In ancient China, among the surrounding countries, Vietnam can be said to be relatively tenacious, at the beginning of the Qin Dynasty, the Vietnamese region was once included in the territory of China, but after five generations and ten kingdoms, it was completely independent. Since then, although the Central Plains Dynasty has continued to try to recover the Vietnamese region, it has finally failed. Typically there are two.
The first is during the Yuan Dynasty. Kublai Khan conquered Vietnam three times before and after, and the Yuan Dynasty was an army that conquered the world, and the combat effectiveness naturally need not be said, but although each time, it directly penetrated its capital and expelled its king. In the end, it was still a fiasco and returned, mainly not that the Mongols could not defeat Vietnam, but the cunning of Vietnam, once the Mongol army came, it immediately ran away, and then it fought guerrilla and harassed. At that time, the Mongol army had a hard time withstanding the hot climate of Vietnam, so many fell ill. In the end, the Three Mongol armies were defeated and returned, completely defeated, and lost the opportunity to retake Vietnam.
The second time, during the Ming Dynasty Zhu Di period, unrest broke out in Vietnam, and the Chen Dynasty was overthrown by the Hu Dynasty, so Chen Tianping, the prince of the Chen Dynasty, ran to Nanjing to find Zhu Di and knelt down and cried, which made Zhu Di very moved. Moreover, Zhu Di also wanted to take this opportunity to reclaim the Vietnamese region that had left the Central Plains for hundreds of years. Therefore, Zhu Neng was sent, and Zhang Fu's army attacked the Hu Dynasty in Vietnam, and Zhu Neng fell ill and died on the way, fortunately, Zhang Fu was very good at war, and gave full play to the advantages of the Ming army to defeat the Hu Dynasty army in one fell swoop.
In addition, the usurper Emperor Hu was directly captured and returned to Nanjing for questioning, and Zhu Di included Vietnam in the territory of the Ming Dynasty and re-established the local government. However, this move was met with strong resistance from Vietnam, and peasant uprisings continued to break out. Moreover, the Ming Dynasty officials continued to exploit there, causing the people's resentment to boil. In addition, at that time, the capital of Daming moved to Beijing, and the ability to control Vietnam was even weaker, and in the last few decades, the officials and 70,000 troops sent by the Ming Dynasty were almost completely destroyed, and the last attempt also failed.
However, such a tenacious Vietnam, the Western colonizers and the French easily occupied Vietnam after they arrived, and they also implemented colonial rule, and the Vietnamese people were still obedient. Why is that? Is it innately fond of being invaded by foreign countries? In fact, the reason is very simple.
First, religion opens the way.
Vietnam was originally Confucian culture as orthodox, but from the 15th century onwards, a large number of Western missionaries came to Vietnam, and their missionary work in Vietnam was a great success. The rapid penetration of Catholicism and Christianity has cultivated a large number of believers, who have become an important force in the later French colonization of Vietnam.
Second, the military is strong.
Realizing the power of the missionaries, vietnam began to expel the missionaries, and the French colonists used this as an excuse to invade Vietnam. The missionaries had already reported all the mountains and rivers and customs of Vietnam to France. Therefore, with the help of ships and guns, military victories were soon achieved. And the French, from the sea supply can continue to keep up, which is the key to their military victory.
Once a city has been captured and sufficient logistical supplies are in place, even vietnamese guerrilla warfare cannot be effective. The French are very cautious, and have always insisted on fighting steadily, each time they hit a city, they first appeased the people, signed treaties with the local government, cultivated pro-French forces, and slowly realized colonization. After the rule is secured, it continues to fight northwards to achieve the purpose of gradual encroachment.
Third, cultural conquest.
We know that Vietnam has always used Chinese characters, and its ancient books and government documents are all Chinese characters. However, since the French began to infiltrate Vietnam, sending a large number of missionaries, coupled with the occupation of the army, it was crucial that the Latin script quickly succeeded in replacing the Chinese characters of Vietnam as its language. Once the written word was formed, it was a cultural control, so Confucian culture was slowly eroded by the Latin civilization of France. This is also during the French colonial rule, the people are no longer as fierce resistance as during the Yuan Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty.