Cần-Vương movement
The Cần Vương movement (freely translated Help the Monarch Movement ) was a monarchist resistance movement in French Indochina at the time of the Nguyễn dynasty . The movement was initiated by the regent Tôn Thất Thuyết , referring to the youthful Emperor Hàm NghiFigurehead propped up. The revolt began in July 1885 after fighting between French troops and Nguyen soldiers under the command of Ton That Thuyet. Thereupon the court fled to the countryside with the emperor under his leadership. There Ham Nghi proclaimed a call for resistance against the French and their Vietnamese helpers by decree. From 1885 to 1896, the French colonial power deployed military units to suppress the rebels. The movement peaked in 1887/1888 and disappeared in 1896 after the death of the last prominent leader Phan Đình Phùng .
Subsequent independence movements and their masterminds referred to the Can Vuong movement and there was a personal continuity from the Can Vuong movement to the nationalists of the twentieth century.
background
In 1862 the Nguyễn dynasty approved the cession of Cochinchina as a colony to France. At the end of the reign of Emperor Tự Đức , the imperial court came under French pressure again. In 1883 the French achieved a permanent military presence in the imperial city of Huế . The Vietnamese imperial court continued to seek cooperation due to its inferior position of power. Tu Duc was passive. After the end of the Sino-French War in 1884, the colonial power obtained further concessions from the imperial court in the Treaty of Hue. The northern part of the country of Tonkin was to be transferred to the French as a protectorate. The sovereignty over the border with the Chinese Empire should also pass to the colonial troops. The emperor's domain was thus limited to Annam . After the death of Tu Duc, the imperial court was in a succession crisis from 1883, in which the regents at court put the young emperor Hàm Nghi on the throne. The regent Ton That Thuyet who urged a war against France since 1862 used the instability at court to prepare a rebellion against France.
course
After the end of the Sino-French War in 1885, France tried to implement the treaty concluded the previous year. The French side had been preparing a military coup against the emperor since autumn 1884 in the event that the imperial court would not cooperate.
On the night of July 4, 1885, Vietnamese soldiers launched an attack on the French garrison in Hue on the orders of Ton That Thuyet. In the ensuing chaos, he fled to Quang Tri together with the emperor and his court entourage . From there they withdrew into mountainous terrain. Ton That Thuyen formulated the Can Vuon Edict proclaimed by Ham Nghi in the field, which called on the emperor's subjects to resist nationwide against the colonial power.
The call was obeyed in many places and several guerrilla centers were formed around prominent guerrilla leaders in the countryside. So Pham Din Phung operated first in Than Hoa and later in both Tonkin and Annam. In Bac Giang a guerrilla movement formed around Hoàng Hoa Thám which also followed the call. In the course of the guerrillas, there were massacres against Vietnamese Christians who were viewed by the rebels as traitors. The movement reached its military climax in 1886 when they established a fortified base at Ba Dinh in Thanh Hoa Province. This was destroyed by the colonial troops using 3500 soldiers, 3000 coolies and 20 artillery pieces. Although the guerrillas were often able to rely on the support of the rural population, they lacked supraregional organization and coordination. In 1888, Ham Nghi was captured by colonial authorities after being betrayed by his guards.
The French side tried to use the monarchical system for colonial purposes by working with loyal mandarins such as the Grand Chancellor Hoàng Cao Khải . To do this, they installed Đồng Khánh as emperor in 1885 with the help of loyal mandarins . In 1886 they founded the Guard Indigenous, a military unit made up of locals which primarily served to fight guerrillas. The colonial power was able to push back the revolt more and more by covering the populated regions with garrisons. From 1891 the co-opted imperial court in Hue was able to motivate the local officials and dignitaries more and more to act against the supporters of the Can Vuong fighters. Gradually, a dual rule developed between rebels and the local authorities co-opted by the colonialists. In the Red River delta , the main settlement area in Tonkin, the cooperation with the pro-French forces for the civilian population was highest due to the burdens of the guerrilla war. The organized resistance of the last groups ended in 1896 when Pham Din Phung died and Hoang Hao Tam's group with their last three hundred men also surrendered.
consequences
The Can Vuoan movement absorbed so much military capacity of the colonial state that the Cambodian king Norodom I had room to negotiate to thwart the treaty of 1884, which provided for the de facto annexation of his country through non-cooperation. The colonial authorities in Saigon formalized this decision in a revision of the treaty in August 1886 as they did not want to risk a two-front war.
reception
The French colonial authorities tried to portray the rebels in public as bandits or pirates, although they were clear about their political goals. Later irregulars against French colonial rule and also the nationalist movement referred to the Can Vuong movement as a model. Phan Bội Chau , the pioneer of militant Vietnamese nationalism , had good contacts with veterans of the movement and saw himself as their heir.
After taking power in the August Revolution , Ho Chi Minh had the central representation square in Hanoi renamed Ba-Đình-Platz in order to erect a memorial to the resistance at Ba Dinh. His mausoleum is now on the square.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Christopher Goscha: Vietnam - A New History. New York, 2016, pp. 90-93, p. 98, p. 423
- ↑ a b c K.W. Taylor: A History of the Vietnamese. Cambridge, 2013, pp. 472-479
- ↑ a b c d Pierre Brocheux, Daniel Hémery: Indochina. An ambiguous colonization, 1858-1954. Berkeley 2009, pp. 48f, pp. 52-64, pp. 292-295
- ↑ Bruce L. Lockhart, William J. Duiker: Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Oxford, 2006, pp. 56f
- ↑ Pierre Brocheux, Daniel Hémery: Indochina. An ambiguous colonization, 1858-1954. Berkeley 2009, p. 51
- ↑ Bruce L. Lockhart, William J. Duiker: Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Oxford, 2006, p. 35