WHO'S WHO? continued..

Gia Long, nicknamed Nguyen Anh, founding emperor of the Nguyen dynasty. In 1778, when the Nguyen Capital of Gia Dinh (Saigon) was seized by the Tay Son Rebellion, he was the only surviving member of the Nguyen lords. In 1787, he signed a treaty with France to restore the Nguyen in power in return for the cession port of Tourane (Da Nang) and the island of Poulo Condore. The promised assistant from France did not materialize. In 1801, he subdued the Tay Son with helps from the training in modern military techniques and Bishop of Adran. The dynastic name Gia Long, taken from the names of the southern (Gia Dinh) and northern (Thang Long) capitals, symbolized the reunification. The new capital was place at Hue (Phu Xuan), near the central coast.

Le Van Duyet (1763-1832), regional official in South Viet Nam during 19th century. In 1799, he led Nguyen forces against the
Tay Son at Qui Nhon.
Gia Long appointed him regent of South Viet Nam including the authority to conduct foreign relations with Europe and other Southeast Asian nations. His attempt to prevent
Minh Mang's succession to the throne when Gia Long died, earned him the extreme wrath of the monarch. When he died in 1832, he was post-humously convicted and his grave desecrated, leading his adopted son, Le Van Khoi, to rebel. The revolt posed a serious threat to Minh Mang because advantage was taken of it by Siam sending its troops to Cochin-China. Minh Mang defeated Siamese troops and crushed the rebellion.

Pierre Pigneau de Be'haine, Bishop of Adran, the Catholic missionary who first evoked France's interest in Viet Nam. He befriended a pretender to the Vietnamese throne, Nguyen Anh, who founded the Nguyen dynasty. The Bishop of Adran saw an opportunity to expand the church's influence in the post

Tay Son era and negotiated a promise of military aid for Nguyen Anh from the French Government in exchange for territorial and commercial rights.

Prince Canh,
Gia Long's eldest son, who accompanied Pierre Pigneau de Be'haine to the court of Louis XVI at Versailles, where he caused a sensation. Canh was educated at a missionary school in Malacca and converted to Catholicism which made him the first Viet prince educated by Wester

Minh Mang, Nguyen's 2nd emperor, once prince Mien Tong, son of Gia Long, a gentle scholar who French propagandists of the time depicted as a cruel tyrant. The Catholic missions had sped up their evangelization of the people provoked Ming Mang's anti-Catholic policy which ordered the prosecution of Catholic missionaries and their Vietnamese converts. The anti-Catholic policy gave French a pretext to intervene in Viet Nam. The landing of a French party in the port of Tourane, in August 1858, heralded the beginning of the colonial occupation which was to last almost a century.

Minh Mang's Mausoleum in Virtual Reality

Phan Thanh Gian (1796-1867). In 1826, he earned a doctorate in the civil service examaminations and entered the imperial bureaucracy. He served as a deputy chief of a diplomatic mission to China, and later was named province chief in Quang Nam and Binh Dinh provinces. In 1862 he was appointed to negotiate a treaty with Napoleon III following the defeat by French forces at Ky Hoa. When the French violated the pact, Phan commited suicide after pledging his sons never to cooperate with France.

Thieu Tri, Nguyen's 3rd emperor, became more and more entrenched in his Confucian doctrine, the country experienced an era of stagnancy. The court mandarins were increasingly blinded to the development of the outside world and worse still, implemented a policy of isolation that forbade any contact with foreigners.

Thieu Tri's Mausoleum in Virtual Reality

Tu Duc, Nguyen's 4th emperor, whose crass persecution of Christians in his realm provided France with a pretext to pursue its colonial encroachment in the region. The execution of a Spanish bishop in 1857 led to the French capture of Saigon in 1859, and three years later Tu Duc was forced to cede part of Cochin China; by 1867 France had annexed all of it. Tu Duc's later attempt to play the French against intervention by China succeeded only in the French occupation of Tonkin in 1882, but he died shortly before the final reduction of his country to a French protectorate in 1883.

Tu Duc's Mausoleum in Virtual Reality

Ham Nghi, Nguyen's 8th emperor. After establishment of French Protectorate in 1884. Brother of Emperor Kien Phuc, who died after a brief reign in 1884, Ham Nghi rose to the throne at the age of twelve. In July 1845 he fled the capital of Hue with Regent Ton That Thuyet to launch the Can Vuong resistance movement against French occupation. Captured in November 1888, Ham Nghi was sent to live out his life in exile in Algeria, and died there in 1947.

Dong Khanh, Nguyen's 9th emperor, selected by the French to rule because of his docility.
Dong Khanh's Mausoleum in Virtual Reality

Thanh Thai, Nguyen's 10th emperor under the French Protectorate. A son of Emperor Duc Duc, who reigned for only 3 days. He resented French domination and was deposed on suspicion of conspiracy in 1907. Exiled to the island of Reunion, he was later returned to Viet Nam.

Duy Tan, Nguyen's 11th emperor
Emperor Duy Tan as a boy

Khai Dinh, Nguyen's 12th emperor
Portrait Khai Dinh's Mausoleum in Virtual Reality

Bao Dai, last emperor of the Nguyen dynasty of Viet Nam. He succeeded to the throne in 1926 and ruled under French and—during the last days of World War II—Japanese protection until forced out by the Viet Minh in 1945. He returned in 1949 to head the new state of Viet Nam, set up by France to rival the Communist government of Ho Chi Minh. After Viet Nam's partition in 1954, Bao Dai remained head of state in South Viet Nam until deposed by Premier Ngo Dinh Diem the following year. Thereafter he lived in exile. more?

Legend: = cac anh hung chong Phap

Truong Cong Dinh , (1820-1864). Military commander of Vietnamese forces resisting the French conquest of South Viet Nam in the early 1860s. Born in Quang Nam Province, he was the son of a career military officer, who was appointed commander of royal troops in Gia Dinh Province, near present-day Saigon. When the threat of French invasion loomed in the late 1850s, he helped organize military settlements (cong dien) and became deputy commander of militia forces in the region. After taking part in the Battle of Ky Hoa (February 1861), Truong Dinh withdrew his forces south of Saigon, where he launched a prolonged guerrilla resistance against French occupation. Ordered to desist by the imperial court after the Treaty of Saigon (June 1962), he refused and continued the struggle. Wounded in battle in August 1864, he committed suicide.

Ton That Thuyet , lanh tu phong trao Can Vuong. Anti-French resistance leader in 19th century Viet Nam. After the Treaty of Protectorate in 1884 established French control over the Vietnamese Empire, Ton That Thuyet, an influential court official, fled with the young Emperor Ham Nghi in the hope of launching a nationwide revolt against French rule. Seeking refuge in the mountains north of Hue, Ton That Thuyet and Ham Nghi issued an appeal entitled "Save the King" (Can Vuong) to the Vietnamese people for support.

Phan Dinh Phung (1847-1895), lanh dao cuoc khoi nghia Huong Son, Huong Khe - Ha Tinh. Cung voi Cao Thang chi huy cuoc khoi nghia chong quan Phap trong 10 nam, 1885-1895.

Anti-French resistance leader in late 19th-century Viet Nam. Raised in a scholar-official family from Ha Tinh Province, Phan Dinh Phung received a doctorate (tien si) in the civil service examinations given in 1877. He served in the Imperial Censorate (Do Sat Vien), where he was noted for his integrity and was briefly imprisoned in 1883 for refusing to sanction a successor to the deceased Emperor Tu Duc not designated by the emperor himself. When Emperor
Ham Nghi issued his famous "Can Vuong" (Save the King) appeal in July 1885, Phan Dinh Phung responded and launched a revolt in his native province of Ha Tinh. The movement quickly spread to neighboring provinces and lasted 10 years, despite numerous appeals to Phan Dinh Phung from colleagues who had chosen to collaborate with the French, and despite the desecration of his ancestral plot by the colonial regime. The movement was a nuisance to the French, but the rebels lacked weapons and central direction from the puppet court in Hue, and shortly after Phan Dinh Phung died of dysentery in December 1895 it collapsed.

Hoang Hoa Tham ( ? -1913), also known as De Tham, lanh dao cuoc khoi nghia nong dan Yen The (Ha Bac). Da ben bi to chuc chong Phap trong gan 30 nam (1885-1913). Pirate leader and patriot in French-ruled Viet Nam. Born in a poor peasant family in Hung Yen Province in the mid-19th century, De Tham was raised in Yen The, in the rugged mountains north of the Red River Delta, and as a young man joined the Black Flag bandit organization led by the pirate leader Luu Vinh Phuc. He became a bandit leader , stealing from the rich to help the poor. After vainly attempting to suppress his movement, the French made a truce with De Tham in 1893, but the latter began to cooperate with anticolonial elements and allegedly took part in a plot to poison the Hanoi military garrison planned by Phan Boi Chau. The French resumed their efforts to capture him, and he was assassinated by an agent of the French in 1913.

Phan Boi Chau (1867-1940), lanh tu phong trao Dong Du, 1904-1909.

Leading figure in the anti-colonial movement in early 20th-century Viet Nam. He earned a second class degree (Pho bang) in the metropolitan examinations in 1900. In 1903 he formed a revolutionary organization called the Restoration Society (Duy Tan Hoi) under the titular leadership of Prince Cuong De. Two years later he established his headquarters in Japan, where he wrote patriotic tracts designed to stir anti-French sentiments among the general population and encourage young Vietnamese to flee abroad and join his exile organization. In 1912 he transformed the Modernization Society into a new organization, the Vietnamese Restoration Society (Viet Nam Quang Phuc Hoi). Several attempted uprisings in Viet Nam failed. Phan Boi Chau himself was briefly imprisoned in China. On his release in 1917, he appeared temporarily discouraged at the prospects of victory, writing a pamphlet entitled "France-Vietnamese Harmony" (Phap-Viet De Hue) . In 1925 Phan Boi Chau was seized by French agents while passing through the International Settlement in Shanghai. Brought under guard to Hanoi, he was tried and convicted of treason. He spent the remainder of his life in house arrest in Hue and died in 1940.

Cuong De , Prince. Member of the Nguyen royal house who took an active role in anti-colonial activities in French-ruled Viet Nam. A descendent of Prince Canh, the first son of founding Emperor
Gia Long, Cuong De served as the titular leader of
Phan Boi Chau's Modernization Society (Duy Tan Hoi), established in 1903. Cuong De died in 1957.