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VIETNAM | Hanoi, Vietnam Travel Guide
Monday, December 23, 2024
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A Brief History of Hanoi
A street in 19th-century Colonial Hanoi, Vietnam
A Brief History of Hanoi
Hanoi was first settled in the seventh century by Chinese invaders of the T’ang dynasty. They liked the climate and growing conditions in the Red River Valley and Delta. Prior to this time there was just a small fort in the area. The Chinese held what they called Amman – the Pacified South – for about three centuries. Then for a century the site was abandoned, until King Le Thai To – the erstwhile founder of Hanoi – located his capital there. For most of the next 800 years, until the capital was moved to Hué, Hanoi was the Imperial City.
During this time the Chinese periodically invaded and retook the city, but their control was always fleeting. As a result, Hanoi saw a flowering of culture, with the founding of the country’s first university – the outdoor Temple of Literature.
From about the early 16th century, following the death of the last strong emperor, King Le Thanh Thong, the city underwent a gradual decline and finally Emperor Gia Long moved his entire court to Hué in 1802.
As a provincial backwater, the remnants of the former Imperial city were easy picking for the French invaders, and in 1882 they took over, named the area Tonkin and, a few years later, in 1887, made Hanoi the seat of government for the entire region. And so it remained until the French were pushed out of the North in 1954. That’s when the city once again became the capital of Vietnam.
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