Vietnam History and Culture

Course description: The course deals with many various topics on Vietnamese history and culture: Introduction to some main characteristics of Vietnamese history and culture. Van Lang – Au Lac State and the first civilization of Vietnam; Long March to independence (1^st B.C century to 10^th century A. D); Sinicization and Desinicization during the domination by Chinese feudalism; The centralized independent States (10^th to 14^th centuries); Dai Viet Civilization (Ly – Tran cultural era); A new stage in the feudal monarchy: the Le dynasty (15^th to 17^th centuries); The peasant war and the Tay Son era (17^th to 18^th centuries); Vietnam under Nguyen Dynasty: losing its independence, Socio – economic transformation in French Indochina; The people’s struggles against the French domination in the late 19^th and the early 20^th centuries and Founding of the Vietnamese communist Party; The National Democratic Movement 1930 – 1945, the 1945 August Revolution and the formation of Democratic Republic of Vietnam; “The resistant War against French colonialists” (1945 -1954); The 1954 – 1975 Resistant War against American for National Salvation (The Vietnam War); Renovation in Vietnam (“doimoi”); Westernization and de- westernization in Vietnamese culture.