Question

What were the benefits of France to rule over Vietnam.

Answer 1

According to some interpretations of Chinese record, Romans arrived in the Red River delta in A.D. 166. The first Europeans to arrive in the Age of Exploration were Portuguese, who landed near Danang in 1516. They were followed, respectively, by Dominican missionaries, Franciscan monks form the Philippines, Jesuits expelled from Japan, Dutch traders, and British representatives of the East India Company. The Portuguese traded with Vietnam from a commercial colony set up alongside those of the Japanese and Chinese at Faifo (present-day Hoi An).

 No one made much money in Vietnam and by the end of the 17th century many of European merchants had gone. The missionaries stayed on however and large numbers of Vietnamese converted to Catholicism. In the end the Catholic Church had a greater impact on Vietnam than on any country in Asia except the Philippines (which was ruled by the Spanish for 400 years). [Source: Lonely Planet =]

 The seventeenth century was a period in which European missionaries and merchants became a serious factor in Vietnamese court life and politics. Although both had arrived by the early sixteenth century, neither foreign merchants nor missionaries had much impact on Vietnam before the seventeenth century. The Portuguese, Dutch, English, and French had all established trading posts in Pho Hien by 1680. Fighting among the Europeans and opposition by the Vietnamese made the enterprises unprofitable, however, and all of the foreign trading posts were closed by 1700. [Source: Library of Congress *]