Imperialism In Vietnam In The Early 1900's

As the sun set on the nineteenth century and the dawn of the twentieth century rose, the small, resource-rich country of Vietnam grew increasingly tired of French imperial rule in its homeland. For decades French colonialism had exploited the Vietnamese countryside to build up and provide for her own nation. “[These] colonizers declared that they were serving the Indochinese peoples by bringing material advancement and moral uplift - by performing, in short, a ‘civilizing mission.’” (Lawrence 11). However, only a small percent of Vietnamese elites actually benefited from these reforms. The rural Vietnamese peasantry, which accounted for the bulk of the nation’s total population, endured increasingly greater hardships, such as food shortages

The same is true for what took place in Vietnam in the early 1900’s. A strong nationalist movement, hungry for independence and freedom from oppression, began voicing their concerns. “Vietnamese intellectuals began to explore the sources of their country’s vulnerability and to consider ways to revitalize and liberate their country” (Hunt 1). Additionally, “their nationalism incorporated a special faith in the capacity of Vietnamese to resist foreign domination” (Hunt 2, italics mine). In other words, the Vietnamese not only envisioned the possibility of independence, but began planning a way of bringing it to pass. Phan Boi Chau penned the following in his work, The New Vietnam, “Our soil is fertile, our mountains and rivers beautiful. Compared with other powers in the five continents, our country is inferior only to a few. Why, then, do we suffer French protection? Alas, that is simply because of our deep-rooted slave mentality; it is because of our inveterate habit of depending on others for over two thousand years” (Hunt 5). This zealous man continued in his argument, “our enemy the French are very ingenious. They despise us, claiming that we are weak; they lie to us, because they consider us stupid…. They trample over our people; they hold our fathers and brothers in contempt; they treat us like buffaloes and horses; they suck the sweat and blood from our people;

Ho Chi Minh was willing to counter French colonialism in a very aggressive, militaristic manner. A nationalist, a Leninist, and a Marxist, Ho despised capitalism and adopted socialist and communist ideas. He despised French imperialism and seethed with revolution. A true leader, Ho Chi Minh knew how to rally his people behind him and the national cause. He cried to his nation in 1941, “If our entire people are solidly united we can certainly get the better of the best-trained armies of the French and the Japanese… National salvation is the common cause of our entire people. Every Vietnamese must take part in it. He who has money will contribute his money, he who has strength will contribute his strength, he who has talent will contribute talent. For my part I pledge to follow in your steps and devote all my modest abilities to the service of the country and am ready for the supreme sacrifice” (Hunt 12). Ho led with skill and competence; he “showed a remarkable ideological flexibility and tactical genius that enabled him to succeed where earlier nationalists had failed” (Lawrence 17). He had a knack to “seamlessly [blend] communist notions of social revolution with nationalist themes likely to resonate with a broad range of Vietnamese motivated