French In Vietnam
French in Vietnam
When the French were in Vietnam, they started some schools and even a big university in Hanoi in 1902. They taught in French and Viet languages, but only city kids really got to learn. Country kids didn't get much chance to go to school. The French also changed how some cities looked, knocking down old buildings to put up new ones.
Politically, the French didn't have a clear plan for Vietnam. They just wanted to keep it under their control for business reasons. They sent over 20 different governors there, and each one did things differently. This led to a lot of problems, like corruption and unfair treatment of people.
The main reason the French were in Vietnam was to make money. They changed the farming system so that it would make more money for them, not for the Vietnamese people. They took a lot of land and made big farms, and the local people had to work on them or leave. They grew things like rice and rubber to sell. The French also made the Vietnamese pay a lot of taxes, which made life even harder for them.
Dutch Colonial Era
Between 1680 and 1800, the Dutch East India Company was in charge of the spice trade in certain islands. They made the local people grow spices and food and treated them very badly if they didn't do what was asked. Some local groups tried to fight back, especially on the island of Java. But life was very tough under the Dutch.
The Dutch made a lot of money in Europe from the spice trade, but they spent so much on trying to control the islands and fighting wars that their company eventually went bankrupt in 1800. Later, the Dutch government took over and tried to make things more organized. They started a system where villages had to use some of their land for government crops or work on government farms.
The Dutch government made a lot of money from growing crops like spices, sugar, and coffee, which they could sell in Europe for a lot of money. But because they focused so much on these crops, there wasn't enough food for everyone, and many people were hungry.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Dutch worked on making the islands' infrastructure better. They built roads, railroads, and improved water systems, which helped the people a bit and helped the country grow after it became independent.