Page 6 - Vietnam Destination Guide - Alluring Asia

EARLY CONTACT WITH THE WEST According to Chinese records, the first Vietnamese contact with Europeans took place in 166 AD when travelers from the Rome of Marcus Aurelius arrived in the Red River Delta. The first Portuguese sailors landed in Danang in 1516; they were followed by Dominican missionaries 11 years later. During the next few decades the Portuguese began to trade with Vietnam, setting up a commercial colony alongside those of the Japanese and Chinese at Faifo (present-day Hoi An near Danang). Franciscan missionaries from the Philippines settled in central Vietnam in 1580, followed in 1615 by the Jesuits, who had just been expelled from Japan. In 1637, the Dutch were authorized to set up trading posts in the north, and one of the Le Kings even took TAY SON REBELLION (1771-1802) a Dutch woman as one of his six wives. In 1765, a rebellion against misgovernment broke out in the town of Tay Son near Qui Nhon. It was One of the most illustrious of the early missionaries led by three brothers from a wealthy merchant was the brilliant French Jesuit Alexandre de Rhodes family; Nguyen Nhac, Nguyen Hue and Nguyen Lu. (1591-166). He is most recognized for his work in By 1773, the Tay Son Rebels (as they came to be devising quoc ngu, the Latin-based phonetic alphabet known) controlled the whole of central Vietnam, and in which Vietnamese is written to this day. Over the in 1783 the captured Saigon and the rest of the south, course of his long career, de Rhodes flitted back and killing the reigning prince and his family (as well as forth between Hanoi, Macau, Rome and Paris, 10,000 Chinese residents of Cholon). Nguyen Lu seeking support and funding for his missionary became king of the south, and Nguyen Nhac became activities and battling both Portuguese colonial king of central Vietnam. opposition and the intractable Vatican bureaucracy. In 1645, he was sentenced to death for illegally The Tay Son overthrew the Trinh lords in the north entering Vietnam to proselytize but was expelled and proclaimed allegiance to the Later Le Dynasty. instead' two of the priests with him were beheaded. Taking advantage of the unstable situation, the Chinese sent 200,000 troops to Vietnam under the By the late 17th century most of the European pretext of helping the emperor. In 1788, with merchants were gone; trade with Vietnam had not popular sentiment on his side, one of the Tay Son proved particularly profitable. But the missionaries brothers, Nguyen Hue, proclaimed himself Emperor remained, and the Catholic Church eventually had a Quang Trung and set out with his army to expel the greater impact on Vietnam than on any country in Chinese Asia except the Philippines, which was ruled by the Spanish for 400 years. In the south, Nguyen Anh, whose forces were trained by Pigneau de Behaine's young French adventurers, gradually pushed back the Tay Son. In 1802, Nguyen Anh proclaimed himself Emperor Gia Long, thus beginning the Nguyen Dynasty. When he captured Hanoi, his victory was complete, and for the first time in two centuries, Vietnam was united. Hue became the new national capital.