How the history of Vietnam and China were intertwined from 111 B.C. to 1500
The people who inhabited Vietnam were believed to have originated from Indonesia and settled in Vietnam’s Tonkin Delta. Archaeologists have traced the prehistoric migration by using stone tools that were used in Vietnam 10,000 years ago. Numerous developments took place throughout Vietnam and China from 111 B.C. to 1500. People who moved to Vietnam brought their technology, culture and language from China. Vietnam was colonized by the Han Dynasty in 111 B.C. Historians from china believed that the Vietnamese people were uncivilized and Barbarian (Womack, 2006).
The Chinese colonist established business centers on the coast of Vietnam so that they could reform their cultures. The aristocracy of the Vietnam kingdom agreed to work with the Chinese while retaining leadership and this resulted in a conflict. The Chinese civilization increased and caused the Western Han dynasty to collapse. This led the Chinese aristocrats to migrate to Southern Asia.
The Chinese aristocrats later intermarried with the people from Vietnam creating an educated culture of mixed Vietnamese and Chinese origin. Chinese immigrants facilitated the development of the area and facilitated construction of roads and large scale production of rice. This increased the population in Vietnam and Chinese leaders were elected in the government.
For the next 700 years, major rebellions were on the increase between the two origins due taxation and allotment of land. The Vietnam peasants could not afford land and the Chinese immigrants were happy to buy from them. The Vietnam held an uprising against the Chinese after they realized they were losing power through ethnic discrimination and excessive taxation. After 900 years, a blend of the two cultures shaped Vietnam into a modern kingdom (Womack, 2006).
References
Womack, B. (2006). China and Vietnam. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Woodside, A. (2006). Lost modernities China, Vietnam, Korea, and the hazards of world history.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
