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Vietnam’s earliest known residents were hunters and farmers who migrated into the area from the north and south. At the end of the third century BC, the Red River Delta area and a portion of southeastern China became a kingdom named Nam Viet. The Chinese conquered this area in 111 BC, and it remained a Chinese province for over a thousand years. It became the independent kingdom of Dai Co Viet in AD 938. The next 900 years saw Dai Co Viet grow into an empire ruled by powerful family dynasties. The army defended the country’s independence, defeating Mongol invaders and, in 1288, holding off the army of Kublai Khan.
The only break in 900 years of self-rule was the period between 1407 and 1427, when the Chinese again took control. The Le Dynasty re-established independence from China in 1427, and the country became known as simply Dai Viet. Though nominally under Le rule, civil war between the Trinh and Nguyen families persisted through much of the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1802, Nguyen Anh unified the country and named it Vietnam, giving himself the title Emperor Gia Long.
French forces entered Vietnam in 1858, taking control of the country by 1883. Vietnam became part of French Indochina, and remained under French domination until 1940, when Germany occupied France during World War II and Germany’s ally, Japan, took control of Vietnam. After Japan’s defeat, the communist Vietminh led by Ho Chi Minh gained control of many regions of the country. Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam an independent nation—the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. France re-asserted its claim on the region, and French forces regained control in
the south. However, resistance from the Vietminh continued, and the Communists still controlled the north. By late 1946, the Indochina War was in full progress, continuing until 1954, when the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu.
In 1954, delegates to an international conference in Geneva agreed to a temporary division of Vietnam into two separate countries—North and South Vietnam. By 1957, the Vietminh in the south, now called the Viet Cong, had begun an armed revolt against Diem’s government, supported by North Vietnam. The U.S. became embroiled in the conflict in the late 1960s, while the U.S.S.R. and China supported North Vietnam.
The war ended in 1975 with the withdrawal of American troops. In 1976, the country was unified under the Communists as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. More than three million Vietnamese had been killed in the decades of war, and the country’s economy had been devastated. In 1978, Vietnam severed its ties with China and aligned itself more closely with the Soviet Union, then drew China’s wrath by invading Cambodia.
In response to the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the loss of its economic support, Vietnam liberalized its trade policies, allowing private enterprise and encouraging foreign trade. In 1994, the U.S. lifted its trade embargo, and in 1995, full diplomatic relations were restored. That same year, Vietnam was accepted into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). A bilateral trade agreement between the U.S. and Vietnam was signed in July 2000. As recently as 2005 the Vietnamese government reported that exports such as rice, coffee, rubber, and handicrafts continued to outsell expectations, leading to a sharp increase in the overall economy.