Nationalist Movement in Indo-China: 10 SST

Question: What were the major features of the new schools of Western learning introduced in Vietnam by the French?
Or
Explain four features of the education being given in the Tonkin Free Schools which was started to provide the western style of education in Vietnam.

Answer:

1. In the new education system, more stress was given to Science, Hygiene and French.
2. Along with the western education, the schools encouraged the adoption of western style such as having a short haircut.
3. These schools also encouraged students to wear western clothes, and play the western games like tennis.
4. For the traditional Vietnamese hair has the same significance as the head. So the establishment of new schools gave a major setback to the Vietnamese traditional culture.

Question: What was rat hunt? How was it contradictory to the civilising mission of the French?

Answer: The rate hunt was started in 1902 in Hanoi to check the spread of plague in the city. Under this workers were asked to catch rats. It was contradictory in the civilising mission because under the civilising mission the French claimed that they were bringing modem civilisation to the Vietnamese but under rat hunt mission they asked locals to enter sewers to catch rat for them.

Question: What was Scholar’s Revolt? Explain.

Answer:

1. This was an anti French Movement launched in 1887.
2. The main aim of the movement was loyalty to the monarchy and hatred for the French.
3. The movement was led by officials at the imperial court.
4. The movement was very intense in Ngu An and Ha tien province.
5. More than 1,000 Catholics were killed by the rebels.
6. Though movement was crushed by the French but it served to inspire people to rise up against the French.

Question: What was ‘Go East Movement’?

Answer:

1. It was, movement which was launched in the first decade of the twentieth century.
2. In 1907-08, some 300 Vietnamese nationalist students went to Japan to acquire modem education.
3. For most of them, the primary objective was to drive out the French from Vietnam, overthrow the puppet emperor and reestablish the Nguyen dynasty that had been deposed by the French.
4. These nationalists looked for foreign arms and help. They appealed to the Japanese help as fellow Asians.

Question: Explain the reasons for the popularity of ‘Go East Movement.

Answer:

1. The anti French movement was launched in the first decade of the 20th century.
2. The movement become popular because early Vietnamese nationalists had a close relationship with Japan and China.
3.  They provided models for those looking to change, a refuge for those who were escaping French police, and a location where a wider Asian network of revolutionaries could be established.

Question: What was the impact of the Great Depression of 1929 on Vietnam?

Answer: The Great Depression of the 1930s which shattered most economies of the world had a severe impact on Vietnam too.

1. The prices of rubber and rice fell, leading to rising rural debts, unemployment and rural uprisings, such as in the provinces of Nghe An and Ha Tinh.
2. These provinces were amongst the poorest, had an old radical tradition and were called the ‘electrical fuses’ of Vietnam. When the Great Depression started showing its impact, people started demonstrating against the colonial government.
3. The colonial government put these uprisings down with great severity, even using planes to bomb demonstrators. The Great Depression and the brutality of the French against the workers provided an opportunity to the nationalist leaders to group together.

Question: ‘The US media and films played a major role in both supporting as well as criticizing the Vietnam war/ Explain.

Answer:

1. Hollywood made films in support of the war, such as John Wayne’s Green Berets (1968). This has been cited by many as an example of an unthinking propaganda film that was responsible for motivating many young men to die in the Vietnam war.
2. Other films were more critical, as they tried to understand the reasons for this war. John Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979) reflected the moral confusion that the war had caused in the United States.

Question: Under what circumstances did the US enter the Vietnam war? Explain.

Answer:

1. After the Geneva Peace Agreement, Vietnam was divided into the North and South Vietnam.
2. Ho Chi Minh and the Communists, took power in the North while Bao Dai’s regime was put in power in the South.
3. The Bao Dai regime was soon overthrown by a coup led by Ngo Dinh Diem.
4. His rule was opposed by many people and organisations including the National Liberation Front (NLF). The NLF wanted unification of the country.
5. America wanted the anti-communist government in South Vietnam to continue at any cost. So it directly entered the war.

Question: Explain the impact of Vietnam War on Vietnam.

Answer:

1. Use of modern war equipment: Thousands of US War troops arrived in Vietnam with heavy weapons and tanks, airships etc.
2. Use of Chemical weapons and gases: These War troops used all kind of chemical weapons Napalm, Agent Orange, and phosphorous bombs which destroyed many cities, villages and decimated jungles.
3. War and Women: War provided an opportunity to Vietnamese women to come out of the houses.
   In the 1960s, photographs in magazines and journals showed women as brave fighters. There were pictures of women militia shooting down planes. They were portrayed as young, brave and dedicated.
4. Women as workers: Women were represented not only as warriors but also as workers: they were shown with a rifle in one hand and a hammer in the other. Whether young or old, women began to be depicted as selflessly working and fighting to save the country. As casualties in the war increased in the 1960s, women were urged to join the struggle in larger number.

Many women responded and joined the resistance movement. They helped in nursing the wounded, constructing underground rooms and tunnels and fighting the enemy.