Facts & Info.
Ethnic groups 85.7% Kinh 53 minorities
Demonym; Time zone UTC+7 ; 21°2′N 105°51′E; (Phone) Country code +84; Internet TLD .vn
Currency: Dong (VND) (1 USD is about 22000 VND)
Capital: Hanoi; Largest city: Ho Chi Minh
Drives on the right
Motto: Doc lap-Tu do-Hanh phuc ="Independence - Freedom - Happiness"
Anthem: Tien Quan Ca ="Army March"
Government: Socialist republic, single-party communist state
Official language: Vietnamese
The Vietnamese Latin alphabet uses the horn for the letters "ơ" and "ư"; the circumflex for the letters "â", "ê", and "ô"; the breve for the letter "ă"; and a bar through the letter "đ".
It also has six tones: "á", "à", "ả", "ã" and "ạ", the five tones used for vowels along with flat tone "a".
History time line
Prehistory and ancient history: the existence of humans in what is now Vietnam as early as the Paleolithic age. Homo erectus fossils dating to around 500,000 BC have been found in caves in Lạng Sơn and Nghệ An provinces in northern Vietnam.
2879-258 BC : Hong Bang Period/Dynasty Dynastic Vietnam: Hùng kings is considered the first Vietnamese state, known in Vietnamese as Văn Lang
By about 1000 BC, the development of wet-rice cultivation and bronze casting in the Ma River and Red River floodplains led to the flourishing of the Đông Sơn culture, notable for its elaborate bronze drums.
In 257 BC, the last Hùng king was defeated by Thục Phán, who consolidated the Lạc Việt and Âu Việt tribes to form the Âu Lạc, proclaiming himself An Dương Vương.
In 207 BC, a Chinese general named Zhao Tuo defeated An Dương Vương and consolidated Âu Lạc into Nanyue.
111 BC after the Han–Nanyue War (Nanyue was itself incorporated into the empire of the Chinese Han dynasty)
thousand years under Chinese rule
the Trưng Sisters and Lady Triệu
between AD 544 and 602 Vạn Xuân under the Anterior Lý dynasty
By the early 10th century, Vietnam had gained autonomy, but not sovereignty, under the Khúc family.
In AD 938, the Vietnamese lord Ngô Quyền defeated the forces of the Chinese Southern Han state at Bạch Đằng River and achieved full independence for Vietnam. Renamed as Đại Việt (Great Viet)
the Lý and Trần dynasties. Đại Việt repelled three Mongol invasions. Buddhism flourished and became the state religion.
1406–7 Ming–Hồ War which overthrew the Hồ dynasty, Vietnamese independence was briefly interrupted by the Chinese Ming dynasty, but was restored by Lê Lợi, the founder of the Lê dynasty. Emperor Lê Thánh Tông (1460–1497)
11th and 18th centuries, Vietnam expanded southward in a process known as nam tiến ("southward expansion"),[27] eventually conquering the kingdom of Champa and part of the Khmer Empire.[28][29]
From the 16th century onwards, civil strife and frequent political infighting engulfed much of Vietnam. First, the Chinese-supported Mạc dynasty challenged the Lê dynasty's power. After the Mạc dynasty was defeated, the Lê dynasty was nominally reinstalled, but actual power was divided between the northern Trịnh lords and the southern Nguyễn lords, who engaged in a civil war for more than four decades before a truce was called in the 1670s. During this time, the Nguyễn expanded southern Vietnam into the Mekong Delta, annexing the Central Highlands and the Khmer lands in the Mekong Delta.
a century later when the Tây Sơn brothers established a new dynasty. However, their rule did not last long, and they were defeated by the remnants of the Nguyễn lords, led by Nguyễn Ánh and aided by the French.[30]Nguyễn Ánh unified Vietnam, and established the Nguyễn dynasty, ruling under the name Gia Long.
1862–1945: French Indochina
1946–54: First Indochina War
1954–1975: Vietnam War
1976–1979: reunification and reforms
1979- North Vietnam war (with China)
present