Thuận Hóa ( 順化 , IPA: [tʰwə̂nˀ hwǎː] ) was a historic territory in central Vietnam. It consisted of the modern provinces of Quảng Bình, Quảng Trị, and Thừa Thiên–Huế (historically, Thừa Thiên–Thuận Hóa).
Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula. With an estimated 94.6 million inhabitants as of 2016, it is the 15th most populous country in the world. Vietnam shares its land borders with China to the north, and Laos and Cambodia to the west. It shares its maritime borders with Thailand through the Gulf of Thailand, and the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia through the South China Sea. Its capital city is Hanoi, while its most populous city is Ho Chi Minh City.
Quảng Bình, formerly Tiên Bình under the reign of Lê Trung Hưng of the Lê Dynasty, is a province along Vietnam's north-central coast. The province has an area of 8,065.8 square kilometers and population of 857,818 inhabitants The province is bordered by the Laotian Khammouane Province to the west, the North Pacific Ocean to the east, Hà Tĩnh Province to the north and Quảng Trị Province to the south. Historically, this region belonged to Văn Lang and later the kingdom of Champa. Later it was claimed by both the Đại Việt and Champa and officially annexed into Đại Việt by Lý Thường Kiệt, a Lý Dynasty general.
Quảng Trị is a province in the North Central Coast region of Vietnam, north of the former imperial capital of Huế.
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In 1306, the king of Champa, Che Man, offered Vietnam two Chăm prefectures, Ô and Lý, in exchange for a marriage with the Vietnamese princess Huyền Trân. [1] The Vietnamese king Trần Anh Tông accepted this offer, [1] then took and renamed Ô prefecture and Lý prefecture as Thuận prefecture and Hóa prefecture. These prefectures soon began to be referred to collectively as the Thuận Hóa region. [1] [2] From this time, Thuận Hóa was a territory where the Vietnamese, Chăms, and Lao frequently fought one another. In 1466, during the reign of king Lê Thánh Tông, Thuận Hóa became one of the 12 prefectures of Vietnam and later became a province of Vietnam.
Champa was a collection of independent Cham polities that extended across the coast of what is today central and southern Vietnam from approximately the 2nd century AD before being absorbed and annexed by Vietnamese Emperor Minh Mạng in AD 1832. The kingdom was known variously as nagara Campa in the Chamic and Cambodian inscriptions, Chăm Pa in Vietnamese and 占城 (Zhànchéng) in Chinese records.
A prefecture is an administrative jurisdiction or subdivision in any of various countries and within some international church structures, and in antiquity a Roman district governed by an appointed prefect.
Princess Huyền Trân later Queen Paramecvariin of Champa, was a princess during the Trần Dynasty in the history of Vietnam.
The Mạc dynasty usurped the throne of the Lê family to create the Northern Court, whereupon descendant of the Lê kings was enthroned as de jure Southern court rulers by Nguyễn Kim. Shortly afterward, Nguyễn Kim, the leader of the Lê Dynasty loyalists and the de facto ruler of Vietnam, was poisoned by a Mạc Dynasty general. Kim's son-in-law, Trịnh Kiểm, took over the leadership and assassinated Kim's eldest son, Nguyễn Uông, in order to secure his authority. [3] Nguyễn Hoàng, another son of Nguyễn Kim, feared having a fate like his brother Nguyễn Uông so he pretended to have mental illness and asked his sister Ngoc Bao, who was a wife of Trịnh Kiểm, to entreat Kiểm to allow Hoàng to govern Thuận Hóa, the southernmost region of Vietnam at this time. [4] Because Mạc Dynasty loyalists were still occupying Thuận Hóa while Trịnh Kiểm was busy fending off Mạc forces in northern Vietnam during this time, Ngoc Bao's request was approved and Nguyễn Hoàng went south. [4] After Hoàng pacified Thuận Hóa, he and his successor Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên secretly made this region loyal to the Nguyễn family; then they rose against the Trịnh Lords. [5] [6] Vietnam erupted into a new civil war between two de facto ruling families: the clan of the Nguyễn lords and the clan of the Trịnh lords. The Nguyễn lords continuously developed the territory and turned it into a strong base for their war against the Trịnh Lord and their expansion to the south. During this time, Thuận Hóa territory spanned from Quảng Bình to Thừa Thiên–Huế.
The Mạc dynasty, as known as Mạc clan or House of Mạc ruled the whole of Đại Việt between 1527 and 1533 and the northern part of the country from 1533 until 1592, when they lost control over the capital Đông Kinh for the last time. Later Mạc representatives ruled over the province of Cao Bằng until 1677.
In law and government, de jure describes practices that are legally recognised, regardless whether the practice exists in reality. In contrast, de facto describes situations that exist in reality, even if not legally recognised. The terms are often used to contrast different scenarios: for a colloquial example, "I know that, de jure, this is supposed to be a parking lot, but now that the flood has left four feet of water here, it's a de facto swimming pool". To further explain, even if the signs around the flooded parking lot say "Parking Lot" it is "in fact" a swimming pool.
Nguyen Kim was a Vietnamese statesman who was the ancestor of the famous Nguyễn Lords who later ruled south Vietnam. During his rule, the war with the Mạc Dynasty started.
After the foundation of Nguyễn Dynasty, emperor Gia Long made Thuận Hóa territory a part of Vùng Kinh kỳ (Capital territory), one of three administrative divisions of Vietnam at this time.
Gia Long, born Nguyễn Phúc Ánh or Nguyễn Ánh, was the first Emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty of Vietnam. Unifying what is now modern Vietnam in 1802, he founded the Nguyễn dynasty, the last of the Vietnamese dynasties.
In the 18th Century Thuận Hóa and Quảng Nam ceased producing much rice of their own and became dependent on shipments of cheaper rice from the Mekong Delta. [7]
The Mekong Delta, also known as the Western Region or the South-western region is the region in southwestern Vietnam where the Mekong River approaches and empties into the sea through a network of distributaries. The Mekong delta region encompasses a large portion of southwestern Vietnam of over 40,500 square kilometres (15,600 sq mi). The size of the area covered by water depends on the season. Before 1975, Mekong Delta is part of Republic of Vietnam. Mekong Delta is home of the IV Corps region during Vietnam War. IV Corps is the only corps in South Vietnam that VC didn't attack significantly until the last President Duong Van Minh surrender to North Vietnam.
