‘Warring Dai Viet’: Warfare in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Vietnam

Abstract

This article is based on a study of warfare during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Đại Việt, which was then divided into the Kingdom of Tonkin, and the Kingdom of Cochinchina. The study explores impacts and changes, mainly in the Kingdom of Tonkin, because of wars fought with the estranged Cochinchina. It also examines the roles of the outside ‘great powers’ - Imperial China and the Dutch, under the name of the East India Company (VOC) - in the Vietnamese conflicts. Based on the main sources used - Vietnamese official ‘National Histories’, Chinese dynastic records, the accounts of westerners, and selected secondary works - the study found that the wars in a divided Đại Việt were driven by the great powers in the region at that time in terms of military support, the imperial Chinese diplomatic tradition, and the changing trade situation in the region.