Vietnam's last dynasty ruled from 1802 into French Indochina
The Nguyen dynasty was Vietnam's final imperial house, ruling a unified realm independently from 1802 until French protectorate arrangements began in 1883. Nguyen Phuc lords had already dominated the south as Nguyen lords in stretches from 1558 to 1802 before reunification.
The family's influence ran deep. The Nguyễn clan came from Thanh Hóa Province, and one member, Nguyễn Bặc, became the first grand chancellor of the Đinh dynasty in 968; centuries later Nguyễn Thị Anh governed Đại Việt as regent for the child emperor Lê Nhân Tông from 1442 to 1453. As the Nguyễn lords, the house held much of the south from 1558, and in 1802 Nguyễn Phúc Ánh defeated the Tây Sơn and took the throne as Emperor Gia Long. His empire pushed further south and west, into what is now southern Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
Even the country's name bears his stamp. Gia Long asked the Qing Jiaqing Emperor to recognise him as king of Nam Việt, but Beijing balked because that name recalled an ancient kingdom covering Guangdong and Guangxi, and reversed the syllables to Việt Nam instead. The form itself is older, appearing in a 16th-century prophetic poem and on a stele dated 1558. In 1839 Emperor Minh Mạng restyled the state Đại Nam, or Great South, while Westerners generally called it Annam.
French pressure began with the Cochinchina Campaign of 1858. The 1862 Treaty of Saigon turned the south into a French colony, the 1863 Treaty of Huế opened ports and curbed foreign policy, and the Huế treaties of 1883 and 1884 split what remained into the protectorates of Annam and Tonkin under emperors who reigned only in name. In 1887 these, together with Cambodia, were bundled into French Indochina.
The end came through the Second World War. Japan occupied Indochina with French cooperation in 1940, then ousted the French on 9 March 1945; two days later the court declared independence, and Bảo Đại's Empire of Vietnam briefly functioned as a Japanese client, recovering Cochinchina on 14 August. After Japan surrendered and the Việt Minh's August Revolution swept the country, Bảo Đại abdicated, closing 143 years of Nguyễn rule. He returned in 1949 as head of the State of Vietnam until it became a republic in 1955.
Source: Nguyễn dynasty
