Vietnam
/ Hué / The City
Hué
in central Vietnam was the capital of the Nguyen Dynasty
that ruled Vietnam from 1802 to 1945. However, the sovereignty
of Vietnam during the Nguyen dynasty was restricted for almost
100 years. First, the French conquered Saigon in 1859 and in 1862
set up their colony Cochin China in the South of
Vietnam; then, in 1883 a French fleet appeared at the Hué
cost and forced the Vietnamese emperor Hiep Hoa to accept
French overlordship for all of Vietnam.
Thereafter,
the French administratively divided the country into the colony
Cochin China (in the South) and the protectorates
Annam (central Vietnam) and Tonkin (North
Vietnam). The Vietnamese emperor was allowed to stay in office
and the imperial court still took care of those government matters,
which were of no interest to the French colonial masters. But
over the decades this arrangement undermined the importance of
the imperial court for the Vietnamese state. When on August 24,
1945, the last Nguyen emperor, Bao Dai, resigned, this
was of no practical relevance to the political situation in the
country.
With a population
of 350,000 Hué is not a particularly large city
by present-day Vietnamese standards. But it is full of historical
attractions, even though it has suffered more than any other
Vietnamese city during the Vietnam War.
Hué
is famous for its rainy weather. The rainy season last
longer than in the Vietnamese average, from May to December, and
even during the so-called dry season it regularly rains.
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