Dai Viet (Mighty Dai Viet Empire)

Daiviet (Daivietian: 大粤 Đại Việt), officially the State of Daiviet, is a constitutional monarchy in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Lan Xang to the northwest and Siam to the southwest. Dai Viet is considered a great power and a highly developed country with a very high standard of living and Human Development Index.

General
Dai Viet's recorded history stretches back to the mid-to-late 3rd century BCE, when Văn Lang and Âu Lạc were established. Prehistoric Dai Viet was home to some of the world's earliest civilizations and societies — making them one of the world's first people who practiced agriculture.

However, the country was conquered by the Han dynasty of China for over a thousand years until Ngô Quyền defeated the Southern Han, bringing back independence for Dai Viet after a millennium of Chinese dominance.

After that the country were under the Đinh, Early Lê, Lý, Trần, Hồ, Later Trần and Later Lê dynasties. At various points during the imperial dynasties, the country was invaded by China many times, although they successfully repelled the invasions.

During the Later Lê dynasty, under Lê Thánh Tông, the country campaigned against Lan Xang in the Dai Viet–Lan Xang War and captured its capital Luang Prabang, in which later the city was totally ransacked and destroyed by the Daivietians. He made further incursions westwards into the Irrawaddy River region in modern-day Burma before withdrawing. At his withdrawal, Dai Viet extended in what would be considered as "the first Southeast Asian Empire" and perhaps, one of the most powerful nations in Asia.

However, the Later Le dynasty soon was overthrown and the country fell into the Trinh-Nguyen Civil War. This led to the Tay Son Rebellion by Nguyễn Nhạc, Nguyễn Huệ and Nguyễn Lữ.

In 1777 and 1787 respectively, the Tay Son rebellion defeated the Trinh and Nguyen lords, ending the on-going civil war.

The last Lê emperor, Lê Chiêu Thống, fled to Qing China and petitioned the Qianlong Emperor for help. The Qianlong Emperor supplied Lê Chiêu Thống with a massive army of around 200,000 troops to regain his throne from the usurper. Nguyễn Huệ proclaimed himself Emperor Quang Trung and defeated the Qing troops with 100,000 men in a surprise seven-day campaign during the lunar new year. The battle was remembered as one of the greatest victories in Daivietian history.

First Siamese-Daivietian War
In 1783, Tây Sơn rebel forces recaptured Gia Định and forced Nguyễn Ánh to flee across the river to Siam. While in exile Nguyễn Ánh wished to retake Gia Định and kick the Tây Sơn rebels out. One of Anh's generals, Chau Van Tiep, convinced King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke of Siam to provide Nguyen Anh with support troops and a small invasion force.

The Tay Son reinforcements led by Quang Trung marched south from Quy Nhon and arrived in southern Dai Viet soon after. Quang Trung avoided a direct attack on a strong Siamese force at Sa Dec and tried to set up a trap. Quang Trung, anticipating a move from the Siamese, had secretly positioned his infantry and artillery along the Mekong River (Rạch Gầm-Xoài Mút), and on some islands in the middle, facing other troops on the northern banks with naval reinforcements on both sides of the infantry positions.

On the morning of January 20, 1785, Quang Trung sent a small naval force, under a banner of truce, to offer to parley with the Siamese. After so many victories, the Siamese army and naval forces were overconfident. They went to the parley unaware of the trap. Quang Trung's ships dashed into the unprepared Siamese troops, preventing their advance or retreat. In the meantime, Tay Son artillery opened fire. The battle ended with a near annihilation of the Siamese forces, only 2000 to 3000 of the original expedition survived to escape back across the river into Siam. Nguyễn Ánh and his family members escaped and later went to Siam.

Quang Trung's reign
After gaining control over Dai Viet, Nguyen Hue governed the north and Nguyen Nhac governed the south. The civil war with Nguyen Anh didn't end however after the Siamese war, as Nguyen Anh gained help from the European countries, especially France.

Quang Trung made many reforms to make Dai Viet great again by boosting the economy, culture, education, and especially the military. Trading with European countries were greatly encouraged. The military were upgraded with guns instead of swords and crossbows. Daivietian folk religion and Buddhism were encouraged to differ Dai Viet culture from Chinese culture. He changed the national language to Daivietian (written in Nôm) instead of Chinese characters. (However, the country still remains a tributary state to Qing).

Bad situation
On 25 January 1787, Pigneau de Behaine on behalf of Nguyen Anh signed the Treaty of Versailles (1787) with France. According to the Treaty, the King of France agreed to send four warships and an army: 1200 troops, 200 artilleries, and all kind of guns to fight against the Tay Son. If he managed to win against Tay Son, Nguyen Anh had to give France Hội An and Côn Lôn island, sovereignty over those territories would forever belong to France at the time of French troops occupy the islands. At that time, the French Revolution occurred, and French King did not implement supplies for Nguyen Anh, but Behaine has recruited French merchants to support Nguyen Anh.

The activities of giving money to Nguyen Anh or building and fixing Gia Dinh, Vinh Long, Chau Doc, Ha Tien, Bien Hoa, Ba Ria, training the gunners, organizing infantry and training soldiers in the European way and purchasing warships and weapons ... all were done by the French, which were recruited by Pigneau de Behaine. The consolidation of Gia Dinh with the help of the French helped Nguyen Anh's forces grow stronger and could match up against Tay Son. Nguyen Anh's troops was dragged out to fight Binh Thuan, Binh Khang, Dien Khanh; the troops of Nguyen Nhac repeatedly lost. Until 1791, Nguyen Nhac only governed Quy Nhon, Phu Yen and Quang Ngai.

After stabilizing the situation in the north, Quang Trung was determined to destroy the Nguyens. He tried to reassure Nguyen Nhac and the people in the area headed by Nguyen Nhac to prepare for "Nam tiến" - "Southward expansion". During this time, Quang Trung oddly sent Vu Van Dung - the ambassador to Qing China to "ask" Qianlong for Guangdong and Guangxi. Many believed that was actually just a political trick. Quang Trung did not want to reclaim Chinese land because he knew he could not, or at least yet at that time. Moreover, he used some of the troops to disguised as pirates, attacking the Chinese sea border in the South China Sea so that the Qing Dynasty was engaged in diplomatic activity and defeating the pirates so that he had time to support Nguyen Nhac in the Southern battlefield. In preparation for the collaboration with Quang Trung, in 1792, Nguyen Nhac built many boats at Thi Nai gate to "Nam tiến" - but at that time the wind was flowing in the opposite direction and they were not convenient to battle, and they had to wait for the winter. Nguyen Anh took the opportunity with French and Portuguese troops and attacked the Thi Nai gate, burning many warships of the Tay Son. Nguyen Nhac didn't expect that, and had to retreat to Quy Nhon.

Turning the tables
To revenge that battle, Quang Trung intended to launch a very large campaign, mobilizing more than 20,000 to 30,000 navy troops, divided into three lines:


 * Nguyen Nhac along the road from Phu Yen to attack Gia Dinh.


 * Quang Trung's troops from Phu Xuan went straight through Lan Xang to Cambodia, from there, accompanied by Cambodian troops, back to Gia Dinh, preventing Nguyen Anh to escape to Siam.


 * Quang Trung's navy will advance to Ha Tien to land on the mainland to prevent Nguyen Anh from escaping into the South China Sea.

It was the French missionaries who helped Nguyen Anh. At that time they were very anxious and anticipated that Nguyen Anh could hardly fight back against the Tay Son battle.

"He did not know how to take advantage of the opportunity he had to defeat the enemy, but instead let them have time to prepare. And the rumors of Europeans coming to help is just a scam. He forced his people to pay a lot of taxes and heavy services and, at this time, the people feared famine, they seemed to hope that the Tay Son troops will come and rescue them. In the present situation, if they are determined to attack, the king can hardly escape ... I'm afraid not to leave quickly enough before the disaster occurs to the king, if that happens."

- Pigneau de Behaine's letter to M. Létondal about Nguyen Anh

Battle of Chau Doc
The battle happened on September 1792; and everything went on exactly according to plan. As modernized as Nguyen Anh's troops might be, he did not expect Tay Son's troops would be so powerful. Both the land troops and the navy severely attack Gia Dinh, forcing Nguyen Anh to flee to Cambodia to Siam through the Chau Doc River.

Little did he expect that dozens of Cambodian and Tay Son navy troops were ambushing on the banks of the river, waiting for Nguyen Anh. Just as he sailed across them, they struck and annihilated Nguyen Anh's boats. Nguyen Anh was captured and executed. Quang Trung officially ended the war and united the country under his rule.

Second War with the Siamese
During this time, the Quang Trung/Tay Son dynasty is still in the midst of civil wars with the Nguyen lords. Siam, noticing this, has made Cambodia a client state; dominating the political and military situations in Cambodia.

However, as the Tay Son defeated the Nguyen lords and built a stable government in Dai Viet, Cambodia had become a vassal state to both Siam and Dai Viet. In 1807, Ang Chan (the Cambodian king), decided to seek help from Dai Viet, by asking Quang Trung to make Cambodia a fully vassal state. This made Siamese control in Cambodia seriously reduced. Siam had already been dealing with the Burmese ransack on its western border, and therefore unable to compete with Dai Viet over Cambodia.

To compete with Siam, Quang Trung ordered the invasion of the vassal state - Cambodia in 1812. Thus the second war between Siam and Dai Viet began over the dispute of Cambodia. With Quang Trung's brilliant tactics and the weakened Siamese by the Burmese, Dai Viet successfully took control of Cambodia in 1815.

Third War with the Siamese (1841-1845)
The Burmese were in the midst of a war with the British and therefore the western border of Siam was secured. The Siamese now wanted control over Cambodia again.

The third war began in 1841. After years of fighting, however, both sides agreed to a peace treaty and agreed that each side should take portions of Cambodia because they both saw the Europeans as the real threat then.

Franco-Daivietian War (1858-1884)
See Franco-Daivietian War.

Sino-Daivietian War
See Sino-Daivietian War.

Politics
The politics of Daiviet is conducted within the framework of a constitutional monarchy, whereby the Prime Minister is the head of government and a hereditary monarch is head of state.

Foreign relations
See more: Foreign relations of Daiviet. The country remains an active member of ASEAN; and has developed increasingly closer ties with other ASEAN members: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Lan Xang, Cambodia, Burma, and Siam, whose foreign and economic ministers hold annual meetings.