Nguyen Dynasty

Nguyen Dynasty, last dynasty of Vietnam, founded by Nguyen Anh, who ascended the throne in 1802 under the name of Gia Long. The Nguyen family first became prominent in Vietnam during the 16th century when Nguyen Kim, an ancestor of the Nguyen, fought to restore the Le dynasty after its power was usurped by the Mac family. Following Nguyen Kim’s death, his son-in-law Trinh Kiem took over power. To avoid an internecine war, Kim’s son Nguyen Hoang proposed himself as governor of the southern province of Thuan Hoa. By the end of the 16th century, Nguyen’s power in the south was sufficiently strong to defy the Trinh, and by 1673 both families had accepted a de facto division of the Vietnamese state.

During the next 100 years, the Nguyen completed the conquest of the kingdom of Champa as well as a large part of Cambodia, before a peasant rebellion in 1771 led by the Tay Son brothers swept away both the Nguyen and the Trinh to reunite the country. However, a young Nguyen prince, Nguyen Anh, survived the rebellion. Eventually, with the help of French mercenaries, he fought and regained control of the whole of Vietnam and installed himself as Emperor Gia Long in 1802. After his death, however, the next few Nguyen emperors pursued xenophobic policies that clashed with the imperial ambitions of the French in Indochina. In a series of wars from 1858 to 1885, France gained control over the whole of Vietnam (and the rest of Indochina) but maintained the nominal power of the Nguyen on the throne in Hue until 1945. Then in March 1945, when the French colonial administration was itself ousted by the Japanese, the Nguyen Emperor Bao Dai proclaimed the nominal independence of Vietnam. He was forced to abdicate five months later following the Viet Minh seizure of power in Hanoi immediately after Japan’s surrender at the end of World War II (1939-1945). With the return of the French, Bao Dai again served as head of state from 1949 to 1955, when he was deposed by Ngo Dinh Diem.