American Imperialism In Vietnam

Colonization had been the norm throughout the 19th century. Most European nations had some colonies of their own and one of those countries was France who had occupied Indochina. To be more specific, it had control over Vietnam. Like in any colonized nation, some people are against the policies that are directed to the colonists by their mother country. One of them was Ho Chi Minh. Throughout the document, Ho Chi Minh is describing the atrocities by the French which includes imposing heavy taxes and controlling the population using French opium. To the French, colonization was only about making profits and not thinking about the prosperity of the colonies. According to the website alphahistory.com, ‘The French also burdened the Vietnamese with

Natural resources are very important to a country and colonial rulers have tried seizing them so that it only benefits the mother country and not the colony. According to alphahistory.com, ‘The French seized vast swathes of land and reorganized them into large plantations. Rice and rubber where the main cash crops of these plantations. Most of the profits lined the pockets of French capitalists, investors and officials.’ Based on this evidence, one can say as to why the French would use this kind of tactic in the first place. One possible answer could be that by creating plantations and seizing all the natural resources of the colony, the French could create a network of slave labor all across the colony and force the colonists to work regardless of the working conditions. One can say as to why Ho Chi Minh even talks about the seizure of natural resources by the French in the first place. One possible answer could be that Ho Chi Minh is trying to imply that by using this tactic, the French are basically using the colonies’ own resources against the colonists in the form of slave

Taxing the colonies in not a new thing and has been practiced by rulers of the colony in order to generate more revenue but in Vietnam’s case, heavy taxes made every one poor in the colony. Opium was a main product that was heavily taxed and as mentioned in one paragraph ago, it was used to keep the Vietnamese population under control. According to digitalhistory.uh.edu, ‘Once more Vietnamese were addicted, Doumer leveled a tax on opium …. The Vietnamese who could or would not pay their taxes, lost their houses and land, and often became day laborers.’ This shocking evidence really paints a horrible picture in one’s mind as to how ruthless the French were when it came to taxing everyone to the point where they would seize everything if someone refused to pay taxes to the French. Ho Chi Minh probably gave this account in order to tell the people that through opium addiction, the French only found an excuse to tax the colonists in order to make huge revenues off of it. This could have also caused Ho Chi Minh to develop extreme hatred towards the French colonial rulers as through taxation, not only they were controlling the economy in the colony but also, making everyone poor as ironically, taxation is used to benefit the economy and the people while for the French colonists, this was a way to make more money and