The history of the Vietnamese state is full of long fights against many and often much stronger enemies. According to legend, first state formations on the territory of today’s Vietnam have existed since the third millennium BC and the most fabled sovereigns were the Hung kings. The legacy of this era is represented by large bronze drums that have become one of the symbols of Vietnam.
The future and existence of Vietnam have been threatened for the first time by the conquest of the Red River Delta by the mighty Chinese Chan dynasty in the first century BC. At that time and also in the following centuries, China has been politically and culturally conquering the neighbouring nations, one of which was also Vietnam. Despite the fact that Vietnam spent the next 1,000 years under Chinese domination, it managed to break free from the dominion of the powerful neighbour in the 10th century and once again became independent. Although China has never fully engulfed this small country in the south in terms of power or culture and Vietnam has partially retained its cultural distinctions, China has forever left its mark on Vietnam’s taste and its perception of the world, it has established the foundations of state administration, law, education system and influenced literature, language, and culture. China's domination had the greatest impact on the life of the Vietnamese elite, with which the Chinese administration was most in contact; its influence on the life of simple villagers was not so intense and that is why this social class has preserved most of the “pre-Chinese” culture and language. During this time, the territory of today’s Vietnam was affected also by other cultural influences brought to Vietnam by Indian merchants who used the Vietnamese shores as a convenient stopover on their travels to other Asian countries.
Even though the admiration for the Middle Kingdom was enormous even after the end of Chinese domination, it has always been curbed by the notion of Vietnamese autonomy that the nation wished to preserve and constantly fought for. During nearly 900 years of independence following the Chinese hegemony, Vietnam had to face many attacks from China and eventually it had to engage in a vassal relationship where every year it had to pay high tributes to strong China. Still, this period is known as the period of flourishing of Vietnamese culture and education, while literature was written both in Chinese script and so-called southern characters, the national script derived from Chinese characters. At that time, Vietnam has been thriving also economically and the country's population began to expand southwards. The period from the 11th century to the 18th century was marked by fights against the southern kingdoms of Champa and the Khmer Empire whose peoples were heavily influenced by the Indian culture from the west. Vietnam's expansion to the south paradoxically weakened the country as the rulers residing in the Red River Delta could not control all the events in the vast empire.
The failure of the ruling Le dynasty to solve this and other problems has led to an unofficial division of territory between individual aristocrats who have begun to fight each other and ceased to respect the rule of the royal court. After 200 years of clashes between individual wealthy families, the country was united at the end of the 18th century by the Vietnamese peasants. However, they were unable to maintain power in a country weakened by war, famine, and natural disasters, and lost it to the Nguyen dynasty. Nguyen Anh took power and under the royal name Gia Long dominated the whole territory and moved the royal city from north to Hue in central Vietnam. Unfortunately, even Gia Long failed to solve all the internal and external problems of the empire, especially the clashes among the powerful aristocracy.
The crisis culminated with the arrival of the Europeans as Vietnam was unable to resist their expansionism. The European powers sought to divide Asia into individual colonies and Vietnam became France’s target. Between 1858 and 1884, France succeeded in conquering the weakened country and dividing it into Cochinchina, Annam, and Tonkin – parts roughly corresponding to the Vietnamese names Nam Bo (southern Vietnam), Trung Bo (central Vietnam), and Bac Bo (northern Vietnam).
The French colonial administration of Vietnam was in short politically repressive and economically exploitative but it has also brought an undeniable boom in the field of culture, education, architecture, technology, and other industries. The Vietnamese resistance to the French was led mainly by high-level government officials, some of whom refused to cooperate with the colonialists and surrendered their important posts. Vietnamese nationalist leaders focused on organizing study groups, demonstrations, print and distribution of anti-colonial printed materials, and on terrorist actions. The success of the efforts of the revolutionaries was limited by the inconsistency of their strategy and goals; some anti-French groups wanted to re-establish the monarchy and others wanted Western-style democracy. Another mistake of the nationalist leaders was probably the failure to involve the peasants who made up the vast majority of the population. After the First World War, another Vietnamese representative – Ho Chi Minh – understood this fact and using methods of intelligent propaganda, he involved the people in the fight for independence. This future first president of Vietnam was educated within the classical Confucian education model, he studied in the West, knew the communist ideals and understood the Vietnamese soul. He has become the greatest and most admired figure in Vietnamese history and for the Vietnamese, he is still a synonym for national autonomy.
After the defeat of the Japanese who were occupying the territory of Vietnam during the Second World War, a power vacuum appeared in the country and the Communists led by Ho Chi Minh tried to quickly seize the opportunity. They declared independence in September 1945 but a few months later the French returned to the country. Even though in Europe and America the war ended in the first half of the 20th century, fighting in Vietnam went on for decades. After the defeat of the French, Vietnam was divided into two parts at the 1954 Geneva Conference: the north which was governed by the Communists and the south managed by the government of Ngo Dinh Diem and supported by the United States. There was an armed conflict between the two parts of the country that involved the United States and the protracted war lasted until 1973. After the end of the war and the reunification of the country, Vietnam underwent other armed conflicts in the late seventies when it was fighting with the Khmer and the Chinese.