Lingering Effects

In 1887, Vietnam was taken under the rule of the French Empire through the establishment of French Indochina, which consisted of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The French established this region due to the “White Man’s Burden”, the belief of European superiority over the supposedly “savage” Vietnamese people, and their desire to make the French presence known in Southeast Asia. During the French rule, Vietnam was split into three provinces: Tonkin in the Northern region, Annam in the Central region, and Cochinchina in the Southern region (Brown). The economy of each province became drastically different during the French rule, setting the stage for a stagnant economy after Vietnam’s split into communist North Vietnam and capitalist South Vietnam during the First Indochina War and the Vietnam War. Although Vietnam’s current economic growth rate is amongst the highest in the world, Vietnam still remains a third-world country due to the detrimental impacts that followed the irrecoverable economic disparities between the different regions of Vietnam during French Indochina.

Under French rule, the economic imbalance between Tonkin and Cochinchina widened, which ultimately led to an immobile economy. Cochinchina, with a smaller population compared to Tonkin, was able to undergo effective economic reorganization in landholding, leading to a much stronger, agrarian based, middle class (Brown). For this reason, the GDP per capita in Tonkin was only 30% of the GDP per capita in Cochinchina. Moreover, the difference between the GDP per capita of the two provinces continued to widen throughout the French rule (Merette). This affected Vietnam’s economy because the inequality funneled the country’s income to the people in...

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...velop the economy to a point where it would no longer be considered a third world country because of the French occupation where economic disparities between regions caused a sluggish economy.

While Vietnam’s economy is currently known as a successfully developing economy, the economy was previously lagging behind other Asian countries due to the harmful economic effects of French Indochina. The main factor for Vietnam’s economic demise is the lingering effects of the economic disparities during the French occupation. The economy is currently improving at a rate that is incredibly fast; however, this does not mean that the problems stemming from French Indochina have been solved. Any solutions for these detrimental effects could take decades of work. This one event has completely changed a country’s past and continues to hinder the country’s future.