Trương Định and Vietnamese Anti-Colonialism, 1859–64: A Reappraisal

By any measure, Tru'o'ng Dinh (1820-64) was one of the leading figures of nineteenth-century Vietnamese resistance to French colonialism. As such, he has received a good deal of scholarly attention in Vietnam, France, the United States, and elsewhere. This article analyses the anti-colonial movement led by Tru'o'ng Dinh in southern Vietnam during the years 1859-64, focusing on the questions of Tru'o'ng Dinh's relationship to the Vietnamese imperial government at Hue and his motivation for continuing the anti-French struggle after Hue had made peace with France in 1862. Its organization is as follows: first, the historical context is summarized; second, Tru'o'ng Dinh's resistance movement and its relationship to the Hue court are analyzed; third, various explanations of Tru'o'ng Dinh's motivation are considered and my own hypothesis is offered. After years of ever-increasing pressure from French diplomats, naval officers, and missionaries, French Emperor Napoleon III agreed to authorize possible military action against the Vietnamese empire in August 1858. Although his motivations were primarily imperial, strategic, and commercial, Napoleon III found it convenient to cloak the enterprise in the mantle of "freedom of religion", describing it as an undertaking to protect the French missionaries and their Vietnamese converts from persecution by the Vietnamese state.(1) With token assistance from Spain, French troops landed in the central Vietnamese coastal town of Da-nang on 31 August 1858, from which they planned to march to Hue and seize the Vietnamese emperor, Tu'-duc' (r. 1848-83). However, thanks to solid defensive measures undertaken by Vietnamese imperial commander Nguyen Tri Phu'o'ng, Franco-Spanish forces were unable to advance toward the imperial capital and decided to turn the spearhead of their aggression to southern Vietnam, known to most contemporary Vietnamese as the luc tinh or "Six Provinces".(2) The region's deep and wide rivers allowed the Europeans to use their advanced warships effectively. They quickly destroyed most of the Hue court's regional defensive and administrative centres and imposed a blockade on exports of rice from the fertile South, depriving the Centre, where the imperial capital was located, of much-needed supplies.(3) The Europeans also benefited from the outbreak of a regional rebellion against Hue's authority in the Tonkin area.(4) From the inception of the European attack on Da-nang, the Hue court split into two opposing factions known as chu chien ("hawks") and chu hoa ("doves"). The Confucian hard-liners who composed the chu chien faction believed that the invaders sought to install themselves permanently in the luc tinh. Members of the chu chien group thus advocated a protracted resistance, although they failed to propound a viable strategy for victory. Their opponents in the chu hoa group believed that the superiority of Western arms rendered continued resistance costly and futile. Less astute in their evaluation of Western intentions but desirous of obtaining for the people a respite from the sufferings imposed on them by the conflict, the chu hoa group favoured a negotiated settlement, even if this meant granting the Europeans substantial concessions. Initially a minority faction, by spring 1862 the chu hoa group dominated the Hue court and had won the support of the Tu'-duc' Emperor.(5) On 16 May 1862, the Emperor, convinced of the necessity of appeasement, sent two emissaries, Phan Thanh Gian (1796-1867) and Lam Duy Hiep, to occupied Saigon to negotiate a treaty of "peace and friendship" with the invaders. By 5 June 1862, they had signed the "unequal treaty" that in Vietnamese is known as the Hoa-uoc Nham-tuat (Treaty of the Year of Nham-tuat) and in English as the Treaty of 1862 or the Treaty of Saigon. In addition to a substantial indemnity, commercial concessions, and the termination of religious persecution, the Hue court granted France sovereignty over three provinces in southern Vietnam: Gia-dinh, Dinh-tu'o'ng, and Bien-hoa. …