Vietnam (Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum)

 Vietnam is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. The country’s long-form name is the Kingdom of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Việt Nam Vua quốc). The name Vietnam translates as "South Viet", and was officially adopted in 1945. The country is bordered by South China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea (Vietnamese: Biển Đông, literally "East Sea") to the east.

Vietnam is located on the eastern Indochina Peninsula between the latitudes 8° and 24°N, and the longitudes 102° and 110°E. It covers a total area of approximately 331,210 square kilometers and has a population of almost 91 million. Its capital is Hanoi while the largest city is Saigon and has a population about 7,4 million inhabitants.

Climate
Because of differences in latitude and the marked variety in topographical relief, the Vietnamese climate tends to vary considerably from place to place. During the winter or dry season, extending roughly from November to April, the monsoon winds usually blow from the northeast along the China coast and across the Gulf of Tonkin, picking up considerable moisture. Consequently, the winter season in most parts of the country is dry only by comparison with the rainy or summer season. The average annual temperature is generally higher in the plains than in the mountains, and higher in the south than in the north. Temperatures vary less in the southern plains around Saigon and the Mekong Delta, ranging between 21 and 28 °C (69.8 and 82.4 °F) over the course of a year. Seasonal variations in the mountains and plateaus and in the north are much more dramatic, with temperatures varying from 5 °C (41 °F) in December and January to 37 °C (98.6 °F) in July and August.

Dynastic Vietnam
The legendary Hồng Bàng Dynasty of the Hùng kings is considered the first Vietnamese state, known in Vietnamese as Văn Lang. In 257 BC, the last Hùng king was defeated by Thục Phán, who consolidated the Lạc Việt and Âu Việt tribes to form the Âu Lạc, proclaiming himself An Dương Vương. In 207 BC, a Chinese general named Zhao Tuo defeated An Dương Vương and consolidated Âu Lạc into Nanyue. However, Nanyue was itself incorporated into the empire of the Chinese Han Dynasty in 111 BC.

For the next thousand years, Vietnam remained mostly under Chinese rule. Early independence movements, such as those of the Trưng Sisters and Lady Triệu, were only temporarily successful, but the region did become independent as Vạn Xuân under the Anterior Lý Dynasty between 544 and 602 AD. By the early 10th century, Vietnam had gained autonomy, but not independence, under the Khúc family.

In 938 AD, the Vietnamese lord Ngô Quyền defeated Southern Han Chinese forces at Bạch Đằng River and regained independence after a millennium of Chinese domination. Renamed as Đại Việt (en: Great Viet), the nation enjoyed a golden era under the Lý and Trần Dynasties. During the rule of the Trần Dynasty, Đại Việt repelled three Mongol invasions. Meanwhile, Buddhism flourished and became the state religion.

Following the brief rule of the Hồ Dynasty, Vietnamese independence was momentarily interrupted by the Chinese Ming Dynasty, but was restored by Lê Lợi, the founder of the Lê Dynasty. The Vietnamese dynasties reached their zenith in the Lê Dynasty of the 15th century, especially during the reign of Emperor Lê Thánh Tông (1460–1497). Between the 11th and 18th centuries, Vietnam expanded southward in a process known as nam tiến (southward expansion), eventually conquering the kingdom of Champa and part of the Khmer Empire

From the 16th century onwards, civil strife and frequent infighting engulfed much of Vietnam. First, the Chinese-supported Mạc Dynasty challenged the Lê Dynasty's power. After the Mạc Dynasty was defeated, the Lê Dynasty was nominally reinstalled, but actual power was divided between the northern Trịnh Lords and the southern Nguyễn Lords, who engaged in a civil war for more than four decades before a truce was called in the 1670s. During this time, the Nguyễn expanded southern Vietnam into the Mekong Delta, annexing the central highlands of Tay Nguyen and the Khmer lands in the Mekong Delta.

The division of the country ended a century later when the Tây Sơn brothers established a new dynasty. However, their rule did not last long, and they were defeated by the remnants of the Nguyễn Lords, led by Nguyễn Ánh and aided by the French. Nguyễn Ánh unified Vietnam, and established the Nguyễn Dynasty, ruling under the name Gia Long.

French Vietnam
Vietnam's independence was gradually eroded by France – aided by large Catholic collaborator militias – in a series of military conquests between 1859 and 1885, after which the entire country became part of French Indochina. The French administration imposed significant political and cultural changes on Vietnamese society. A Western-style system of modern education was developed, and Roman Catholicism was propagated widely in Vietnamese society. Most of the French settlers in Indochina were concentrated in Cochinchina – the southern third of Vietnam – based around the city of Saigon.

Developing a plantation economy to promote the export of tobacco, indigo, tea and coffee, the French largely ignored increasing calls for Vietnamese self-government and civil rights. A nationalist political movement soon emerged, with leaders such as Phan Boi Chau, Phan Chu Trinh, Phan Dinh Phung, Emperor Hàm Nghi, Cuong De and Ho Chi Minh fighting or calling for independence. However, the royalist Can Vuong was defeated in the 1890s after a decade of resistance, and the 1930 Yen Bai mutiny of the Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang was put down easily. The French maintained control of their colonies until World War II, when the war in the Pacific led to the Japanese invasion of French Indochina in 1941.

With the defeat of France in Europe in 1940, the French Third Republic was replaced by the Vichy Regime, to which the colony remained loyal. Heavily dependent on Nazi Germany, Vichy France was forced to surrender control of French Indochina to Germany's ally, Fascist Japan. The natural resources of Vietnam were exploited for the purposes of the Japanese Fascist military campaigns into the British Indochinese colonies of Burma, the Malay Peninsula and India. The Japanese occupation was a key cause of the Vietnamese Famine of 1945, which caused around two million deaths, equivalent to as much as 10% of the contemporary population.

Independence and Recent Vietnam
In 1941, the Viet Minh – a communist and nationalist liberation movement – emerged under the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary Ho Chi Minh, who sought independence for Vietnam from France and the end of the Japanese occupation. After the Japanese Republic signed an armistice with the Allied armed forces and the fall of the Fascist's puppet State of Vietnam in August 1945, the Viet Minh occupied Hanoi and proclaimed the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on September 2, 1945.

In November 1945, the 4th Japanese Unit of Anti-Fascist Japanese Liberation Forces entered northern part of Vietnam from Hainan island to disarm the Fascist Japanese forces, followed by the forces of the non-Communist Vietnamese parties, such as Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng and Việt Nam Cách Mạng Đồng Minh Hội. In the south, the Provisional French Republic sent the French Far East Expeditionary Corps – originally created to fight the Fascist Japanese occupation forces – to pacify the Vietnamese liberation movement and to restore French colonial rule. The Hanoi government soon put into the ambiguous status.

Since the Japanese capitulation on August 14, 1945, Southeast Asia was under power vacuums. In Indochina, the communist and non-communist rushed to seize the seats of government, by liquidating or intimidating each other. As the condition getting worsened, the AFJLF occupation forces pushed the communist and non-communist parties to form a coalition government but failed in process.

The former Emperor of Nguyen Dynasty, Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh San, who was still very popular in the Vietnamese public memory for his patriotism, returned from his exile in Reunion islands to his fatherland by the recommendation from Free French leader, General Charles De Gaulle.

In January 7, 1946, Prince Vĩnh San appointed by Hanoi-based National Assembly of Vietnam as the supreme advisor of Democratic of Republic of Vietnam. The French Fourth Republic government viewed Prince Vĩnh San sympathetic to the communists movement. France refused to recognize the Hanoi government and tried to reassert its colonial rule in South Vietnam by appointed Nguyễn Văn Thinh as the Prime Minister of Cochinchina.

Japan planned the formation of Republic of Japan Defense Forces in early 1946 and the Anti-Fascist Japanese Liberation Forces began to withdraw from Indochina. This situation left Vietnam put uder two threats: Republic of China in north and France in south. Japanese-influenced Vietnamese nationalists who afraid the immediate seizure of power from Chinese-influenced nationalists, pressured the Viet Minh to secure a peace deal with French

In March 6, 1946, Ho Chi Minh as the President of Democratic Republic, sign an agreement with the French that recognized Vietnam as an autonomous state within French Union. Prince Vĩnh San will reinstated as the King of Vietnam with the reign name Duy Dân and the coalition government will formed between the left-wing nationalist and the communist.

However, French broke its promise. The Union of Indochina formed as the part of French Union in November 4, 1946 with Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia became its constituent states. The majority of people in the constituent states opposed the Union. The Viet Minh and Vietnamese left-wing nationalist seen the formation of Union slowed the independence process and the French attempt to re-instate its power in Vietnam while the Laotian and the Cambodian nationalist opposed the French's step to reduce the power of King and viewed the formation of Union as the lost of their respective national identity.

Prince Cuong De addressed the Vietnamese nation to reject the Union in November 16, 1946. The coalition government between the communists and the left-wing nationalists formed in November 27, 1946 with Ho Chi Minh as its Prime Minister and the opposition Vietnamese National Army's guerrilla campaign against French forces began soon after that.

The resulting First Indochina War lasted until France declared an armistice in Hue on August 24, 1948. Vietnam regained its independence from French in 1949. Vietnam proclaimed as an independent constitutional monarchy with Duy Dan as the King of Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh as its Prime Minister.

After 1970s, the economy of Vietnam subsequently achieved rapid growth in agricultural and industrial production, construction, exports and foreign investment. Vietnam has been rising as a leading agricultural exporter and an attractive foreign investment destination in Southeast Asia. In 2011, the nominal GDP reached $121.6 billion, with nominal GDP per capita of $1328.6.