Key Dates in the Decolonisation of Indochina
We have made two timeline, one detailed for the teacher and the other is a simpler one for the students.
Teacher's Version
1860: The French would arrive in Saigon and join forces with the British on a joint expeditionary of the Asian region (Taylor, 2013, p. 449-450)
1885: Vietnam is conquered and has become a colony of the French empire (Bertrand, 2013, p.7). This impacted the Vietnamese through the changes which were introduced by the French. There were many uprising rebellions against the French but all were quashed. 1890: Birth of Ho Chi Minh, who would be the founder of the nationalist movement in Vietnam (Gill, 2005, p.98). He left Vietnam at a young age to study and work abroad but still strive from their Independence. 1914-1919:World War One.: The war was fought between the Central Powers (Germany, Austria and Turkey) and the Allies (Britain, France, Russia, Italy, and later the United States). In 1917, Russia would have a revolution and exit from the War. This was the point where the communist threat would surface, as the Monarchy was overthrown by the Communist Bolsheviks. At the end of the war, Germany and its allies were defeated. The Versailles Conference was held and Ho Chi Minh tried to attend the conference to present a petition for the independence for Vietnam but it was rejected (Leibo, 2015, p.275). 1939: The start of World War II began with the Poland being attacked by Germany. 1940-1945:In May of 1940, the Japanese would invade Vietnam. In Europe, Germany had conquered France further deteriorating the situation for the Vietnamese. By 1941, Ho Chi Minh returned to Vietnam to establish the Vietminh, which would fight against the Japanese and the French (Arnold & Wiener, 2012, p. 250). The Japanese occupation was brutal on the Vietnamese(Russell, 2009,p.108). The Japanese bled the country of its resources and food which caused widespread starvation and the materials. This was all used toward the Japanese war effort and the Vietminh used this to rally support against them. In March, the Japanese overthrew the French government in Vietnam. Previously, the French were able to give information against the Japanese to the American. Now the Americans would become allies with Ho Chi Minh and Vietminh, in return for weaponry (Joes,1992, p.91) 1945: By May 1945, the second world war would end with the surrender of Germany and soon the Japanese followed them. In Indochina, the Viet Minh declared Vietnam an independent nation and Ho Chi Minh was the first president. Although Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese communists were very friendly to the United States, at the end of the War everything had changed. Since the French were humiliated in the War, they wanted to restore their empire so the British supported them on that notion. The Americans took a different view, as the USSR and USA relation were deteriorating due to the different ideologies. They saw Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh as puppets of Communist Russia. As a result, they supported the French to return to Vietnam. On the 2nd of September, 1945 , Ho made his declaration of independence which could be compared to the American declaration of independence(Christie, 2001, p.96). At that time, Vietnam was occupied by the British and the Chinese , who had defeated the Japanese. The British handed back the south to the French. In the north, the Chinese troops were on a widespread path of destruction. The Vietminh were fearing the Chinese and were worried that they would not leave, so they came to compromise with the French, that Vietnam would be granted a “independence” but still within the French. Ho had seen the agreement as a promise as Vietnam political independence. However the French had only wanted to give limited independence. This would be the major factor that led to the First Indochina War. 1946: A civil war in China had broke out between the Communists led by Mao Zedong and the Nationalist led by Chiang Kai Shek (Greene, 2007, p. 138). The French-Vietnam Agreement was signed on March 6 but quickly things began to unravel between both parties (Kratoska, 2001. p.268). Ho Chi Minh traveled to France to be told that the South of Vietnam was not part of the agreement, which was in violation of the Agreement. From that point forth, things began to deteriorate and the First Indochina War begun. 1947: Until this point and on the contrary to what the Americans thought, the Soviets had not aided other communist rebels but this would change as they began to provide weapons to the Chinese Communists (DeRouen, 2007, p.259). By October, this was one of the factors to the Chinese Communists victory against the Nationalists in the Chinese Civil War. Soon after, they would start assisting the Ho Chi Minh's government in Vietnam. 1950: They began to turn for the Vietminh with the weapons coming from the North and improved the effectiveness in battle French forces. The War in Vietnam would rage on. 1953:The French established a base at Dien Bien Phu and the Vietminh began to strategise how to destroy it (Cook & Bewes, 2004, p.306). With 12,000 forces stationed at the base, it would be a great victory for the Vietminh. 1954: In February, the Berlin Conference was held and foreign ministers were seeking a resolution to resolve the conflict in Indochina. A conference was to be held in Geneva to bring the parties to the table of negotiation in June. However, by March the Vietminh had began their assault on Dien Bien Phu with 50,000 Vietminh soldiers. Dien Bien Phu base fell on June 7th where 1,500 French died, 4,000 were wounded, and 10,000 were taken prisoner(Carter, 2008, p. 46). It was a military disaster and marked the end of French occupation. The very next day, on June 8, negotiation began with the Vietminh before Geneva. The Geneva Peace Conference would be held and see Vietnam split into two area (Frankum, 2011,p.178). North Vietnam was under the control of the Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh. The South, a puppet Amercian friendly government were placed in control. |
Student's Version
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