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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