Thành Thái
Emperor of Dai Nam
Thành Thái (14 March 1879 – 20 March 1954) born Nguyen Phúc Buu Lân, was the son of Emperor Duc Duc and Empress Dowager Tu Minh. He reigned as emperor for 18 years, from 1889 to 1907. Thành Thái was one of the three "patriotic emperors" in Vietnamese history, along with Ham Nghi and Duy Tan (his son), for their actions and views against French colonial rule in Vietnam. While the emperor Tu Duc was alive, Prince Quang Thái was placed under house arrest with his family for having connections with those who opposed him. When the emperor Dong Khánh died, however, the French colonial authorities and the high-ranking mandarins decided that Quang Thái was the ideal successor and enthroned him as the new Vietnamese emperor, Emperor Thành Thái. At the age of 10, Thành Thái was recognized as being very intelligent and was already realizing that the French were keeping watch over him through palace spies. Whereas Dong Khánh had tried to be friendly with the French, Emperor Thành Thái took a course of passive-resistance. Although he refrained from outright rebellion (which would have been political suicide), he made his feelings clear in other ways, symbolic gestures and biting remarks. He was also a man of the people, and a monarch who cared deeply for his country. The emperor would often slip out of the Forbidden
City dressed in the clothes of a commoner to talk with his people directly and see how they were being affected by government policies. To show that he was friendly with Western civilization, Thành Thái was the first Vietnamese monarch to cut his hair in the French style and learn to drive a car. He encouraged French-style education, but maintained bitter feelings over their control of his country. He also supported numerous building projects and took an interest in the everyday lives of his subjects. When traveling among his people, he would hold impromptu "town hall meetings" where the Emperor sat on a mat with his subjects in a circle around him, discussing the issues of the day and hearing their point of view. Slowly, as the emperor began to realize how thoroughly his palace had been infiltrated with French spies, he had to feign insanity to escape their constant scrutiny. With his enemies believing he was a harmless lunatic, Thành Thái was able to push more forcefully for Vietnamese autonomy while waiting for the right time to overthrow the French colonial rule. He was on his way to join a resistance movement in China when he was arrested by French forces who declared him insane and forced the Emperor to abdicate.
Tonkinois infantry. Between 1886 and 1890 France recruited armed natives for a single, identical purpose in Annam and Tonkin, but under four different names or statutes. There were militiamen, paid for by the French protectorate; Tonkinois infantrymen in the first three regiments, paid by the navy, while infantrymen of the fourth regiment were paid by the Ministry of War; and the Chasseurs Annamites, paid out of the royal treasury. After the appointment of Jean-Louis de Lanessan as Governor General in June 1891, the number of categories was reduced to two, each with its own clearly separate field of operations, and the armed native at the service of France was no longer a source of conflict among Frenchmen. The Tirailleurs indochinois were soldiers of several regiments of local ethnic Indochinese infantry organized as Tirailleurs by the French colonial authorities, initially in Vietnam from 15 March 1880. The most notable, and first established, of these units were the Tonkinese Rifles
(French: Tirailleurs tonkinois, Vietnamese: Quân doàn bo binh Bac Ky). In the early days of these regiments the charge was often made that the tirailleurs were prone to desertion. However under the leadership of officers seconded from the regular French Marine (subsequently Colonial) Infantry the tirailleurs became an effective corps, without which the French would have had difficulty in occupying and garrisoning their Indochinese possessions. The Tonkinese Rifles (tirailleurs tonkinois) were a corps of Tonkinese light infantrymen raised in 1884 to support the operations of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps. Led by French officers seconded from the marine infantry, Tonkinese riflemen fought in several engagements against the Chinese during the Sino-French War and took part in expeditions against Vietnamese insurgents during the subsequent French Pacification of Tonkin. The French also organized similar units of indigenous riflemen from Annam and Cambodia. All three categories of indigenous soldiers were known in Vietnam as Lính tap. During the 1890s and early 1900s the Indo-Chinese tirailleurs saw on-going service against pirates and bandits within the boundaries of present-day Vietnam. Because of unwarranted doubts about their reliability the Tonkinese units were normally accompanied by detachments of French Colonial Infantry or Foreign Legionaires.
The House of Nguyen Phuc, also known as the House of Nguyen Phuoc, was a ruling family of Vietnam. It ruled from the city of Hue in central Vietnam beginning in 1636. As the Nguyen lords, they often fought with the Trinh lords, who were based in Hanoi. They were overthrown by the Tay Son dynasty in 1776. Under Emperor Gia Long, the family's rule was not only restored, but extended to the whole of Vietnam in 1802, thus marking the start of the unified Nguyen dynasty. Emperor Dong Khánh agreed to French supervision in 1883. In 1887, Vietnam became part of the Indochinese Union, which was administered by a French governor general. The House of Nguyen Phúc (Nguyen Gia Mieu) had historically been founded in the 14th century in Gia Mieu village, Thanh Hoa Province, before they came to rule southern Vietnam from 1558 to 1777, then became the ruling dynasty of the entire Vietnam. Traditionally, the family traces themselves to Nguyen Bac (?–979), the first duke of Dai Viet. Princes and male descendants of Gia Long are called Hoàng Thân, while male lineal descendants of previous Nguyen lords are named Tôn That. Since the fall of Hue during the Can Vuong rebellion against the French on 7 May 1885 the
government of the French protectorate of Annam would gradually take over the management of the budget and finances of the government of the Southern dynasty. In 1894, the court of the Thành Thái Emperor assigned Resident-Superior Léon Jules Pol Boulloche to take care of the management of the state's revenues, expenditures, taxes, Etc. In 1900, the Governor-General of French Indochina issued a decree that established the Council of the Protectorate (Hoi dong Bao ho) alongside the Resident-Superior to "discuss and determine the revenue and expenditures of the budget of the French protectorate of Annam, but that this council would act according to the calculations and orders of the Resident-Superior. At the meetings of the Council of French Indochina (Hoi dong Dong Duong) the Governor-General would decide through executive orders." Because of these reformes the Hue Court lost a lot of power and had to remove the privileges of the imperial family of the Nguyen dynasty. This meant a reduction in provisions and money given to the descendants of the imperial lineage, gradually a number of members of the Imperial Clan of the Nguyen dynasty would fall into poverty as they heavily relied on state welfare.
Awards: Sash, insignia and star of the Imperial Order of the Dragon of Annam, Insignia of Order of Kim Khánh, Star of the Royal Order of Cambodia.
