachings or tam giáo were later joined by Christianity which has become a significant presence. Vietnam is also home of two indigenous religions: syncretic Caodaism and quasi-Buddhist Hoahaoism.
French Cochinchina was a colony of French Indochina, encompassing the whole region of Lower Cochinchina or Southern Vietnam from 1862 to 1946. The French operated a plantation economy whose primary strategic product was rubber.
Christianity was first introduced to Vietnam in the 16th century. Christians represent a significant minority in Vietnam: Catholics and Protestants were reported to compose 7% and 2% of the country's population respectively in 2020. However, the real number of Christian in Vietnam is 10% to 12%.
Pierre Joseph Georges Pigneau, commonly known as Pigneau de Béhaine, also Pierre Pigneaux, Bá Đa Lộc, Bách Đa Lộc and Bi Nhu, was a French Roman Catholic bishop best known for his role in assisting Nguyễn Ánh to establish the Nguyễn dynasty in Vietnam after the Tây Sơn rebellion.
The Citadel of Saigon also known as the Citadel of Gia Định was a late 18th-century fortress that stood in Saigon, Vietnam from its construction in 1790 until its destruction in February 1859. The citadel was only used once prior to its destruction, when it was captured by Lê Văn Khôi in 1833 and used in a revolt against Emperor Minh Mạng. It was destroyed in a French naval bombardment as part of the colonization of southern Vietnam which became the French colony of Cochinchina.
French–Vietnamese relations started as early as the 17th century with the mission of the Jesuit father Alexandre de Rhodes. Various traders would visit Vietnam during the 18th century, until the major involvement of French forces under Pigneau de Béhaine from 1787 to 1789 helped establish the Nguyễn dynasty. France was heavily involved in Vietnam in the 19th century under the pretext of protecting the work of Catholic missionaries in the country.
Jean-Baptiste Chaigneau (1769–1832) was a French Navy sailor and an adventurer who played an important role in Vietnam in the 19th century. He served the Nguyễn dynasty from 1794 to 1819, and 1821 to 1826, and took the Vietnamese name of Nguyễn Văn Thắng.
Nguyễn Phúc Cảnh (1780–1801), also known as Prince Cảnh, was the eldest son of the Vietnamese Prince Nguyễn Phúc Ánh, the future Emperor Gia Long. At the age of seven, he famously visited France with the French Catholic Father Pigneau de Béhaine to sign an alliance between France and Vietnam. Although Prince Cảnh was the legitimate heir to the throne, he died before his father, and none of his descendants ascended the throne after his half-brother Nguyễn Phúc Đảm was chosen by Gia Long.
French assistance to Nguyễn Phúc Ánh, a Nguyễn lord and the future founding emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty, covered a period from 1777 to 1820. From 1777, Mgr Pigneau de Behaine, of the Paris Foreign Missions Society, had taken to protecting the young Vietnamese prince who was fleeing from the offensive of the Tây Sơn. Pigneau de Behaine went to France to obtain military aid, and secured a France-Vietnam alliance that was signed through the 1787 Treaty of Versailles between the king of France, Louis XVI, and Prince Nguyễn Phúc Ánh. As the French regime was under considerable strain at the eve of the French Revolution, France was unable to follow through with the application of the treaty. However, Mgr Pigneau de Behaine persisted in his efforts and, with the support of French individuals and traders, mounted a force of French soldiers and officers that would contribute to the modernization of the armies of Nguyễn Ánh, making possible his victory and his reconquest of all of Vietnam by 1802. A few French officers would remain in Vietnam after the victory, becoming prominent mandarins. The last of them left in 1824 following the enthronement of Minh Mạng, Gia Long's successor. The terms of the 1787 Treaty of Alliance would still remain one of the justifications of French forces when they demanded the remittance of Đà Nẵng in 1847.
Lê Văn Duyệt was a Vietnamese general who helped Nguyễn Ánh—the future Emperor Gia Long—put down the Tây Sơn wars, unify Vietnam and establish the Nguyễn dynasty. After the Nguyễn came to power in 1802, Duyệt became a high-ranking mandarin, serving under the first two Nguyễn emperors Gia Long and Minh Mạng.
Tomb of Lê Văn Duyệt, also known as Tomb of the Marshal in Ba Chieu, is a Vietnamese tomb located in Bình Thạnh District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The tomb was originally built for Marshal Lê Văn Duyệt and his wife but later became some other Nguyễn dynasty's mandarins worship house.
The following is a list of political organizations and armed forces in Vietnam, since 1912:
The Six Provinces of Southern Vietnam is a historical name for the region of Southern Vietnam, which is referred to in French as Basse-Cochinchine. The region was politically defined and established after the inauguration of the Nguyễn dynasty, and called by this name from 1832, when Emperor Minh Mạng introduced administrative reforms, to 1867, which culminated in the eight-year French campaign to conquer the Six Provinces.
The French conquest of Vietnam1 (1858–1885) was a series of military expeditions that pitted the Second French Empire, later the French Third Republic, against the Vietnamese empire of Đại Nam in the mid-late 19th century. Its end results were victories for the French as they defeated the Vietnamese and their Chinese allies in 1885, the incorporation of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, and finally established French rules over constituent territories of French Indochina over Mainland Southeast Asia in 1887.
The Vietnamese Civil War of 1787–1802, or the Tây Sơn–Nguyễn Civil War of 1787–1802, was a conflict fought between two Vietnamese factions, the Tayson in the north, and the Nguyen loyalists in the south, both intended to unify the realm. Following the Tây Sơn rebellion (1771–1789), the kingdom of Dai Viet was partitioned into three regions ruled by the Tây Sơn brothers Nguyen Nhac, Nguyen Hue and Nguyen Lu. Nguyen Phuc Anh, last of the slaughtered Nguyen lord family that had been overthrown by the Tây Sơn in the 1770s, returned to Vietnam in 1787 after spending years of exile in Siam to rally support for his fight against the Tây Sơn. Nguyen Anh and his allies effectively defeated the Tây Sơn, dismantled the Tây Sơn regime, reunited the country, and established a unified Vietnamese state in 1802.
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