In
1010
the first Vietnamese Ly Dynasty emperor who is independent
from China establishes himself in
Thang Long (present-day
Hanoi). Before that, for more than 1,000 years, the Vietnamese
core land (the delta of the
Red River, flowing into the
Tonkin Bay of the South China Sea) was either just a Chinese province
or ruled by Vietnamese dynasties more or less accepting Chinese
overlordship.
During these
more than 1,000 years, when China more or less directly ruled
over the Vietnamese, but also after Vietnamese dynasties had gained
independence, China influenced Vietnamese culture and government
structures enormously. The basic foundations of the Vietnamese
culture and its government structures are the teachings of Confucius
(551-479 B.C.). Vietnamese dynasties and the Vietnamese emperors'
courts, in architectural as well as political matters, follow
the structural examples of Beijing; well into the 20th century
official Vietnamese publications used Chinese script.
In 1471,
after the Vietnamese empire had slowly expanded to the South in
previous decades, an army of the Vietnamese Le Dynasty conquers
the kingdom of Champa with its center in the present-day
Danang area. The kingdom of Champa is reduced to a small state
around Nha Trang.
In the 18th
century the Vietnamese expand farther to the South into the
Mekong delta, an area that until then had been settled by Khmers
(Cambodians). The Khmers are pushed to the West into an area
roughly covering present-day Cambodia.
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