The Việt Nam Quang Phục Hội was a nationalist republican militant revolutionary organization of Vietnam that was active in the 1910s, under the leadership of Phan Bội Châu and Prince Cường Để. Formed in March 1912, its objective was to overthrow French colonial rule in Vietnam and establish a democratic republic. The organization failed to gain momentum, crippled by arrests of its members.
A revolutionary bond issued by the Việt Nam Quang Phục Hội in 1912.
Phan Bội Châu, born Phan Văn San, courtesy name Hải Thụ, was a pioneer of Vietnamese 20th century nationalism. In 1904, he formed a revolutionary organization called Duy Tân Hội. From 1905 to 1908, he lived in Japan where he wrote political tracts calling for the independence of Vietnam from French colonial rule. After being forced to leave Japan, he moved to China where he was influenced by Sun Yat-sen. He formed a new group called Việt Nam Quang Phục Hội, modeled after Sun Yat-sen's republican party. In 1925, French agents seized him in Shanghai. He was convicted of treason and spent the rest of his life under house arrest in Huế.
Châu, c. 1920
Phan studied the works of Enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Phan (right) with Cường Để, circa 1907.
Phan Bội Châu's House in Bến Ngự, Huế, where he spent his last fifteen years.