1.
Mandarin (bureaucrat)
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A mandarin was a bureaucrat scholar in the government of imperial China. The English term comes from the Portuguese mandarim and its usage among the Portuguese is also attested by Matteo Ricci, who entered mainland China from Portuguese Macau in the late 16th century. The Portuguese word was thought by many to be related to mandador and mandar, modern dictionaries, however, agree that it was in fact borrowed by Portuguese from the Malay, which ultimately came from the Sanskrit mantri. In the 16th century, before the term became widespread in the European languages. It is frequently used, for example, in Galeote Pereiras account of his experiences in China in 1548–1553, boxer explains, the word comes from the Chinese 老爷, which was commonly used by people in China to address officials. For around 1,300 years, from 605 to 1905, China has had civil servants since at least the Zhou Dynasty. However, most high ranking positions were filled by relatives of the sovereign and it was not until the Tang Dynasty when the final form of the mandarin was completed with the replacement of the nine-rank system. The mandarins were the founders and core of the Chinese gentry, a governmental office headed by a mandarin is called a yamen. The mandarins were replaced with a civil service after the fall of the Qing Dynasty. Vietnam, after becoming free of Chinese rule and setting up its own independent monarchy, the Qing dynasty divided the bureaucracy into civil and military positions, both having nine grades or ranks, each subdivided into a and b categories. Military appointments ranged from being a marshal or chamberlain of the imperial bodyguard to a third class sergeant. In the table below, na is shorthand for the nth rank, primary, during the Qing dynasty, the governor of a Chinese province, was signified by wearing a mandarin hat-pin made of ruby. The lower ranks of mandarins were signified by hat-pins made of coral, sapphire, lapis lazuli, white jade, gold, and silver. In modern English, mandarin is also used to refer to any civil servant, often in a satirical context, yangban Government of the Peoples Republic of China at DMOZ Government of the Republic of China at DMOZ
2.
Imperial examination
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The Chinese imperial examinations were a civil service examination system in Imperial China to select candidates for the state bureaucracy. The examination helped to shape Chinas intellectual, cultural, political, shopping, arts and crafts, the increased reliance on the exam system was in part responsible for Tang dynasty shifting from a military aristocracy to a gentry class of scholar-bureaucrats. Starting with the Song dynasty, the system was regularized and developed into a roughly three-tiered ladder from local to provincial to court exams, the content was narrowed and fixed on texts of Neo-Confucian orthodoxy. Critics charged that the system stifled creativity and created officials who dared not defy authority, wealthy families, especially merchants, could opt into the system by educating their sons or purchasing degrees. In the 19th century, critics blamed the system, and in the process its examinations, for Chinas lack of technical knowledge. The influence of the Chinese examination system spread to neighboring Asian countries, such as Vietnam, Korea, Japan, following the initial success in that company, the British government adopted a similar testing system for screening civil servants in 1855. Other European nations, such as France and Germany, followed suit, modeled after these previous adaptations, the U. S established its own testing program for certain government jobs after 1883. However, the structure of the system was extensively expanded during the reign of Wu Zetian. Thus the system played a key role in the selection of the scholar-officials, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, the system contributed to the narrowness of intellectual life and the autocratic power of the emperor. The system continued with some modifications until its 1905 abolition under the Qing dynasty, other brief interruptions to the system occurred, such as at the beginning of the Yuan dynasty in the 13th century. The modern examination system for selecting civil servants also indirectly evolved from the imperial one and this changed during the Sui, when recruitment into the imperial civil service bureaucracy became to be considered an imperial prerogative, rather than a duty to be performed by the lower levels. By the Tang dynasty, most of the recruitment into central government bureaucrat offices was being performed by the bureaucracy itself, the regular higher level degree examination cycle was nominally decreed in 1067 to be 3 years. The jinshi tests were not an event and should not be considered so. Oral examination on policy issues were sometimes conducted personally by the emperor himself, beginning in the Three Kingdoms period, imperial officials were responsible for assessing the quality of the talents recommended by the local elites. This system continued until Emperor Yang of Sui established a new category of recommended candidates for the mandarinate in AD605, for the first time, an examination system was explicitly instituted for a category of local talents. However, the Sui dynasty was short-lived, and the system did not reach its mature development until afterwards, a pivotal point in the development of imperial examinations arose with the rise of Wu Zetian. Up until that point, the rulers of the Tang dynasty were all members of the Li family. Reform of the examinations to include a new class of elite bureaucrats derived from humbler origins became a keystone of Wus gamble to retain power
3.
Battle of Gia Cuc
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In defiance of the instructions of his superiors, Rivière stormed the citadel of Hanoi on 25 April 1882. Although Rivière subsequently returned the citadel to Vietnamese control, his recourse to force was greeted with alarm in both Vietnam and China, the Vietnamese also bid for Chinese support. Vietnam had long been a state of China, and China agreed to arm and support the Black Flags. The Qing court also sent a signal to the French that China would not allow Tonkin to fall under French control. In the summer of 1882 troops of the Chinese Yunnan and Guangxi Armies crossed the border into Tonkin, occupying Lang Son, Bac Ninh, Hung Hoa, both negotiators were criticized for giving too much away, and the deal soon unravelled. It was never ratified in China, and in France Jules Ferrys incoming administration disavowed the agreement in March 1883, Rivière was disgusted at the deal cut by Bourée, and in early 1883 decided to force the issue. He had recently sent a battalion of marine infantry from France. French casualties were 4 men wounded, the Vietnamese may have lost as many as 1,000 dead and wounded. One of the factors in the Vietnamese defeat was the absence of pressure on the French from Liu Yongfu. Liu was supposed to attack Hanoi from the west while Prince Hoang descended from the north, however, the two men were on the coolest of terms, and Liu made only a feint attack on the French-held Royal Palace. This attack was beaten off by the French garrison. Meanwhile, the failure of cooperation between Prince Hoang and Liu Yongfu alarmed the Chinese, the senior Chinese civil mandarin Tang Jingsong reconciled the two men in April 1883, and persuaded Liu Yongfu to take the field against the French with the Black Flag Army. The result, in May 1883, was the disastrous French defeat at the Battle of Paper Bridge, in which both Rivière and Berthe de Villers were killed
4.
Tientsin Accord
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The Tientsin Accord or Li–Fournier Convention, concluded on 11 May 1884, was intended to settle an undeclared war between France and China over the sovereignty of Tonkin. Chinese opposition to French efforts to clamp a protectorate on Tonkin led to the outbreak of a war between France and China towards the end of 1883. Chinese troops fought alongside Liu Yung-fus Black Flag Army during the Sơn Tây Campaign, although Admiral Courbets capture of Son Tay paved the way for the eventual French conquest of Tonkin, the French now had to deal with open opposition from China as well as the Black Flag Army. In March 1884, in the Bắc Ninh Campaign, Millot routed the Guangxi Army, the negotiations took place in Tianjin. Li Hung-chang, the leader of the Chinese moderates, represented China, the original French text of the accord, in five articles, is given below. La France s’engage à respecter et à protéger contre toute agression d’une nation quelconque, et en toutes circonstances, les frontières méridionales de la Chine, conformément aux usages diplomatiques, le texte français fera foi. Chacun des Plénipotentiaires a gardé un exemplaire de chaque texte, eastmans English translation, modified slightly where it departs too far from the original French, is given below. Article I, France undertakes to respect and protect against aggression by any nation whatsoever, under any circumstances, in accordance with diplomatic usage, the French text shall be binding. Each of the plenipotentiaries has retained one copy of each text, the signature of the treaty, which replaced the punitive Harmand Treaty of August 1883, was accompanied by an important symbolic gesture. In theory, the conclusion of the Tientsin Accord should have resolved the confrontation over Tonkin between France and China, Fournier was not a professional diplomat, however, and the agreement contained several loose ends. Crucially, it failed to state a deadline for the Chinese troop withdrawal from Tonkin. The French asserted that the withdrawal was to take place immediately. In fact, the Chinese stance was an ex post facto rationalisation, the accord was extremely unpopular in China, and provoked an immediate backlash. The war party called for Li Hung-changs impeachment, and his political opponents intrigued to have sent to the Chinese troops in Tonkin to hold their positions. The intransigence of the Chinese hardliners resulted in a clash between French and Chinese troops near Bac Le on 23 June 1884, which plunged both countries into a fresh crisis. Chinas refusal to pay an indemnity for the Bắc Lệ ambush led directly to the outbreak of the Sino-French War on 23 August 1884
5.
Sino-French War
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The Sino-French War, also known as the Tonkin War and Tonquin War, was a limited conflict fought from August 1884 through April 1885, to decide whether France would supplant Chinas control of Tonkin. Although the Chinese armies performed better than in other nineteenth-century wars and the war ended with French defeat on land, France began its colonial campaign in 1858, annexing several southern provinces in 1862 to form the colony of Cochinchina. In 1873, a small French force commanded by Lieutenant de Vaisseau Francis Garnier, exceeding his instructions, following a series of French victories against the Vietnamese, the Vietnamese government called on Liu Yongfus Black Flags, who defeated Garniers force beneath the walls of Hanoi. Garnier was killed in battle, and the French government later disavowed his expedition. In 1881, French Commandant Henri Rivière was sent with a military force to Hanoi to investigate Vietnamese complaints about the activities of French merchants. In defiance of the instructions of his superiors, Rivière stormed the citadel of Hanoi on 25 April 1882, although Rivière subsequently returned the citadel to Vietnamese control, his recourse to force provoked alarm both in Vietnam and in China. The Vietnamese also bid for Chinese support, Vietnam had long been a vassal state of China, and China agreed to arm and support the Black Flags, and to covertly oppose French operations in Tonkin. The Qing court also sent a signal to the French that China would not allow Tonkin to fall under French control. In the summer of 1882, troops of the Chinese Yunnan and Guangxi armies crossed the border into Tonkin, occupying Lạng Sơn, Bắc Ninh, Hung Hoa, neither of the parties to these negotiations consulted the Vietnamese. Rivière, disgusted at the cut by Bourée, decided early in 1883 to force the issue. He had recently sent a battalion of marine infantry from France. On 27 March 1883, to secure his line of communications from Hanoi to the coast, Rivière captured the citadel of Nam Định with a force of 520 French soldiers under his personal command. During his absence at Nam Định, the Black Flags and Vietnamese made an attack on Hanoi, Rivière jubilantly reacted, This will force them to take forward their Tonkin Question. He had expected to be cashiered for his Capture of Nam Định, there had recently been a change of government in France, and the new administration of Jules Ferry strongly favoured colonial expansion. It therefore decided to back Rivière, Ferry and Foreign Minister Paul-Armand Challemel-Lacour denounced Bourées agreement with Li Hongzhang and recalled the hapless French minister. They also made it clear to the Chinese that they were determined to place Tonkin under French protection and this resulted in a year of Liu Yongfus forces fighting an unconventional war. On 10 May 1883 Liu Yongfu challenged the French to battle in a taunting message widely placarded on the walls of Hanoi, on 19 May Rivière confronted the Black Flags in the Battle of Paper Bridge, and the French suffered a disastrous defeat. Rivières small force attacked a strong Black Flag defensive position near the village of Cầu Giấy, after initial successes the French were eventually enveloped on both wings, only with difficulty could they regroup and fall back to Hanoi
6.
Vietnam
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Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. With an estimated 92.7 million inhabitants as of 2016, it is the worlds 14th-most-populous country, and its capital city has been Hanoi since the reunification of North and South Vietnam in 1976, with Ho Chi Minh City as a historical city as well. The northern part of Vietnam was part of Imperial China for over a millennium, an independent Vietnamese state was formed in 939, following a Vietnamese victory in the Battle of Bạch Đằng River. Following a Japanese occupation in the 1940s, the Vietnamese fought French rule in the First Indochina War, thereafter, Vietnam was divided politically into two rival states, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam. Conflict between the two sides intensified in what is known as the Vietnam War, the war ended with a North Vietnamese victory in 1975. Vietnam was then unified under a communist government but remained impoverished, in 1986, the government initiated a series of economic and political reforms which began Vietnams path towards integration into the world economy. By 2000, it had established relations with all nations. Since 2000, Vietnams economic growth rate has been among the highest in the world and its successful economic reforms resulted in its joining the World Trade Organization in 2007. It is also a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, Vietnam remains one of the worlds four remaining one-party socialist states officially espousing communism. The name Việt Nam is a variation of Nam Việt, a name that can be traced back to the Triệu Dynasty of the 2nd century BC. The word Việt originated as a form of Bách Việt. The form Vietnam is first recorded in the 16th-century oracular poem Sấm Trạng Trình, the name has also been found on 12 steles carved in the 16th and 17th centuries, including one at Bao Lam Pagoda in Haiphong that dates to 1558. Then, as recorded, rewarded Yuenan/Vietnam as their nations name, to also show that they are below the region of Baiyue/Bach Viet. Between 1804 and 1813, the name was used officially by Emperor Gia Long and it was revived in the early 20th century by Phan Bội Châus History of the Loss of Vietnam, and later by the Vietnamese Nationalist Party. The country was usually called Annam until 1945, when both the government in Huế and the Viet Minh government in Hanoi adopted Việt Nam. Archaeological excavations have revealed the existence of humans in what is now Vietnam as early as the Paleolithic age, Homo erectus fossils dating to around 500,000 BC have been found in caves in Lạng Sơn and Nghệ An provinces in northern Vietnam. The oldest Homo sapiens fossils from mainland Southeast Asia are of Middle Pleistocene provenance, teeth attributed to Homo sapiens from the Late Pleistocene have also been found at Dong Can, and from the Early Holocene at Mai Da Dieu, Lang Gao and Lang Cuom. The Hồng Bàng dynasty of the Hùng kings is considered the first Vietnamese state, in 257 BC, the last Hùng king was defeated by Thục Phán, who consolidated the Lạc Việt and Âu Việt tribes to form the Âu Lạc, proclaiming himself An Dương Vương
7.
Bombardment of Tourane
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The Bombardment of Tourane was a naval incident that took place during the short reign of the Vietnamese emperor Thiệu Trị, which saw a considerable worsening of relations between France and Vietnam. The two French ships fought back, sinking four Vietnamese corvettes, badly damaging a fifth, French missionaries had been active in Vietnam since the seventeenth century, and by the middle of the nineteenth century there were perhaps 300,000 Catholic converts in Annam and Tonkin. Most of their bishops and priests were either French or Spanish, most Vietnamese disliked and suspected this sizeable Christian community and its foreign leaders. The French, conversely, began to feel responsible for their safety, French naval captains in the Far East were given instructions to negotiate with the Vietnamese authorities when such cases occurred. On two occasions they intervened with considerable success, on 25 February 1843, capitaine de frégate Favin-Lévêque, captain of the French warship Héroine, anchored off Da Nang to intercede for the release of five missionaries detained at Huế for two years. After long and frustrating negotiations, the five missionaries were released, in 1845, the French corvette Alcmène went to Tourane to ask for the release of Dominique Lefèbvre, the French vicar apostolic of Lower Cochinchina, who was being held prisoner at Huế. Again, the Vietnamese acceded to the French request, and Lefèbvre was released, the 1845 intervention was ordered by Admiral Cécille, the senior French naval officer on station. In 1847, Dominique Lefèbvre secretly re-entered Vietnam and he and another missionary, Duclos, were imprisoned. Probably because the Vietnamese considered Lefèbvres return to Vietnam a deliberate provocation by the French, discussions dragged on without result, and on 15 April 1847 six Vietnamese corvettes attacked the two French ships in the Bay of Tourane. In the brief action followed, the French sank four Vietnamese corvettes and disabled a fifth. According to the French, the Vietnamese spun out the negotiations to win time to assemble a fleet and his plan was to invite the French officers to a banquet, kill them, and then burn and sink the ships. But Commandant Lapierre was on his guard, and declined the invitation, the mandarins, seeing the first part of their programme go astray, passed on to the second. Lefèbvre was released by the Vietnamese authorities either before or shortly after the battle, the Vietnamese naval defeat at Tourane dramatically demonstrated the technological superiority of the French warships over the antiquated vessels of the Vietnamese fleet. Harassment of the Christians eventually provided France with a pretext for attacking Vietnam, during the 1840s, the persecution of Roman Catholic missionaries in Vietnam evoked only sporadic and unofficial French reprisals, such as that taken by de Lapierre and Rigault de Genouilly in 1847. In 1857, however, the execution of two Spanish Catholic missionaries by the emperor Tự Đức led directly to French intervention in Vietnam, in September 1858, a joint French and Spanish naval expedition landed at Da Nang. Its commander was Admiral Charles Rigault de Genouilly, one of the two French naval captains involved in the 1847 incident, the resultant Cochinchina campaign inaugurated the era of French colonial rule in Vietnam. History of Indochina ISBN 2-226-09965-4 Thomazi, A, la conquête de lIndochine Thomazi, A. Histoire militaire de lIndochine français Tucker, S. C. Vietnam ISBN 0-8131-0966-3 Strategy and science of combat on the water in Vietnam before the arrival of French, Lê Đình Thống
8.
Siege of Saigon
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Saigon was of great strategic importance, both as the key food-producing area of Vietnam and as the gateway to Cochinchina. In 1858, Admiral Charles Rigault de Genouilly attacked Vietnam under the orders of Napoleon III following the mission of diplomat Charles de Montigny. His stated mission was to stop the persecution of Catholic missionaries in the country, for his descent on Vietnam, Rigault de Genouilly had a force of 14 warships,1,000 French marine infantry, and 1,000 troops from the Spanish garrisons of the Philippines. The allied force landed at the port of Tourane in September 1858, however, the allies were soon placed under siege by the Vietnamese and, unable to advance inland beyond the protection of the squadrons guns, were effectively immobilised at Tourane. Realising that the French garrison at Tourane could achieve nothing useful, the expedition was approved, and on 2 February, leaving capitaine de vaisseau Thoyon at Tourane with a small French garrison and two gunboats, Rigault de Genouilly sailed south for Saigon. His naval force consisted of the corvettes Phlégéton and Primauguet, the gunboats Alarme, Avalanche and Dragonne, the Spanish despatch vessel El Cano, Rigault de Genouilly halted for five days in Cam Ranh Bay for four supply ships to join him with food for the expedition. On 9 February he again got underway, on 10 February the allied flotilla bombarded the forts that defended the interior harbour of Cape Saint-Jacques and soon reduced their cannon to silence. The landing companies, a force of French and Spanish soldiers under the command of capitaine de vaisseau Reynaud, then went ashore. On 11 February the five-day voyage upriver began, the transports and the baggage were left at Cap Saint-Jacques. The gunboat Dragonne scouted ahead, followed by the two gunboats, the two corvettes and the Spanish despatch vessel. Three companies of infantry and two Spanish companies,2,000 men in all, were distributed among the vessels which towed the launches of the naval force. The allied flotilla advanced cautiously as the currents were unknown, the Vietnamese defended themselves vigorously, Dragonne was hit with three cannonballs, and Avalanche by seven. The invaders took care to ensure that the river could not be closed behind them, after each fort was taken its cannon were either spiked or taken aboard the ships. On the evening of 15 February the naval division arrived in view of the two built by Gia Longs French engineers, which defended Saigon from the south. During the night two armed launches were sent forward to destroy a barrage made of lashed together and filled with explosives. At dawn on 16 February Phlégéton, Primauguet, Alarme and Avalanche anchored 800 metres from the forts, the channel was so narrow that Admiral Charner, on Phlégétons bridge, was able to shout his orders to the captains of the other vessels. Prégent, Dragonne and Elcano were a further back. The allied flotilla opened fire on the Vietnamese forts and soon found the range, Marine infantry snipers, firing from the mastheads of the French and Spanish ships, picked off the Vietnamese gunners
9.
Citadel of Saigon
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The Citadel of Saigon also known as the Citadel of Gia Dinh was a late 18th-century fortress that stood in Saigon, Vietnam from its construction in 1790 until its destruction in February 1859. It was destroyed in a French naval bombardment as part of the colonisation of southern Vietnam which became the French colony of Cochinchina. The citadel was used once prior to its destruction, when it was captured by Le Van Khoi in 1833. The city changed hands multiple times before Nguyễn Ánh captured the city in 1789, under the directions of French officers recruited for him, a Vauban style octagonal citadel was built in 1790. Thereafter, the Tây Sơn never attacked southern Vietnam again, and he used this to build an administration and strengthen his forces for a campaign that united Vietnam in 1802, resulting in his coronation as Gia Long. In 1833, his son Minh Mạng was faced with a led by Lê Văn Khôi. The rebels took control of the citadel and the revolt continued until the forces took control of the citadel in 1835. Following the capture of the citadel, Minh Mang ordered its razing and replacement with a smaller square stone-built structure, on February 17,1859, the citadel was captured during the French invasion after less than a day of battle and significant amounts of military supplies were seized. Realising that they did not have the capacity to hold the fort against Vietnamese attempts to recapture it, until the 17th century, what is now southern Vietnam was not inhabited by ethnic Vietnamese but by Khmer people. What is now central Vietnam had been the seat of the kingdom of Champa, the 1471 Vietnamese conquest of Champa saw the destruction of the Cham capital and heralded the ultimate decline of Champa. The Vietnamese continually expanded south in what is known as the nam tien, central Vietnam was ruled by the Nguyễn lords, who had broken away in the early 17th century from the Trịnh lords, who ruled the north. The Nguyễn continued the expansion that eventually saw Vietnamese encroach into what had been Khmer territory in the Mekong Delta. The southern edge of Vietnam, being away from the Nguyễn power base in the centre, was loosely governed. In 1771, the Tây Sơn rebellion erupted from Bình Định Province, in 1777, the last of the Nguyễn lords was deposed and killed. His nephew Nguyen Phuc Anh was the most senior member of the Nguyễn family to have survived the Tây Sơn victory and conquest of Saigon in 1777. Nguyễn Ánh fled to Hà Tiên in the far south of the country, where he met Pigneau de Behaine, over the next few decades, there were continuous attacks and counterattacks by both sides and Saigon changed hands frequently. Eventually, Nguyễn Ánh was forced him into exile, the Tây Sơn regularly raided the rice growing areas of the south during the harvesting season, confiscating the Nguyễns supply of food. In 1788, the Tây Sơn moved north to attack the Trịnh, Nguyễn Ánh took advantage of the situation to return to southern Vietnam
10.
Cochinchina Campaign
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The Cochinchina campaign, fought between the French and Spanish on one side and the Vietnamese on the other, began as a limited punitive campaign and ended as a French war of conquest. The war concluded with the establishment of the French colony of Cochinchina, the French had few pretexts to justify their imperial ambitions in Indochina. Certainly, he and his successor Minh Mạng flirted with the French, but this limited contact with the French counted for little. Neither Gia Long nor Minh Mạng had any intention of coming under French influence, but the French were not prepared to be brushed off quite so easily. As so often during the era of European colonial expansion, religious persecution created a reason for intervention. French missionaries had been active in Vietnam since the 17th century, most of their bishops and priests were either French or Spanish. Most Vietnamese disliked and suspected this sizeable Christian community and its foreign leaders, the French, conversely, began to feel responsible for their safety. Harassment of the Christians eventually provided France with a pretext for attacking Vietnam. During the 1840s, persecution or harassment of Catholic missionaries in Vietnam by the Vietnamese emperors Minh Mạng and Thiệu Trị evoked only sporadic, the decisive step towards the establishment of a French colonial empire in Indochina was not taken until 1858. In 1857, the Vietnamese emperor Tự Đức executed two Spanish Catholic missionaries and this was neither the first nor the last such incident, and on previous occasions the French government had overlooked such provocations. But this time, Tự Đứcs timing was inopportune, as it coincided with the Second Opium War. France and Britain had just despatched a joint military expedition to the Far East to chastise China, in November 1857, Napoleon III of France authorised Admiral Charles Rigault de Genouilly to send a punitive expedition to Vietnam. In September 1858, a joint French and Spanish expedition landed at Tourane, the allies expected an easy victory, but the war did not at first go as planned. The Siege of Tourane lasted for three years, and although there was little fighting disease took a heavy toll of the allied expedition. The garrison of Tourane was reinforced from time to time, and occasionally mounted local attacks against the Vietnamese positions, in October 1858, shortly after his capture of Tourane, Rigault de Genouilly cast around for somewhere else to strike the Vietnamese. Realising that the French garrison at Tourane was unlikely to achieve anything useful, the expedition was approved, and in early February, leaving capitaine de vaisseau Thoyon at Tourane with a small French garrison and two gunboats, Rigault de Genouilly sailed south for Saigon. On 17 February 1859, after forcing the defences and destroying a series of forts and stockades along the Saigon river. French marine infantry stormed the enormous Citadel of Saigon, while Filipino troops under Spanish command threw back a Vietnamese counterattack, the allies were not strong enough to hold the citadel, and on 8 March 1859 blew it up and set fire to its rice magazines
11.
Pacification of Tonkin
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Following their colonisation of Cochinchina in the 1860s, the French attempted to extend their influence into Tonkin. A first, abortive attempt to intervene in Tonkin was made by Francis Garnier in 1873, nine years later, in April 1882, Henri Rivière seized the citadel of Hanoi, inaugurating the second French intervention. Although it would take years before Tonkin was truly pacified. In August 1883, in the wake of Admiral Amédée Courbets victory at the Battle of Thuan An, when the Sino-French War ended in April 1885, there were 35,000 French troops in Tonkin, but the area of French control was restricted to the Red River Delta. The Can Vuong insurgency against the French launched in Annam in July 1885 after Hàm Nghis flight from Huế was portrayed by the insurgents as a patriotic, anti-French, the insurgency in Tonkin was rather more complex. Many of the insurgents fought for patriotic motives, but others wanted to exploit the anarchy that prevailed in much of Tonkin at the end of the Sino-French War. They kept their weapons and supported themselves by brigandage, in many cases sheltering behind the rhetoric of the Can Vuong insurgency. The reign of the mandarins was now ended, but force would be needed to deal with the pirates, Liu Yongfus Black Flag forces continued to harass and fight the French in Tonkin after the end of the Sino-French War. With support from China, Vietnamese and Chinese freebooters fought against the French in Lang Son in the 1890s and they were labelled pirates by the French. The Black Flags and Liu Yongfu in China received requests for assistance from Vietnamese anti-French forces, pirate Vietnamese and Chinese were supported by China against the French in Tonkin. Women from Tonkin were sold by pirates, dealers of opium and pirates of Vietnamese and Chinese origin in Tonkin fought against the French Foreign Legion. The bandits and pirates included Nung among their ranks, by adopting their clothing and hairstyle, it was possible to change identity to Nung for pirate and exile Chinese men. Pirate Chinese and Nung fought against the Meo, the flag pirates who fought the French were located among the Tay. In 1891 Goldthwaites Geographical Magazine, Volumes 1-2 said FOUR months ago and they beheaded the French resident, ransacked and burned the town, and killed many of the people. In 1906 the Decennial Reports on the Trade, Navigation, Industries, Etc. of the Ports Open to Foreign Commerce in China and Corea, volume 2 said Piracy on the Tonkin border was very prevalent in the early years of the decade. These posts were handed over to the military authorities. Defective as they may be, these roads must, it seems to me, be of service to cultivation and trade, the wounds were all light, scarcely more than scratches, and no evil effect was feared at the time. After a few days, however, in spite of every care, the captain grew weaker, and it became apparent that he was suffering from the effects of arrow poison
