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Vietnam, also known as Dai Viet and Annam at various times historically, is a Southeast Asian country which runs largely along the coast, facing the South China Sea to its east. It borders [[Laos]] and [[Cambodia]] to the west, and China's [[Yunnan province|Yunnan]] and [[Guangxi province]]s to the north. As the majority of the population has always lived along the coasts, and each river valley is divided from the next by difficult mountains, Vietnam has long been a heavily maritime society, with far more travel and transport taking place by boat than by road.<ref>Craig Lockard, “‘The Sea Common to All’: Maritime Frontiers, Port Cities, and Chinese Traders in the Southeast Asian Age of Commerce, Ca. 1400–1750.” ''Journal of World History'' 21, no. 2 (2010): 221.</ref>

Vietnam, also known as Dai Viet and Annam at various times historically, is a Southeast Asian country which runs largely along the coast, facing the South China Sea to its east. It borders [[Laos]] and [[Cambodia]] to the west, and China's [[Yunnan province|Yunnan]] and [[Guangxi province]]s to the north. As the majority of the population has always lived along the coasts, and each river valley is divided from the next by difficult mountains, Vietnam has long been a heavily maritime society, with far more travel and transport taking place by boat than by road.<ref>Craig Lockard, “‘The Sea Common to All’: Maritime Frontiers, Port Cities, and Chinese Traders in the Southeast Asian Age of Commerce, Ca. 1400–1750.” ''Journal of World History'' 21, no. 2 (2010): 221.</ref>

Vietnam is the sole "Sinicized" Southeast Asian country with a strong connection to Chinese Buddhist and Confucian culture, in contrast to the more "Indic" or "Sanskritic" cultures of [[Burma]], [[Thailand]], Laos, Cambodia, and [[Indonesia]]. The territory of Vietnam was controlled by China for nearly one thousand years in the first half of the Common Era, before gaining independence in [[939]], amidst the fall of the [[Tang Dynasty]]. Though controlled by various independent Vietnamese dynasties & polities for nearly its entire history after that, Chinese cultural influences remained quite fundamental to Vietnamese political culture, literary culture, worldview, and arts. Vietnam regularly employed a rhetoric comparing itself not against other Southeast Asian polities, but against China, in a dichotomy in which South [i.e. Viet Nam] and North [i.e. China] both possessed culture and civilization, but possessed distinct cultural features from one another.<ref>Anthony Reid, "Early Southeast Asian categorizations of Europeans," in Stuart Schwartz (ed.), ''Implicit Understandngs: Observing, Reporting, and Reflecting on the Encounters Between Europeans and Other Peoples in the Early Modern Era'', Cambridge University Press (1994), 268.</ref> Vietnam remained a loyal [[tribute|tributary]] to the Chinese court, particularly during the [[Ming Dynasty|Ming]] and [[Qing Dynasty|Qing Dynasties]]; Vietnamese elites engaged in Chinese cultural practices such as [[literati painting]] and calligraphy, and all Vietnamese writing employed Chinese characters up until the early 20th century - Vietnamese is now written in a romanization form devised by the French.

Vietnam is the sole "Sinicized" Southeast Asian country with a strong connection to Chinese Buddhist and Confucian culture, in contrast to the more "Indic" or "Sanskritic" cultures of [[Burma]], [[Thailand]], Laos, Cambodia, and [[Indonesia]]. The territory of Vietnam was controlled by China for nearly one thousand years in the first half of the Common Era, before gaining independence in [[939]], amidst the fall of the [[Tang Dynasty]]. Though controlled by various independent Vietnamese dynasties & polities for nearly its entire history after that, Chinese cultural influences remained quite fundamental to Vietnamese political culture, literary culture, worldview, and arts. Vietnam regularly employed a rhetoric comparing itself not against other Southeast Asian polities, but against China, in a dichotomy in which South [i.e. Viet Nam] and North [i.e. China] both possessed culture and civilization, but possessed distinct cultural features from one another.<ref>Anthony Reid, "Early Southeast Asian categorizations of Europeans," in Stuart Schwartz (ed.), ''Implicit Understandngs: Observing, Reporting, and Reflecting on the Encounters Between Europeans and Other Peoples in the Early Modern Era'', Cambridge University Press (1994), 268.</ref> Vietnam remained a loyal [[tribute|tributary]] to the Chinese court, particularly during the [[Ming Dynasty|Ming]] and [[Qing Dynasty|Qing Dynasties]]; Vietnamese elites engaged in Chinese cultural practices such as [[literati painting]] and calligraphy, and all Vietnamese writing employed Chinese characters up until the early 20th century. Vietnamese was first written in roman script in [[1527]], but the modern Vietnamese alphabet was developed a century later, by French [[Jesuit]] missionary Alexandre de Rhodes, and did not replace Chinese characters as standard until the 20th century.<ref name=wingluke>Gallery labels, Wing Luke Museum, Seattle.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/20114132594/sizes/k/]</ref>

==Early History==

==Early History==

The Ly Dynasty ruled from [[1010]] to [[1225]].<ref>Vuving, 80.</ref>. Like the Tran Dynasty which followed it, the Ly emphasized Vietnamese cultural distance and differentiation from China, embracing [[Champa|Cham]] & other Southeast Asian influences, and taking a hostile stance against [[Song Dynasty]] China.

The Ly Dynasty ruled from [[1010]] to [[1225]].<ref>Vuving, 80.</ref>. Like the Tran Dynasty which followed it, the Ly emphasized Vietnamese cultural distance and differentiation from China, embracing [[Champa|Cham]] & other Southeast Asian influences, and taking a hostile stance against [[Song Dynasty]] China.

The [[Mongol Empire]] may have established a colony of some sort in Champa in the 1290s or so, but it was embattled; a mission had to be sent in [[1295]] to ascertain what had happened to generals and senior officials dispatched there, from whom there had been no communication. This mission, which continued on to Cambodia, included [[Zhou Daguan]], whose diaries are a valuable resource for historians today.<ref>Zhou Daguan, Peter Harris (trans.), ''A Record of Cambodia - The Land and its People'', Silkworm Books (2007), 44-85. </ref>

The [[Mongol Empire]] may have established a colony of some sort in Champa in the 1290s or so, but it was embattled; a mission had to be sent in [[1295]] to ascertain what had happened to generals and senior officials dispatched there, from whom there had been no communication. This mission, which continued on to Cambodia, included [[Zhou Daguan]], whose diaries are a valuable resource for historians today.<ref>Zhou Daguan, Peter Harris (trans.), ''A Record of Cambodia - The Land and its People'', Silkworm Books (2007), 44-85. </ref> Meanwhile, Vietnamese language was written down for the first time in the 13th century, using [[kanji|Chinese characters]], known in Vietnamese as ''chữ nôm''.<ref name=wingluke/>

The [[Ming-Ho War]] ended in [[1406]] with Ming victory, and Vietnam remained under Chinese control until [[1428]]. This brief 22-year period represents the only period of Chinese control over Vietnam in the last thousand years.

The [[Ming-Ho War]] ended in [[1406]] with Ming victory, and Vietnam remained under Chinese control until [[1428]]. This brief 22-year period represents the only period of Chinese control over Vietnam in the last thousand years.

Vietnam sent its last tributary mission to Beijing in [[1882]].<ref>Anthony Reid, "Introduction," in Reid & Zheng Yangwen (eds.), ''Negotiating Asymmetry: China's Place in Asia'' (NUS Press, 2009), 17.</ref>

Vietnam sent its last tributary mission to Beijing in [[1882]].<ref>Anthony Reid, "Introduction," in Reid & Zheng Yangwen (eds.), ''Negotiating Asymmetry: China's Place in Asia'' (NUS Press, 2009), 17.</ref>

The [[Sino-French War]] ended in [[1885]] in French victory, and China was forced to renounce any claims to Vietnam.

The [[Sino-French War]] ended in [[1885]] in French victory, and China was forced to renounce any claims to Vietnam. French Indochina was formed in [[1887]] out of Cochinchina, Annam, and Tonkin (i.e. the territories comprising Vietnam today) and Cambodia. The French later annexed Laos into French Indochina following the Franco-Siamese War.<ref name=wingluke/>

In the modern era, Marxist-Leninist communism took root in Vietnam, as the socialist movement there tied its ideologies into rhetoric of national liberation and opposition to imperialism. They posited Vietnam as the "outpost of socialism in Southeast Asia," and the "spearhead of the world national liberation movement," declaring the world to be divided between the socialist democracies, led by the USSR, and the capitalist imperialists, led by the United States. Vietnamese socialist ideology, borrowed from that of Soviet Russia, identified four conflicts in the world: those between the socialist countries and the capitalist system; between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat; between imperialism and colonial & dependent states; and between the various imperialist countries. It also identified three chief revolutionary forces in the world: the world socialist system within the socialist countries, the socialist movements within the capitalist/imperialist countries, and the national liberation movement.<ref>Vuving, 84.</ref>

In the modern era, Marxist-Leninist communism took root in Vietnam, as the socialist movement there tied its ideologies into rhetoric of national liberation and opposition to imperialism. They posited Vietnam as the "outpost of socialism in Southeast Asia," and the "spearhead of the world national liberation movement," declaring the world to be divided between the socialist democracies, led by the USSR, and the capitalist imperialists, led by the United States. Vietnamese socialist ideology, borrowed from that of Soviet Russia, identified four conflicts in the world: those between the socialist countries and the capitalist system; between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat; between imperialism and colonial & dependent states; and between the various imperialist countries. It also identified three chief revolutionary forces in the world: the world socialist system within the socialist countries, the socialist movements within the capitalist/imperialist countries, and the national liberation movement.<ref>Vuving, 84.</ref> Vietnamese rebels rose up against French rule in the early 1950s, leading to French withdrawal from Vietnam in 1954, and the division of the country into North and South. This then led to the lengthy Vietnam War, in which Communists and anti-Communists fought for dominance of Vietnam; ultimately, the United States and other allies of the anti-Communist forces retreated and gave up on the war, leaving all of Vietnam to the Communists.

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