Vietnam (Franco-American War)

The Kingdom of Vietnam is a sovereign state in eastern Asia. It borders China, Laos, and Cambodia. It is one of the richest nations in all of Asia, though corruption as well as slavery are far from uncommon. Slavery has clearly been banned by the government and many slave owners are arrested; though the amount of immigrants which arrive from Laos and Cambodia yearly makes catching slaves easy.

Early History
The Hồng Bàng dynasty is considered the first Vietnamese state. In 257, the last Hồng Bàng king was defeated by Thục Phán, who conquered neighboring tribes to form the Âu Lạc, proclaiming himself An Dương Vương. In 207 BC, a Chinese general named Zhao Tuo defeated the Vietnamese monarchy, consolidating Âu Lạc as a part of Nanuye, which itself was later absorbed into the Han dynasty after the Han-Nanyue War. For nearly the next millennium, Vietnam remained mostly under the rule of China. Early independence movements were only temporarily successful. By the early 10th century, Vietnam had gained autonomy under the Khúc family. In CE 938, the Vietnamese lord Ngô Quyền defeated the forces of the Chinese Southern Han state, and achieved full independence of Vietnam. Renamed Đại Việt, Vietnam enjoyed a golden era under the Lý and Trần dynasties. Under the Trần, Vietnam managed to  resist three Mongol invasions. Buddhism also flourished during this time, becoming the state religion of Vietnam. Following a war with the Ming Dynasty, Vietnamese independence was briefly interrupted by China, but it was restored by Lê Lợi, who founded the Lê dynasty. Between the 11th and 18th centuries, Vietnam gradually expanded southward in a process known as nam tiến, resulting in numerous wars against the kingdom of Champa and Cambodia. From the 1600s onwards, civil strife and political infighting faced most of Vietnam. The Chinese-supported Mạc dynasty challenged the Lê dynasty's power; though the Mạc were eventually defeated. Civil war began shortly later, with power divided between the northern Trịnh lords and the southern Nguyễn lords, starting a civil war which lasted for more than four decades. The Tây Sơn brothers ended the division of the country by taking power, however they were defeated by the remnants of the Nguyễn lords under Nguyễn Ánh, establishing the current dynasty.

Birth of the Nguyễn dynasty
Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên, Nguyễn Hoàng's son, started the Nguyễn Phúc family name. Nguyễn Phúc Khoát was the first ruler of the line who styled himself King, as the Trịnh lords had began to do in the north. Nguyễn Phúc Ánh united Vietnam for the second time in 300 years. He started a dynasty and named himself Emperor. Afterwards, the dynasty would run into problems with Catholic missionaries and the involvement of Europeans in Indochina. The French tried to involve themselves in Indochina; with their main target being Vietnam. Emperors Emperors Minh Mạng, Thiệu Trị and Tự Đức were opposed to French involvement in Vietnam, though numerous wars broke out between the two. The Nguyễn dynasty was saved when the 1858 Franco-Vietnamese War broke out; France's long time enemy, the United Kingdom, aided them and ultimately kicked out the French in 1864. Vietnam would later witness France taking fellow Indochinese nations Laos and Cambodia.

Modern history
Vietnam joined the World War hoping to relinquish French control over Indochina and to wrest Chinese influence in Asia. Vietnam also produced a lot of the Allied food supply, contributing over 336,000 tons of food to the war effort. However, Vietnam's commandment during the war was somewhat shaky as the head of state, Duy Tân, was only two months shy of his fourteenth birthday when the war started. Vietnam also played a part in the Pacific War, being invaded by Japan. The Japanese successfully conquered Vietnam, creating the Japanese puppet known as the Empire of Vietnam. To read about the Empire of Vietnam, click here. A sense of nationalism and rebellion started shortly before the Indochina and Japanese Imperial wars, with Vietnamese rebels playing a large part in the anti-French, anti-Japanese sentiment being shown in the rest of Indochina. In 1968, Vietnam officially regained its independence under Bảo Long.