History of Vietnam

Prehistory
Chinese Colonization (200BC - 938AD)
Vietnamese Independence (950 - 1859)
French Colonization (1874-1954)
The French-Indochina War (1945-1954)
Civil War (1954-1975)
Vietnam since 1975

Minds)

Prehistory
Map of prehistoric Vietnam

The earliest inhabitants of Vietnam are believed to have migrated from the islands of Indonesia and settled on the edges of the Red River in the Tonkin Delta. Archaeologists trace pre-historic migrations through discoveries of stone tools; similar tools are found across Java, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Northern Burma. These stone tools are thought to be the first human tools used in Southeast Asia. Both Mesolithic and Neolithic cultures existed in northern Vietnam 10,000 years ago; remains of these people and their culture have been found in the Hoa Binh Caves along the Red River and in the Tonkin Delta. Throughout Southeast Asia, organized societies developed during the Neolithic Period (8000-800BC) During this period the inhabitants of Vietnam spread across a large area from the foothills of the western mountains to the eastern coast. It is believed that groups of extended families lived in small communities and developed two methods of cultivating their staple food, rice. Dry rice cultivation was done in dry fields in upland areas, while wet rice cultivation, involving the construction of dikes around rivers that collected water into knee-deep ponds flourished along river banks. Both methods are still used today.

The sophisticated Bronze Age Dong Son culture emerged between 800-200BC. Many researchers believe bronze technology was introduced from China, while other evidence points to an independent origin in neighboring Thailand. These people used bronze to make large ritualistic drums known as the Dong Son drums. Three-dimensional carvings, carvings in bas-relief, and etchings on the drums show people farming, doing daily chores such as pounding rice, walking with spears, building boats and riding in them, and playing trumpet-like instruments. Dong Son drums also portray houses built on bamboo poles or stilts in the same architectural style as they are built today in Vietnam and throughout Southeast Asia. Animals depicted on the drums include frogs, sea birds, and deer. Archaeologists believe that the frogs and sea birds symbolized some of the people's religious beliefs pertaining to the worship of the natural elements which surrounded them. Some Dong Son-like drums are still used by the Muong people, a highland group which is found in Vietnam's west mountains. Other Dong Son drums have been unearthed in areas ranging from Southern China to Indonesia.

The movements of peoples and cultures in early Vietnam are explained through myths which give historians insight into what might have happened in the Dong Son era. The most well-known origin myth says the first Vietnamese people originated from the marriage of a dragon father and a fairy mother who had 100 sons. Since the dragon was a water creature, they decided they could not stay together. The fairy mother took 50 sons to the highlands, and the dragon father took the other 50 to the coast. One of the sons who went with the dragon father became the founder of the Hung Dynasty which is thought to have existed from 2769BC until 100AD. The sons who went to the coast are considered to be the people of the Lac Kingdom. According to historians and archaeologists, the Lac people were coastal people who had developed a sophisticated agricultural society as early as 1500BC.

Vietnam is characterized by two major river deltas, the Red River Delta in the north and the Mekong River Delta in the south. In prehistoric times a kingdom formed between the two deltas. It was composed of Malayo-Polynesian people and was highly influenced by Indian and Indonesian trade and religion. This area developed into the kingdom of Champa. Champa was similar to other Hindu-Buddhist civilizations which were formed in Indonesia, Burma, Thailand, and Cambodia.

Peoples from Southern China began migrating into the Tonkin Delta after being forced to leave their homelands by Han Chinese expansion beginning in the 2nd century B.C.. These immigrants and their culture created lasting changes in Vietnamese society. . Until recently, the Chinese claimed that all Vietnamese peoples and culture arrived from China. As more recent data indicates, however, the peoples of the Red River Delta came from other parts of Southeast Asia, rather than China. Since Chinese colonization of Vietnam lasted for 1000 years, many of the aspects that make up pre-Chinese society are indistinguishable from those that came with the Chinese.