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To ChrisJ: Thanks for your question.	huynt	::	2005-07-31 7:47
No. History of Vietnam in Colonization France's involvement can be traced to Alexandre de Rhodes, a Jesuit priest who converted many Vietnamese to Catholicism in the early 1600s. Rhodes improved on earlier works by Portuguese missionaries and developed the Vietnamese romanized alphabet Quốc Ngữ. It was another priest, Pierre-Joseph Pigneaux de Béhaine, who intertwined Vietnam's and France's destinies. By the late 1700s, Vietnam was in turmoil. A hundred years before, the posterior Lê dynasty disentegrated and two noble families partitioned the country. The Nguyễn Lords ruled the South and the Trịnh Lords ruled the North. The two constantly warred against each other, always in the name of the nominal Lê Emperor. The Trịnh launched offensive campaigns in 1661 and 1672 but failed to subdue the Nguyễn. Vietnam's economy was wrecked and the peasantry were open to revolt. In 1771, the Tây Sơn rebels led by Nguyễn Huệ (later known as Emperor Quang Trung) fought a savage war against the Nguyễn Lords. The peasants had become tired of the corruption and tyranny of both the Trịnh and Nguyễn officials and eagerly joined the common uprising of the Tây Sơn, who enacted many social reforms. Taking sides with Nguyễn Phúc Ánh, Pigneaux sailed to France with Nguyễn Phúc Ánh's youngest son. At Louis XVI's court, Pigneaux brokered the Little Treaty of Versailles, which promised French military aid in return for Vietnamese concessions. The French Revolution intervened and Pigneaux's ambition seemed for naught. Undaunted, Pigneaux went to the French territory of Pondicherry, India. He secured two ships, a regiment of Indian troops, and a handful of volunteers and returned to Vietnam in 1788. Meanwhile Nguyễn Huệ defeated the Trịnh and temporarily united the country. The last Emperor of the Lê dynasty, Lê Chiêu Thống, then went to the Qing Manchu Chinese emperor and asked for 200,000 troops to re-install himself. The Chinese were eager to comply and sent their army south. Nguyễn Huệ fought the Chinese near present day Hanoi and won a major victory in a surprise attack during the Tet holiday. The same tactic would be used centuries later by Võ Nguyên Giáp against the Americans. Unfortunately, Nguyễn Huệ died mysteriously at the age of 40 without a worthy successor. One of Pigneaux's volunteers, Jean-Marie Dayot, reorganized Nguyễn Phúc Ánh's navy along European lines and defeated the Tây Sơn navy at Quy Nhơn in 1792. Another volunteer, Victor Olivier de Puymanel would later build the Gia Định fort in central Saigon. With Nguyễn Huệ's early demise and Pigneaux's aid, Nguyễn Phúc Ánh defeated the Tây Sơn and secured Hanoi in 1802. Nguyễn Phúc Ánh proclaimed himself as Emperor Gia Long. Gia Long buried Pigneaux with full honors in Saigon in 1799. Gia Long also tolerated Catholicism. However he and his successors were staunch Confucians and admirers of China, not of France. His successors, Ming Mạng and Tự Đức, brutally suppressed Catholicism and attempted to undo French influence. Tens of thousands of Vietnamese and foreign-born Christians were massacred during this period, an act which provoked the Catholic nations of Europe to retaliate. The reactionary adherence to Confucianism during this time also meant that the Emperors refused to allow any modernization or technological advancement. When conflict came, as a result of this isolationist policy, the Vietnamese were sadly out-matched. Under the orders of Napoleon III of France, the landing of French forces in the port of Tourane, (present-day Đà Nẵng) in August 1858, heralded the beginning of the colonial occupation which was to last almost a century. France assumed sovereignty over Annam and Tonkin after the Franco-Chinese War (1884-1885). French Indochina was formed in October 1887 from Annam, Tonkin, Cochin China, and the Khmer Republic; Laos was added in 1893. With the death of Tự Đức in 1883, a succession of Emperors were quickly elevated and just as quickly deposed. The teenage Emperor Hàm Nghi left the Imperial Palace of Hue in 1885 and started the Cần Vương, or "Aid the King", movement. Hàm Nghi asked the people to rally with him to resist the French. He was captured in 1888 and exiled to French Algeria. A former mandarin Phan Đình Phùng continued the Cần Vương movement until his death in 1895. Ihope you understand this period of history VN http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/History-of-Vietnam#Colonization			VietnamVietnam The Lady of Tra Kieu Church huynt (5077)
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To ChrisJ: Thanks for your question.	huynt (5077)	::	2005-07-31 07:47

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