Why do China and Britain divide Vietnam into two?

Question

Why do China and Britain divide Vietnam into two (north and south)? I'm not too good at history, and could do with some help. I would be very grateful if I were to receive some good information from someone. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Until it was occupied by Japan during the Second World War, Vietnam had been a French colony.  During the occupation, Ho Chi Minh formed the Viet Minh, a communist and nationalist organisation dedicated both to fighting the Japanese and to establishing Vietnamese independence.  After the war, the Viet Minh attempted to declare independence from France, but a French army arrived to reoccupy the colony.  This led to the First Indochina War (known in Vietnam as the French War), fought between France and the Viet Minh from 1945-1954.

After the French suffered an overwhelming defeat in the Siege of Dien Bien Phu in spring 1954, the two sides signed the Geneva Accords, which is what divided the country into North and South.  The North, under Ho Chi Minh, was organised as a communist republic, while the south was ruled Emperor Bao Dai, who during the colonial period had been king of the French protectorate of Annam.  Originally the country was supposed to be reunified in 1956 on the basis of free elections, but this never happened because the South Vietnamese prime minister overthrew Bao Dai and made himself President.

Answer 2

I think you are referring to what happened right after WW2.

Vietnam was part of a French Colony, French Indo-China. It included North and South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.

World War 2 started when Germany invaded Poland in 1939. France went to war with Germany, but for the folks in French Indochina this was all very far away.  

In the Spring of 1940 the Germans invaded and took over France. They set up a puppet government in Vichy. It is called a puppet government because even though it was the legal government of France, the Germans were the ones pulling all the strings.  A French General (Charles DeGaulle) escaped to England and set up a rival government called "Free France".  Free France kept fighting the Germans (with the British and Americans paying all their bills), Vichy France stopped fighting, because the Germans told it to.

French Indo-China had to pick which government it would obey, so it picked Vichy France. This was in large part because the Japanese (who were NOT far away like the Germans) were allies of Germany.

Not long after that the Japanese simply moved in and took over French Indo China.  I think there was a little fighting, but not much. There really weren't a lot of French soldiers there in the first place, and there wasn't anything they could do.

The Japanese ran French Indo China during WW2, but there wasn't a lot of fighting there. It was pretty much the same as it had always been. Normally it was the French bossing around the Vietnamese, during the war it was the Japanese bossing the French who bossed the Vietnamese.

When Japan surrendered to the Allies in 1945 everyone had a problem.  The Japanese were supposed to surrender, but in French Indo China there was nobody for them to surrender to!  There wern't any allied troops in the area, (French Indo-China hadn't been liberated by anyone) and they couldn't surrender to the French that were there, because a) there weren't very many French and b) all the French had backed the pro-German Vichy government, and the Vichy people were surrendering too!

This left everybody confused for several days. Nobody knew who was in charge, because just about everybody was supposed to surrender, but there was nobody to surrender to.

The Allies worked out a solution. The British would send troops into the South part of French Indochina, (because they were closest) and the Japanese would surrender to them.  Since the Chinese were closer to the northern part of French Indo China, they would send troops into the North, and the Japanese would surrender to them.

So that is what was done.  It only lasted a few months, and it had nothing to do with how North Vietnam and South Vietnam later got set up. As soon as the Free French got organized and got some troops together they came back and ALL of French Indochina was turned over to them and the Brits and the Chinese left.  

The fact the French came back made many Vietnamese very mad, because they had hoped that the French would not be allowed to come back and that Vietnam would be independent.  That is when Ho Chi Mhin started the First Vietnam War...the one against the French. It lasted till the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954.

When the French lost the first Vietnam War, THAT is when Vietnam was divided into North and South.  Ho Chi Mhin was a communist, and by this time China was Communist so Ho got a lot of weapons and support (and troops) from the Chinese. This meant he was stronger in the Northern part of the country and weaker in the South.

When the French decided to leave in 1954 a lot of Vietnanmese didn't want to be run by the Communists (for one thing Vietnam had a lot of Catholics, and a lot of Buddhists, and the Communists hate religion and persecute believers of all faiths).  The French wanted to set up  a (more or less) free country that would take over for them when they left....this became South Vietnam because that was the only part of the country they still had controll over, so that was the only place they could do it.  Since Ho Chi Mhin had controll over the Northern part of Vietnam (that's where all his troops were) HE set up North Vietnam, to be a communist country with himself in charge.

Answer 3

After the Viet Minh kicked the French out in 1954, Vietnam was temporarily partitioned into northern and southern zones pending unification on the basis of internationally supervised free elections to be held in 1956. But South Vietnam, backed by the United States, refused to hold the elections.

Answer 4

It was actually the Geneva Conference of 1954 that ousted France and started dividing Vietnam.

Answer 5

-_-, change britain to US, and change vietnam to korea.

then ur question will make sense.

Answer 6

The two countries you mention were not involved. After the French were defeated in trying to put down the communists, a treaty was drawn up by which North Vietnam, like North Korea, recognized the South. This is called a partition.

China was not involved in political negotiations but did supply weapons to the North Vietnamese, as did the USSR.

Answer 7

China and Britain ? Vietnam used to be a French colony, as a part of "Indochina". A territory corresponding to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. After World War two, the communist Vietcong fought for Independence of Vietnam. A few military successes of the latter, notably at "Dien Bien Phu" forced France into a negotiated Peace. It was then that Vietnam was divided in two. France pulled out and eventually the US started to support the South Vietnamese Government in its conflict with the communist North. The North was traditionally helped by the Soviet Union (communist Russia), not by China. There was even a war between Vietnam and China, after the US had pulled out of the region.