Vietnam

A thousand years under Chinese rule, a thousand more of fiercely defended independence, and a modern nation forged in war and reform.

Vietnamese history stretches from the legendary kingdoms of the Red River delta to one of Asia's most dynamic modern economies. Tradition traces the nation to Van Lang and the Hung kings and to the kingdom of Au Lac, but the verifiable story begins with more than a millennium of Chinese domination, from the Han conquest in 111 BCE until Ngo Quyen's victory on the Bach Dang River in 938 CE. The independent dynasties that followed, the Ly, Tran, and Le, built a Confucian state, expanded steadily southward at the expense of Champa, and repeatedly threw back invaders, including three Mongol assaults under Kublai Khan. The Nguyen dynasty unified the long country under Gia Long in 1802, only to fall under French colonial rule within the French Indochina established in 1887. On 2 September 1945 Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, opening three decades of war: against France, then in a divided nation through the Vietnam War, until reunification in 1975 and 1976. Since the Doi Moi reforms of 1986, Vietnam has transformed itself into a fast-growing, globally integrated state while remaining a one-party socialist republic.