Kings of Tay Son Dynasty (1778-1802): - Thai Duc (1778-1793) - Quang Trung (Nguyen Hue) (1789-1792) - Canh Thinh (1793 - 1802)  Brothers Nguyen Nhac, Nguyen Lu, and Nguyen Hue led the Tay Son revolution in 1771 and overthrew the Nguyen Dynasty. Thai forces were defeated by the Tay Son army in the Rach Gam-Xoai Mut front in 1785. Then, the Tay Son army marched to Dang Ngoai, and overthrew the Trinh dynasty. Le Chieu Thong, the last king of the Le Dynasty, fled to China, and asked for Qin dynasty's assistance. Nguyen Hue took the throne in Phu Xuan, now called Hue, in 1788. He led the army and marched north to defeat the Qin troop of 290,000 men in Thang Long in the first lunar month of 1789. Quang Trung Nguyen Hue, founder of the Tay Son Dynasty, implemented progressive policies on land and education but he passed away in 1792. Nguyen Anh, supported by the French, returned to the Mekong River Delta to fight Tay Son army. Tay Son was defeated in 1802 and Nguyen Anh conquered Phu...

Kings of Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945): - Gia Long (1802-1819) - Minh Menh (1820-1840) - Thieu Tri (1841-1847) - Tu Duc (1848-1883) - Duc Duc (1883, 3 days) - Hiep Hoa (1883, 4 months). - Kien Phuc (1883-1884) - Ham Nghi (1884-1885) - Dong Khanh (1886-1888) - Thanh Thai (1889-1907) - Duy Tan (1907-1916) - Khai Dinh (1916-1925) - Bao Dai (1926-1945)     Nguyen Anh Gia Long took the throne in 1802 and founded the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945). Gia Long and Minh Mang, the first kings of the Nguyen Dynasty, unified the country and set up a healthy state. In regards to the internal policy, the Kings Nguyen cleared land for cultivation, encouraging irrigation. In regards to the external policy, kings Minh Mang and Thieu Tri sent merchant ships to trade with France, England,Indonesia, and India. The Kings Nguyen ordered that books on national history and geography be written and printed important books which had a great impact on the national culture. Confucianism was...

On August 31, 1858, a French naval squadron attacked Da Nang, launching several episodes of a war of colonial conquest waged by French imperialism between 1858 and 1884 and resulting in the total annexation of the country.      French imperialism, then in full expansion, was attacking a decaying feudal monarchy. The Nguyen dynasty, which had ascended the throne after repressing a large-scale uprising, restored the feudal system and all of its repressive institutions. Peasant revolts, however, continued unabated, driving  an administrative apparatus, essentially made up  of a body of mandarins trained in very conservative and ritualistic Confucian ideology and duplicated in the villages by a body of notables born into the landlord class, into a tight corner. With a rudimentary infrastructure, the royal court was unable to effectively rule  over a territory stretching from north to south for more than 2,000 kilometers . It was in the most vulnerable...