| Summary: | 博士 === 國立成功大學 === 歷史學系碩博士班 === 101 === This article is about the Vietnam Nguyen Dynasty during the Minh Mang reign. The Minh Mang emperor was focusing on the enlargement and strengthening of their Navy and the improvement of their foreign trade policy and regulations. This was his response to the challenge from the Western force of the early nineteenth century. From here we can understand his thoughts and ideas. In 1802 the Nguyen dynasty was established due to the impact of French forces. The Gia Long emperor for Western forces had to take a more open attitude when dealing with the western world. During the first part of emperor Minh Mang’s reign, he was strongly influenced by a Confucian perspective. Secondly, In the North, the Qing Dynasty was constantly subjected to harassment from the Western powers. After Minh Mang emperor ascended to the throne, he changed his perspective. The Minh Mang Dynasty was trying to prevent Western powers from influencing their foreign policy and they were also trying to construct their own ideal policy.
The emperor believed that the Western powers wanted to control Vietnam through a biased trade policy. As a result of this negative influence, the emperor established a stronger national defense force with a focal point of strengthening the navy due to the realization that the Western world dominated the seas. Therefore, after taking office, Emperor Minh Mang actively expanded the central and local government fleets and improved the training of its sailors based on the Western training in order to prevent the West from bullying the Vietnamese on trade policies. The emperor also enhanced the coastal defense capabilities by building stronger more strategic forts along the coast to help shift the balance of power to their favor.
The emperor was also keenly aware of the fact that technology would play a crucial factor in determining the outcome of any hostile action taken by the West. Therefore, he also established a new communication system to strengthen and secure the delivery of government communications. These steps brought about the creation of the thee-dimensional defense system that also include the re-design of their cruiser-fleet to prevent the intrusion of coastal bandits and to allow the navy to train their sailors in a practical manner.
Secondly, the emperor improved the foreign trade policy and regulations to better reflect the Vietnamese interest. He also regulated the tax system in order to make it more reasonable for the Vietnamese people, and to prevent or limit the Western businessmen in Vietnam from taking action that was not considered conducive with the Vietnamese policy. The emperor was aware of the fact the Western influences in Vietnam were trying to impede the government through unfair trade policies. The emperor realized that in order to secure the raw materials needed to improve their navy, they would have to send ships abroad in order to obtain the required items. The need to send ships abroad would also give the Vietnamese government the opportunity to show their capabilities and prestige to the western forces, improve the training of their sailors and to scout the foreign situation.
Although the Emperor Minh Mang had a solid plan to confront the Western ideology, there were still significant gaps in his plan that did not address key problems. When the Emperor tried to strengthen the central command of his empire, he did not foresee the infighting that would occur in his country. This led to the formation of different rebel groups that opposed the central command and power restructuring of the central government that brought turmoil to the country, coupled with the excommunication of Catholic missionary guest which ultimately led to an excuse for Western forced to intervene in Vietnam.
Emperor Minh Mang had a positive effect on his country and he tried to deal with the continuously changing reality that confronted his leadership. Unfortunately for the emperor, his ability to deal with the problems faced by his administration was in fact limited. He was therefore unable to avoid the late nineteenth century French colonization of Vietnam.
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