Developments in Vietnam: French Colonial Era (1862-1945)

  • French Control Established

    France obtain control of Vietnam and divide it into 3 "pays" (countries): Tonkin, Annam, and Cochin-China. France also invades Laos and Cambodia.
  • Ho Chi Minh born

    Ho Chi Minh is born in Annam. He would grow to become the Communist leader of Vietnam and the leading force against French colonial rule.
  • French Communist Party founded

    Ho Chi Minh founds the French Communist Party
  • Phan Chu Trinh dies

    Phan Chu Trinh borrowed ideas from the West to found a school in Hanoi. He used symbolic gestures to defy colonial rule. He was politically more moderate, but culturally more radical than Phan Boi Chan was.
  • Phan Boi Chau on trial

    Phan Boi Chau was focused on expelling the French from Vietnam. He advocated "new learning" and conveyed an intense nationalism and proposed an armed uprising of the French in his book "History of the Loss of Vietnam."
  • Cao Dai founded

    The new religion of Cao Dai was founded. Chi Dai means "high platform." It fostered Confucian morals, endorsed Buddhist belief in karma and reincarnation, modeled its organization on that of the Roman Catholic Church, and included Confusius, Jesus, and Mohammed in its pantheon.
  • Indochinese Communist Party founded

    Ho Chi Minh founds the Indochinese Communist Party to oppose colonial rule
  • Ho Chi Minh imprisoned

    Ho Chi Minh arrested in Hong Kong by the British during a crackdown on revolutionaries
  • Ho Chi Minh released

    Ho Chi Minh was released from prison. He travels to Moscow to teach at Lenin University
  • League for the Independence of Vietnam formed

    Ho Chi Minh formed the League for the Independence of Vietnam ("Viet Minh")
  • Independence declared

    Ho Chi Minh declares the independence of Vietnam