Nguyon Dynasty

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Dynasty flag from 1920 to 1945
Standard of the emperor: dragon on a golden background

The Nguyễn dynasty ( Vietnamese : Nhà Nguyễn ; Hán Nôm : 家 阮 , Nguyễn triều ; Hán Tự : 阮 朝 ) was the last Vietnamese imperial dynasty. It ruled from 1802 to 1945, but from 1883 powerless under French rule . Nguyễn Phúc is the family name of the emperors. The capital of the empire, initially called Việt Nam and later Đại Nam , was Huế .

history

Origin and rise

Maximum area of ​​rule and influence of the dynasty under Emperor Minh Mạng

The imperial dynasty descends from the Nguyễn Lords , who ruled Central and South Vietnam from the middle of the 16th century, but never claimed the imperial title. In the 1770s, they were defeated and massacred by the Tây-Sơn rebellion . Nguyễn Phúc Ánh , a surviving family member, was finally able to defeat the Tây Sơn after decades of war with Siamese , Chinese and French support and create a unified Vietnamese state. In 1802 he ascended the imperial throne under the name Gia Long , which for the first time was no longer in the north, but in Huế in central Vietnam.

The state was organized in a strictly Confucian manner and was strongly based on the practices of the Chinese Qing dynasty , to which ceremonial tribute was also paid . The first emperors ruled with absolute power, creating a strong central government and an efficient but repressive administration.

Under the early Nguyễn emperors, the Mekong Delta and the last autonomous Cham regions were finally incorporated into the Vietnamese state. Large parts of Cambodia and Laos also came under Vietnamese rule, which led to several wars with Siam, around 1831-1834 and 1841-1845 .

While Emperor Gia Long (1802–1820) still pursued a relatively cosmopolitan and progressive policy, his successors Minh Mạng (1820–1841), Thiệu Trị (1841–1847) and Tự Đức (1847–1883) relied on isolationism and isolationism Country. The emerging Catholic Christianity was banned and its followers persecuted. In 1833 Lê Văn Khôi , son of the late southern viceroy Lê Văn Duyệt , rebelled against the rule of Minh Mạng and was mainly supported by Christians. After the uprising was put down in 1835, Minh Mạng had them executed en masse.

Submission by France

France, which had developed an interest in Vietnam since the missionary trips of Alexandre de Rhodes in the 17th century, took the persecution of Christians as an opportunity to increasingly interfere in the situation there. In 1847 French warships bombed Tourane (Đà Nẵng) and sank the local fleet in order to achieve the release of the captured missionary Dominique Lefèbvre . He had been captured two years earlier; at that time the American USS Constitution had made an unsuccessful attempt at liberation.

In 1857 Emperor Tự ực had two Spanish missionaries executed. Since the French Empire had just sent a task force to the region due to the Second Opium War , this was taken as a reason for a "punitive expedition" against Vietnam: The Cochinchina campaign took place from 1858 to 1862 under the leadership of Admiral Rigault de Genouilly . In 1859 Gia Định (Saigon) fell to the French. In the peace treaty of Saigon in 1862, Emperor Tự Đức had to accept the cession of the city and the three surrounding provinces to France. In further treaties based on this, the French pushed through the opening of Vietnamese ports, free navigation on the Mekong and the Red Rivers , unhindered proselytizing and finally the annexation of the remaining three southern provinces. The resulting area was organized as a colony of Cochinchina . Shortly afterwards, the Cambodian King Norodom also submitted to French rule.

Delegation of the Nguyễn Dynasty, 1863

For the Vietnamese Empire, this defeat represented a serious loss of power. From 1865 onwards, Chinese rebels, the so-called Black Flags , established themselves in northern Vietnam ( Tonkin ). Unable to fight them, Tự Đức decided to work with them instead and use them as a means against the French.

In France, in the years that followed, colonialist voices were increasingly heard calling for northern Vietnam to be conquered, as the region was considered to be rich in natural resources and the “gateway to China”. In 1873 the naval officer and adventurer Francis Garnier occupied the citadel of Hanoi against his orders , but was killed shortly afterwards in the battle by the Black Flags. Less than ten years later, Henri Rivière repeated this action and was also killed in 1883. This time, however, the French government sent an expeditionary force under Admiral Courbet . Since the Vietnamese imperial court was accused of supporting the black flags, a naval unit stormed the Thuận-An-Forts near Huế, then advanced against the now defenseless capital and forced the imperial officials to sign an extremely tough protection treaty ( Harmand Treaty ). Vietnam thus lost its sovereignty and became a French protectorate . The Patenôtre Treaty was to follow in 1884, although it was formulated more mildly, but retained the decisive conditions of French supremacy. Since Emperor Tự Đức had previously died childless, his relatives and powerful court officials now fought for power; within a year three emperors ( Dục Đức , Hiệp Hòa and Kiến Phúc ) were murdered.

Meanwhile, the French troops turned to the north of the country and defeated both the black flags and the Chinese armed forces hurrying to aid in the Tonkin campaign until 1886, despite setbacks in the meantime . With the Treaty of Tientsin in 1885, the Chinese Empire had to give up all claims to sovereignty over Vietnam. North Vietnam (Tonkin) was split off as an independent protectorate; the Nguyên dynasty thus degraded to puppet rulers over central Vietnam (called Annam ). Since the French did not recognize the imperial title either, the designation King of Annam became common in western countries.

Colonial rule

The child emperor Duy Tân on a sedan chair, presumably on the occasion of the coronation celebrations, 1907

In 1885 there was an uprising in Annam ( Cần Vương movement ), whereupon the French deposed the child emperor Hàm Nghi , captured and exiled to Algeria. His successor Đồng Khánh (1885-1889) was completely in the hands of the French. After his early death, Thành Thái (1889–1907) followed, who was finally deposed due to alleged insanity and replaced by his young son Duy Tân (1907–1916). When he was planning an uprising against French rule during the First World War, he and his father were banished to the island of Réunion .

The French now put Khải Định (1916–1925) on the throne who, like his father Đồng Khánh, was a harmless and extremely weak figurehead. He had no popular support whatsoever; the Vietnamese turned instead to the leaders of the national movement Phan Bội Châu and Phan Châu Trinh . After his early and unrequited death from tuberculosis, he was followed by his son Bảo Đại (1925–1945), who, however, only completed his training in France for just under seven years before he returned to Vietnam. At first Bảo versuchtei tried seriously to reforms, which did not lead to anything, whereupon he was satisfied with the status quo and led a life far removed from politics. Towards the end of World War II, the Japanese surprisingly made him emperor of the Vietnamese puppet government , although he had previously shown no sympathy for the Japanese cause. He finally abdicated in August 1945 in favor of Hồ Chí Minh and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam . The returning French made him, however, in 1949 during the Indochina War still the "bourgeois" head of state of Vietnam . After the French defeat in 1954, Bảo Đại finally left the country and moved to France, where his family had lived for several years. Despite his absence, he remained head of state until the founding of the Republic of Vietnam by Ngô Đình Diệm in 1955.

The descendants of the dynasty now live in France and belong to the Catholic Church.

Name of the Nguyễn state

In 1802 the newly crowned Emperor Gia Long sent a ceremonial tribute mission to the Chinese court and asked Emperor Jiaqing for the recognition of his empire, which was immediately followed. Gia Long was able to legitimize his accession to the throne, while Jiaqing maintained the appearance of supremacy over the Vietnamese. At the same time, Gia Long asked to be allowed to replace the empire name Đại Việt ( Great Việt ) , which has been used for centuries, with the ancient name Nam Việt ( Southern Việt ). However, the Chinese emperor exchanged the two syllables for Việt Nam in order to avoid confusion with the ancient empire, as it comprised a larger part of what would later become southern China.

However, the name that had been swapped was not widely accepted at the imperial court in Huế, so that Gia Long's successor Minh Mạng renamed the country to Đại Nam ( Great South ) in 1839 , which formally remained the official state name until 1945. The Vietnamese population was known as Hán , a sign of the strong Sinization of the country at that time.

The French used neither of the two names, but always spoke of the Kingdom of Annam ( royaume d'Annam ) and the Annamites ( les Annamites ). The name Annam was a corruption of the Chinese Annan (安南, pacified south ) and originally referred to a Chinese province that encompassed the north of what is now Vietnam.

The name Việt Nam was only "rediscovered" by the national movement at the beginning of the 20th century and used in a deliberate way to differentiate it from the terms Đại Nam and Annam, which were perceived as derogatory.

Tribe list

Most emperors had dozens of children with numerous wives, so only significant members of the dynasty are listed.

  1. Nguyễn Phúc Khoát , Nguyễn Lord from 1738–1765
    1. Nguyễn Phúc Chương
    2. Nguyễn Phúc Luân
      1. Nguyễn Phúc Ánh ( Gia Long ), first emperor (1802-20)
        1. Nguyễn Phúc Cảnh , Crown Prince
          1. Nguyễn Phúc Mỹ Đường
            1. Nguyễn Phúc Lệ Trung (Lệ Chung)
              1. Nguyễn Phúc Ánh Như (Tang Như)
                1. Nguyễn Phúc Đan ( Cường Để ), pretender to the throne
        2. Nguyễn Phúc Đảm ( Minh Mạng ), second emperor (1820–41)
          1. Nguyễn Phúc Miên Tông , ( Thiệu Trị ), third emperor (1841–47)
            1. Nguyễn Phúc Hồng Bảo
            2. Nguyễn Phúc Hồng Nhậm ( Tự Đức ), fourth emperor (1847–83)
            3. Nguyễn Phúc Hồng Y
              1. Nguyễn Phúc Ưng Ái ( Dục Đức ), fifth emperor (1883)
                1. Nguyễn Phúc Bửu Lân ( Thành Thái ), tenth emperor (1889–1907)
                  1. Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh San ( Duy Tân ), eleventh emperor (1907–1916)
            4. Nguyễn Phúc Hồng Cai
              1. Nguyễn Phúc Ưng Kỷ ( Đồng Khánh ), ninth emperor (1885-1889)
                1. Nguyễn Phúc Bửu Đảo ( Khải Định ), twelfth emperor (1916–1925)
                  1. Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy ( Bảo Đại ), thirteenth and last emperor (1925–1945)
                    1. Nguyễn Phúc Bảo Long , last Crown Prince
              2. Nguyễn Phúc Ưng Đăng ( Kiến Phúc ), seventh emperor (1883–84)
              3. Nguyễn Phúc Ưng Lịch ( Hàm Nghi ), eighth emperor (1884–1885)
            5. Nguyễn Phúc Hồng Dật ( Hiệp Hòa ), sixth emperor (1883)
    3. Nguyễn Phúc Hạo (Hiệu)
      1. Nguyễn Phúc Dương, co-ruler 1776–1777
    4. Nguyễn Phúc Thuần , Nguyễn Lord from 1765–1777

See also

literature

  • Bruce M. Lockhart, William J. Duiker : Historical Dictionary of Vietnam , Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 266f (entry Nguyễn dynasty )
  • Danny J. Whitfield: Historical and Cultural Dictionary of Vietnam , Scarecrow Press, 1976, p. 198f (entry Nguyễn dynasty )
  • KW Taylor: A History of the Vietnamese , Cambridge University Press, 2013, pp. 365-483

Web links

Commons : Nguyễn dynasty  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bruce M. Lockhart, William J. Duiker: Historical Dictionary of Vietnam , Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 213 (entry Lê Văn Khôi rebellion ), see also the article Joseph Marchand
  2. ↑ Bruce M. Lockhart, William J. Duiker: Historical Dictionary of Vietnam , Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 152f (entry Harmand treaty ) and p. 297f (entry Patenôtre treaty )
  3. ↑ Bruce M. Lockhart, William J. Duiker: Historical Dictionary of Vietnam , Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 388 (entry Treaty of Tientsin )
  4. ↑ Justin Corfield: Historical Dictionary of Ho Chi Minh City , Anthem Press, 2014, p. 14ff (entry Bao Dai )
  5. ↑ Choi Byung Wook: Southern Vietnam Under the Reign of Minh Mạng (1820-1841): Central Policies and Local Response , SEAP Publications, 2004, pp. 137ff
  6. ↑ Bruce M. Lockhart, William J. Duiker: Historical Dictionary of Vietnam , Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 410 (entry Việt Nam ) and p. 93 (entry Đại Nam ) and p. 24 (entry Annam )