Vietnam - I don't get the appeal? From what I understand the region was under Chinese occupation for the majority of history.
Ironically, at least for me, that's partially the point lol.
Let me explain the appeal of Vietnam: this little, tiny nation was under control of
Chinese civilization for
thousand years. Freakin China. The biggest ethno-cultural juggernaut in human history. They spent entire period from 1st century BC to early 10th century AD under China, and they still managed to resist being consumed by its culture, language, identity, state etc. I may be wrong but I think Vietnam is they only major ethnic group that was under Chinese control for so long and still emerged as rebellious separate nation. Manchu
conquered China and still were very quickly dominated by its culture.
After this
thousand years of control by the most powerful ethnic group on Earth, Vietnam managed to rebel succesfully and for the majority of next 1000 years it was independent. This hilarious tiny strip of land has managed to routinely defeat:
- several Chinese invasion attempts, from medieval era all the way to 1970s war w
- Invasion by
Mongol Empire which had numerical superiority. Mongol Empire. Largest land empire in history, which managed to conquer China with inferior numbers, which managed to conquer Korea, Tibet, Burma, all nomadic horsemen, Persia, Middle East, Rus, Poland, Hungary. Mongols were devastating everybody - with only exceptions being naval invasions of Java and Japan, and battles with Mamluks, Delhi and Vietnam. Of all those instances, Vietnam was the tiniest, poorest underdog, and had to battle the biggest and strongest Mongol invasion, and achieved the best victory over it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bạch_Đằng_(1288)
- Laotians
- Champa
- Khmer
- Thai
It finally fell to French - in late 19th century, when Europe had devastating advantage over the world thanks to industrial revolution. Doesn't matter though, because Vietnam managed to defeat French colonial empire in open independence war soon later.
Oh, and then Second Indochina War happened, when lone North Vietnam managed to simultaneously defeat South Vietnam, United States of America and its allies, and afterwards invade Laos and break Khmer regime in Cambodia.
Vietnam has ridiculously succesful military history. Otherwise, it is simply quite unique culture. It is a mix between Confucian cultures and Buddhist states of South-East Asia; unlike its neighbors it didn't rely on trade but instead had autarkic tendencies; had strong, centralized state unlike mandala model of tributaries and relationships. It also has water puppet theatre, rich culture, and is very numerous ethnic group.