Editing Vietnamese people (section)

==History==
===Origins and pre-history===
According to the Vietnamese legend, ''The Tale of the Hồng Bàng Clan'' (''Hồng Bàng'' thị truyện), written in the 15th century, the first Vietnamese were descended from the [[Vietnamese dragon|dragon]] lord [[Lạc Long Quân]] and the [[Xian (Taoism)|fairy]] [[Âu Cơ]]. They married and had one hundred eggs, from which hatched one hundred children. Their eldest son ruled as the [[Hùng king]].{{sfn|Kelley|2016|pp=165–167}} The Hùng kings were claimed to be descended from the mythical figure [[Shen Nong]].{{sfn|Kelley|2016|p=175}} 

The earliest reference of the proto-Vietnamese in Chinese annals was the ''Lạc'' (Chinese: Luo), ''[[Lạc Việt]]'', or the [[Dongsonian]],{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|pp=41–42}} an ancient tribal confederacy of perhaps polyglot [[Austroasiatic language|Austroasiatic]] and [[Kra-Dai language|Kra-Dai]] speakers who occupied the [[Red River Delta]] in northern Vietnam.{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|p=42}}<ref>{{citation |surname1=Kelley |given1=Liam C. |title=Vietnam at the Vanguard: New Perspectives Across Time, Space, and Community |pages=88–107 |year=2021 |editor-surname1=Gillen |editor-given1=Jamie |editor-surname2=Kelley |editor-given2=Liam C. |editor-surname3=Le |editor-given3=Ha Pahn |chapter=Competing Imagined Ancestries: The Lạc Việt, the Vietnamese, and the Zhuang |publisher=Springer Singapore |isbn=978-9-81165-055-0 |surname2=Hong |given2=Hai Dinh}}</ref> 

One hypothesis suggests that the forerunners of the ethnic Kinh descend from a [[Vietic languages|subset]] of [[proto-Austroasiatic]] people in southern China, either around [[Yunnan]], [[Lingnan]], or the [[Yangtze River]], as well as mainland [[Southeast Asia]]. These proto-Austroasiatics also diverged into [[Mon people|Monic]] speakers, who settled further to the west, and the [[Khmer people|Khmeric]] speakers, who migrated further south. The [[Munda people|Munda]] of northeastern India were another subset of proto-Austroasiatics who likely diverged earlier than the aforementioned groups, given the linguistic distance in basic vocabulary of the languages. Most archaeologists, linguists, and other specialists, such as Sinologists and crop experts, believe that they arrived no later than 2000 BC, bringing with them the practice of riverine agriculture and in particular, the cultivation of wet rice.<ref name="Blench2018">Blench, Roger. 2018. [https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10524/52438/3/JSEALS_Special_Publication_3.pdf Waterworld: lexical evidence for aquatic subsistence strategies in Austroasiatic]. In ''Papers from the Seventh International Conference on Austroasiatic Linguistics'', 174–193. Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society Special Publication No. 3. University of Hawai{{okina}}i Press.</ref><ref name="Blench2017">Blench, Roger. 2017. ''[http://www.rogerblench.info/Language/Austroasiatic/Waterworld.pdf Waterworld: lexical evidence for aquatic subsistence strategies in Austroasiatic]''. Presented at ICAAL 7, Kiel, Germany.</ref><ref name="Sidwell2015b">Sidwell, Paul. 2015b. ''Phylogeny, innovations, and correlations in the prehistory of Austroasiatic''. Paper presented at the workshop ''Integrating inferences about our past: new findings and current issues in the peopling of the Pacific and South East Asia'', 22–23 June 2015, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany.</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Peiros |first=Ilia |year=2011 |title=Some thoughts on the problem of the Austro-Asiatic homeland |url=http://www.jolr.ru/files/(68)jlr2011-6(101-114).pdf |access-date=4 August 2019 |work=Journal of Language Relationship}}</ref> 

Some linguists, such as James Chamberlain and Joachim Schliesinger, have suggested that Vietic-speaking people migrated northwards from the [[North Central Coast|North Central Region]] of Vietnam to the [[Red River Delta]], which had originally been inhabited by [[Tai languages|Tai]] [[Tai peoples|speakers]].{{sfn|Chamberlain|2000|p=40}}{{sfnp|Schliesinger|2018a|pp=21, 97}}{{sfnp|Schliesinger|2018b|pp=3–4, 22, 50, 54}}{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|pp=46–47}} However, Michael Churchman found no records of population shifts in [[Jiaozhi]] (centered around the Red River Delta) in Chinese sources, indicating that a fairly stable population of Austroasiatic speakers, ancestral to modern Vietnamese, inhabited the delta during the [[Han dynasty|Han]]-[[Tang dynasty|Tang]] periods.{{sfnp|Churchman|2010|p=36}} Others{{Who|date=January 2024}} have proposed that tribes in northern Vietnam and southern China did not have any kind of defined ethnic boundary and could not be described as "Vietnamese" (Kinh) in any satisfactory sense.{{sfnp|Churchman|2010|pp=27–29, 31, 32, 33}} Thus, attempts to identify ethnic groups in ancient Vietnam are problematic and often inaccurate.{{sfnp|Churchman|2010|p=25}}

Another theory, based upon linguistic diversity, locates the most probable homeland of the Vietic languages in modern-day [[Bolikhamsai Province]] and [[Khammouane Province]] in Laos as well as in parts of [[Nghệ An Province]] and [[Quảng Bình Province]] in Vietnam. In the 1930s, clusters of Vietic-speaking communities discovered in the hills of eastern Laos were believed to be the earliest inhabitants of that region.{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|p=52}}

But so far, many scholars link the origin of the [[Vietic languages]] to [[northern Vietnam]], around the Red River Delta.<ref name="Sagart 2008">{{cite book |last1=Sagart |first1=Laurent |title=Past Human Migrations in East Asia |date=2008 |isbn=978-1-134-14963-6 |editor-last1=Sanchez-Mazas |editor-first1=Alicia |pages=133–157 |chapter=The expansion of setaria farmers in East Asia: a linguistic and archaeological model |doi=10.4324/9780203926789 |id={{HAL|hal-04864187}} |quote=The cradle of the Vietic branch of Austroasiatic is very likely in north Vietnam, at least 1000km to the south‑west of coastal Fújiàn |editor-last2=Blench |editor-first2=Roger |editor-last3=Ross |editor-first3=Malcolm D. |editor-last4=Peiros |editor-first4=Ilia |editor-last5=Lin |editor-first5=Marie}}</ref><ref name="Ferlus 2009">{{cite journal |last1=Ferlus |first1=Michael |date=2009 |title=A Layer of Dongsonian Vocabulary in Vietnamese |journal=Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society |volume=1 |pages=95–108 |id={{HAL|halshs-00932218v3}}}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Alves |first=Mark |date=10 May 2019 |title=Data from Multiple Disciplines Connecting Vietic with the Dong Son Culture |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333720204}}{{self-published inline|date=April 2025}}</ref> 

===Early history and Chinese rule===
The Kinh Vietnamese have dual ancestry from Đông Sơn-related peoples and southern China, like [[Muong people|Mường peoples]]. <ref name=":12" /> Đông Sơn-related peoples are believed to be genetically and craniometrically discontinuous from the previous [[Hoabinhian#Genetic links to ancient and modern East and Southeast Asian populations|Hoabinhian hunter-gatherers]] of northern Vietnam due to extensive admixture with East Asian populations.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Oxenham |first1=Marc F. |last2=Matsumura |first2=Hirofumi |last3=Dung |first3=Nguyen Kim |date=2010 |title=Man Bac: The Excavation of a Neolithic Site in Northern Vietnam |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt24hcpx.8 |journal=ANU Press |volume=33 |pages=21–32 |jstor=j.ctt24hcpx.8}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Enfield |first1=N. J. |title=Dynamics of Human Diversity |date=2011 |publisher=Pacific Linguistics |isbn=978-0-85883-638-9 |pages=153–178}}</ref> Another study, however, suggests some affinities between present Kinh Vietnamese and hunter-gatherers from the Con Co Ngua site in [[Thanh Hóa province|Thanh Hoa]], Vietnam about 6.2 k cal BP, who were phenotypically closer to Late Pleistocene Southeast Asians and modern [[Melanesians]] and [[Aboriginal Australians]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Tran |first1=Huyen Linh |last2=Mai |first2=Huong Pham |last3=Thi |first3=Dung Le |last4=Thi |first4=Nhung Doan |display-authors=3 |date=2023 |title=The first maternal genetic study of hunter-gatherers from Vietnam |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00438-023-02050-0#Sec2 |journal=Molecular Genetics and Genomics |volume=298 |issue=5 |pages=1225–1235 |doi=10.1007/s00438-023-02050-0 |pmid=37438447 |via=Springer Nature Link}}</ref>Kinh Vietnamese also show affinities with Núi Nấp populations from Bronze Age Vietnam,<ref name=":42">{{cite journal |last1=McColl |first1=Hugh |last2=Racimo |first2=Fernando |last3=Vinner |first3=Lasse |last4=Demeter |first4=Fabrice |last5=Gakuhari |first5=Takashi |last6=Moreno-Mayar |first6=J. Víctor |last7=van Driem |first7=George |last8=Gram Wilken |first8=Uffe |last9=Seguin-Orlando |first9=Andaine |last10=de la Fuente Castro |first10=Constanza |last11=Wasef |first11=Sally |last12=Shoocongdej |first12=Rasmi |last13=Souksavatdy |first13=Viengkeo |last14=Sayavongkhamdy |first14=Thongsa |last15=Saidin |first15=Mohd Mokhtar |date=6 July 2018 |title=The prehistoric peopling of Southeast Asia |url=https://researchmgt.monash.edu/ws/files/344873217/343042905_oa.pdf |journal=Science |volume=361 |issue=6397 |pages=88–92 |bibcode=2018Sci...361...88M |doi=10.1126/science.aat3628 |pmid=29976827 |last16=Allentoft |first16=Morten E. |last17=Sato |first17=Takehiro |last18=Malaspinas |first18=Anna-Sapfo |last19=Aghakhanian |first19=Farhang A. |last20=Korneliussen |first20=Thorfinn |last21=Prohaska |first21=Ana |last22=Margaryan |first22=Ashot |last23=de Barros Damgaard |first23=Peter |last24=Kaewsutthi |first24=Supannee |last25=Lertrit |first25=Patcharee |last26=Nguyen |first26=Thi Mai Huong |last27=Hung |first27=Hsiao-chun |last28=Minh Tran |first28=Thi |last29=Nghia Truong |first29=Huu |last30=Nguyen |first30=Giang Hai |last31=Shahidan |first31=Shaiful |last32=Wiradnyana |first32=Ketut |last33=Matsumae |first33=Hiromi |last34=Shigehara |first34=Nobuo |last35=Yoneda |first35=Minoru |last36=Ishida |first36=Hajime |last37=Masuyama |first37=Tadayuki |last38=Yamada |first38=Yasuhiro |last39=Tajima |first39=Atsushi |last40=Shibata |first40=Hiroki |last41=Toyoda |first41=Atsushi |last42=Hanihara |first42=Tsunehiko |last43=Nakagome |first43=Shigeki |last44=Deviese |first44=Thibaut |last45=Bacon |first45=Anne-Marie |last46=Duringer |first46=Philippe |last47=Ponche |first47=Jean-Luc |last48=Shackelford |first48=Laura |last49=Patole-Edoumba |first49=Elise |last50=Nguyen |first50=Anh Tuan |last51=Bellina-Pryce |first51=Bérénice |last52=Galipaud |first52=Jean-Christophe |last53=Kinaston |first53=Rebecca |last54=Buckley |first54=Hallie |last55=Pottier |first55=Christophe |last56=Rasmussen |first56=Simon |last57=Higham |first57=Tom |last58=Foley |first58=Robert A. |last59=Lahr |first59=Marta Mirazón |last60=Orlando |first60=Ludovic |last61=Sikora |first61=Martin |last62=Phipps |first62=Maude E. |last63=Oota |first63=Hiroki |last64=Higham |first64=Charles |last65=Lambert |first65=David M. |last66=Willerslev |first66=Eske}} cited in {{harvnb|Alves|2019}}.</ref> who can be modeled as a mixture of [[Kra–Dai-speaking peoples#Full genome analysis|Dushan-related]] (~65%) and [[Ancient Northern East Asian|northern East Asian-related]] (~35%) ancestry.<ref name=":32">{{cite journal |last1=Wang |first1=Tianyi |last2=Wang |first2=Wei |last3=Xie |first3=Guangmao |last4=Li |first4=Zhen |last5=Fan |first5=Xuechun |last6=Yang |first6=Qingping |last7=Wu |first7=Xichao |last8=Cao |first8=Peng |last9=Liu |first9=Yichen |last10=Yang |first10=Ruowei |last11=Liu |first11=Feng |last12=Dai |first12=Qingyan |last13=Feng |first13=Xiaotian |last14=Wu |first14=Xiaohong |last15=Qin |first15=Ling |date=July 2021 |title=Human population history at the crossroads of East and Southeast Asia since 11,000 years ago |journal=Cell |volume=184 |issue=14 |pages=3829–3841.e21 |doi=10.1016/j.cell.2021.05.018 |pmid=34171307 |last16=Li |first16=Fajun |last17=Ping |first17=Wanjing |last18=Zhang |first18=Lizhao |last19=Zhang |first19=Ming |last20=Liu |first20=Yalin |last21=Chen |first21=Xiaoshan |last22=Zhang |first22=Dongju |last23=Zhou |first23=Zhenyu |last24=Wu |first24=Yun |last25=Shafiey |first25=Hassan |last26=Gao |first26=Xing |last27=Curnoe |first27=Darren |last28=Mao |first28=Xiaowei |last29=Bennett |first29=E. Andrew |last30=Ji |first30=Xueping |last31=Yang |first31=Melinda A. |last32=Fu |first32=Qiaomei}}</ref> 

The Đông Sơn culture was pioneered by the Lạc Việt peoples, who also founded the [[Văn Lang]] [[chiefdom]], ruled by the semi-mythical [[Hùng king]]s.{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|p=53}} To the south of the Dongsonians/Lạc Việt was the [[Sa Huỳnh culture]] of the [[Austronesian people|Austronesian]] [[Chamic language|Chamic people]].{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|p=56}} Around 400–200 BC, the Lạc Việt interacted with the [[Âu Việt]], a splinter group of [[Tai people]] from southern China,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Chapuis |first1=Oscar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jskyi00bspcC&pg=PA13 |title=A History of Vietnam: From Hong Bang to Tu Duc |date=1 January 1995 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-0-313-29622-2}}</ref> and [[Sinitic]] peoples from further north.{{sfn|Schafer|1967|p=14}} According to a late-third- or early-fourth-century AD Chinese chronicle, [[Thục Phán]], the leader of the Âu Việt, conquered Văn Lang and deposed the last [[Hùng Duệ Vương|Hùng king]].{{sfn|Kelley|2016|pp=167–168}} Having submissions of Lạc lords, Thục Phán proclaimed himself King An Dương of [[Âu Lạc]] kingdom, uniting the Lạc Việt and Âu Việt tribes.{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|p=53}}

In 179 BC, [[Zhao Tuo]], a Chinese general who established the [[Nanyue]] state in modern-day southern China, annexed Âu Lạc, which initiated Sino-Vietic interaction that lasted for a millennium.{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|p=69}} In 111 BC, the [[Han dynasty|Han Empire]] conquered Nanyue, which also brought northern Vietnam under Han rule.{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|p=75}} 

By the 7th century to 9th century AD, as the [[Tang Empire]] ruled over the region, historians such as [[Henri Maspero]] proposed that Vietnamese-speaking people became separated from other Vietic groups such as the Mường and [[Chut people|Chứt]] due to heavier Chinese influences on the Vietnamese.{{sfn|Maspero|1912|p=10}} In the mid-9th century, local rebels aided by [[Nanzhao]] almost ended Tang rule.{{sfn|Schafer|1967|p=63}} The Tang reconquered the region in 866, causing half of the local rebels to flee into the mountains, marking the separation between the [[Muong people|Mường]] and the Vietnamese.{{sfn|Maspero|1912|p=10}}{{sfn|Taylor|1983|p=248}} 

According to Jennifer Holmgren, the first six centuries of Chinese rule saw more Vietnamization of local Chinese than Sinicization of local Vietnamese.{{sfnp|Kiernan|2019|p=100}} Compared to the first six centuries of Chinese rule when demographics were relatively stable, Chinese migration during the Tang period was of sufficient magnitude to cause basic changes to certain portions of Vietnamese society in northern Vietnam. Most of these Chinese migrants came as soldiers or merchants, took a wife from the indigenous population, and settled down. They were individuals that settled down in a nuclear family, causing the average household size to decrease. Despite the increase of Chinese migrants to Vietnam, it was still much more constrained compared to Chinese migration to Guangdong and Guangxi due to the structure of Vietnamese society, which limited the ability of Chinese rulers to register and tax the local population. Vietnamese society retained their language and heritage. Other peoples like the Muong, Tay, and Nung people fled Chinese control into the uplands, where Chinese registers could not reach them. Non-Chinese foreign migration was also significant in the south due to pressures elsewhere such as the expanding Cham kingdom.{{sfn|Taylor|1983|p=140-143}} Around 10.5% of Kinh Vietnamese carry the Han Chinese [[Haplogroup O-M122#O-M7|O-M7]] [[haplogroup]], suggesting heavy assimilation of Chinese migrants in northern Vietnam.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=He |first1=Jun-Dong |last2=Peng |first2=Min-Sheng |last3=Quang |first3=Huy Ho |last4=Dang |first4=Khoa Pham |last5=Trieu |first5=An Vu |last6=Wu |first6=Shi-Fang |last7=Jin |first7=Jie-Qiong |last8=Murphy |first8=Robert W. |last9=Yao |first9=Yong-Gang |last10=Zhang |first10=Ya-Ping |editor1-last=Kayser |editor1-first=Manfred |title=Patrilineal Perspective on the Austronesian Diffusion in Mainland Southeast Asia |journal=PLOS ONE|date=7 May 2012 |volume=7 |issue=5 |page=e36437 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0036437 |pmid=22586471 |pmc=3346718 |bibcode=2012PLoSO...736437H |doi-access=free }}</ref>

In 938, the Vietnamese leader [[Ngô Quyền]] who was a native of [[Thanh Hoa|Thanh Hóa]], led Vietnamese forces to defeat the Chinese armada at [[Battle of Bạch Đằng (938)|Bạch Đằng River]]. He proclaimed himself king over a polity that could be perceived as "Vietnamese".{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|pp=127, 131 [Quote (p.131): From the tenth century, Vietnamese history comes into its own. After millennia of undocumented prehistory and a thousand years of imperial rule documented only in Chinese, new indigenous historical sources throw increasing light on political, economic, and cultural developments in the territory that had comprised the Protectorate of Annam. How new were these developments? A tenth-century ruler revived for a second time the ancient name of the kingdom of Nán Yuè in its Vietnamese form, Nam Việt. But this new kingdom would then adopt a new name, Đại Việt (Great Việt), and unlike its classical Yuè predecessors and short-lived tenth-century counterparts in south China, it successfully resisted reintegration into the empire. The new autonomous Việt realm inherited both the Sino-Vietnamese hereditary aristocracy and the provincial geography of Tang Annam. From north to south, it was a diverse region of five provinces and border marches. Restive ethnic Tai and other upland groups, formerly allied to the defunct Nanzhao kingdom, straddled the mountainous northern frontier. Lowland Jiao province in the central plain of the Red and Bạch Đằng rivers was the most Sinicized region, home to most of the northern settlers and traders and an influential Sino-Vietnamese Buddhist community, as well as Vietic-speaking rice farmers. Here the Vietnamese language was emerging as settlers adopted the Proto-Việt-Mường tongue of their indigenous neighbors, infusing it with much of their Annamese Middle Chinese vocabulary]}}

===Medieval and early modern period===
[[File:Trang phục Kinh.jpg|250px|thumb|left|One of the traditional costumes of Vietnamese people]]

[[Ngô Quyền]] died in 944 and his kingdom collapsed into chaos and disturbances between twelve warlords and chiefs.{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|p=139}} In 968, a leader named [[Đinh Bộ Lĩnh]] united them and established the Đại Việt (Great Việt) kingdom.{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|p=141}} With assistance of powerful Buddhist monks, Đinh Bộ Lĩnh chose [[Hoa Lư Ancient Capital|Hoa Lư]] in the southern edge of the [[Red River Delta]] as the capital instead of Tang-era [[Đại La]], adopted Chinese-style imperial titles, coinage, and ceremonies and tried to preserve the Chinese administrative framework.{{sfn|Lieberman|2003|p=352}} The independence of Đại Việt, according to Andrew Chittick, allows it "to develop its own distinctive political culture and ethnic consciousness".<ref>{{cite book|title=The Jiankang Empire in Chinese and World History |author=Andrew Chittick |page=340 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2020 |isbn=978-0-19093-754-6}}</ref> In 979, Emperor [[Đinh Tiên Hoàng]] was assassinated, and Queen [[Dương Vân Nga]] married Dinh's general [[Lê Hoàn]] and appointed him as Emperor. Disturbances in Đại Việt attracted attention from the neighbouring Chinese [[Song dynasty]] and [[Champa]] Kingdom, but they were defeated by Lê Hoàn.{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|pp=144–145}} A [[Khmer inscriptions|Khmer inscription]] dated 987 records the arrival of Vietnamese merchants (Yuon) in [[Angkor]].{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|p=157}} Chinese writers Song Hao, [[Fan Chengda]] and [[Zhou Qufei]] all reported that the inhabitants of Đại Việt "tattooed their foreheads, crossed feet, black teeth, bare feet and blacken clothing".{{sfn|Marsh|2016|pp=84–85}} The early 11th-century [[Cham language|Cham]] inscription of Chiên Đàn, [[My Son]], erected by king of Champa [[Harivarman IV]] (r. 1074–1080), mentions that he had offered Khmer (Kmīra/Kmir) and Viet (Yvan) prisoners as slaves to various local gods and temples of the citadel of Tralauṅ Svon.<ref>{{citation|last=Golzio|first=Karl-Heinz|year=2004|title=Inscriptions of Campā based on the editions and translations of Abel Bergaigne, Étienne Aymonier, Louis Finot, Édouard Huber and other French scholars and of the work of R. C. Majumdar. Newly presented, with minor corrections of texts and translations, together with calculations of given dates|publisher=Shaker Verlag|pages=163–164|quote=Original Old Cam text: ...(pa)kā ra vuḥ '''kmīra''' '''yvan'''· si mak· nan· di yām̃ hajai tralauṅ· svon· dadam̃n· sthāna tra ra vuḥ urām̃ dinan· pajem̃ karadā yam̃ di nagara campa.}}</ref> Many Kinh Vietnamese also lived in Champa and were well-assimilated, like other Austroasiatic groups living in the state.<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal |last1=Thao |first1=Dinh Huong |last2=Dinh |first2=Tran Huu |last3=Mitsunaga |first3=Shigeki |last4=Duy |first4=La Duc |date=2024 |title=Investigating demic versus cultural diffusion and sex bias in the spread of Austronesian languages in Vietnam |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=19 |issue=6 |pages=e0304964 |bibcode=2024PLoSO..1904964T |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0304964 |pmc=11182502 |pmid=38885215 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Successive Vietnamese royal families from the Đinh, Early Lê, Lý, Trần and Hồ dynasties, who had ([[Hoa people|Hoa]])/Chinese ancestry, ruled the kingdom peacefully from 968 to 1407. Emperor [[Lý Thái Tổ]] (r. 1009–1028) relocated the Vietnamese capital from [[Hoa Lư Ancient Capital|Hoa Lư]] to [[Đại La]], the center of the [[Red River Delta]] in 1010.{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|p=148}} They practiced elitist marriage alliances between clans and nobles in the country. Mahayana Buddhism became state religion, with Cham, Indian and Chinese cultures influencing Vietnamese music instruments, dance and religious worship.{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|pp=153–154}} Confucianism also slowly gained attention and influence.{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|p=155}} The earliest surviving corpus and text in the [[Vietnamese language]] were dated to the early 12th century whilst surviving [[chữ Nôm]] script inscriptions were dated to the early 13th century, showcasing enormous influences of Chinese culture among the early Vietnamese elites.{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|pp=135, 138}}

The Mongol [[Yuan dynasty]] unsuccessfully invaded Đại Việt in the 1250s and 1280s, though they sacked Hanoi.{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|pp=169, 170}} The [[Ming dynasty]] of China conquered Đại Việt in 1406, brought the Vietnamese under Chinese rule for 20 years, before they were driven out by Vietnamese leader [[Lê Lợi]].{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|pp=194–197}} The fourth grandson of Lê Lợi, Emperor [[Lê Thánh Tông]] (r. 1460–1497), is considered one of the greatest monarchs in Vietnamese history. His reign is recognized for the extensive administrative, military, education, and fiscal reforms he instituted, and a cultural revolution that replaced the old traditional aristocracy with a generation of literati scholars. He also adopted Confucianism and transformed Đại Việt from a Southeast Asian style polity to a bureaucratic state that flourished. Thánh Tông's forces, armed with [[gunpowder]] weapons, overwhelmed the long-term rival [[Champa]] in 1471 and launched an unsuccessful invasion against the Laotian and [[Lan Na]] kingdoms in the 1480s.{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|pp=204–211}}

===16th century – Modern period===
[[File:Quan di vong thoi nha Nguyen Minh Mang 1828.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Vietnamese soldiers in 1828]]
[[File:Quanlai.jpg |200px|thumb|Vietnamese [[Mandarin (bureaucrat)|bureaucrat officials]], 1883–1886]]
[[File:Viet1919.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Vietnamese farmers in 1921]]

With the death of Thánh Tông in 1497, the Đại Việt kingdom swiftly declined. Extreme climate, failing crops, regionalism and factionism tore the Vietnamese apart.{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|pp=213–214}} From 1533 to 1790s, four powerful Vietnamese families – Mạc, Lê, Trịnh and Nguyễn – each ruled their own domains. In the northern Vietnamese polity of Đàng Ngoài (outer realm), the Lê emperors barely sat on the throne while the Trịnh lords held power of the court. The Mạc controlled northeast Vietnam. The Nguyễn lords ruled the southern polity of Đàng Trong (inner realm).{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|pp=221–223}} Thousands of ethnic Vietnamese migrated south and settled on the old Cham lands, with Cham inhabitants assimilating into the new Vietnamese state.{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|pp=224–225}}<ref name=":2">{{cite journal |last1=Ho |first1=Hoang-Anh |last2=Martinsson |first2=Peter |last3=Olsson |first3=Ola |title=The origins of cultural divergence: evidence from Vietnam |journal=Journal of Economic Growth |date=March 2022 |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=45–89 |doi=10.1007/s10887-021-09194-x |doi-access=free }}</ref> Vietnamese also settled in the [[Central Highlands (Vietnam)|highlands of Vietnam]] and intermixed with the natives over centuries.<ref name=":2" /> European missionaries and traders from the sixteenth century brought new religion, ideas and crops to the Vietnamese (Annamese). By 1639, there were 82,500 Catholic converts throughout Vietnam. In 1651, [[Alexandre de Rhodes]] published a 300-pages [[catechism]] in [[Latin]] and romanized-Vietnamese (''chữ Quốc Ngữ'') or the [[Vietnamese alphabet]].{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|pp=233–234}}

Conflict among Vietnamese ended in 1802 as Emperor [[Gia Long]], who was aided by French mercenaries, defeated the [[Tay Son dynasty|Tay Son]] kingdoms and reunited Vietnam. By 1847, the Vietnamese state under Emperor [[Thieu Tri|Thiệu Trị]], a people that were identified as "người Việt Nam" accounted for nearly 80 percent of the country's population.{{sfn|Lieberman|2003|p=433}} This demographic model continues to persist through the [[French Indochina]], [[French Indochina in World War II|Japanese occupation]] and modern day.

Between 1862 and 1867, the southern third of the country became the [[French Cochinchina|French colony of Cochinchina]].{{sfn|McLeod|1991|p=61}} By 1884, the entire country had come under French rule, with the central and northern parts of Vietnam separated into the two protectorates of [[Annam (French protectorate)|Annam]] and [[Tonkin (French protectorate)|Tonkin]]. The three Vietnamese entities were formally integrated into the union of [[French Indochina]] in 1887.{{sfn|Ooi|2004|p=520}}{{sfn|Cook|2001|p=396}} The French administration imposed significant political and cultural changes on Vietnamese society.{{sfn|Frankum|2011|p=172}} A Western-style system of modern education introduced new [[humanism|humanist]] values into Vietnam.{{sfn|Nhu Nguyen|2016|p=37}}
[[File:South Vietnamese soldiers 1972.jpg|thumb|Vietnamese soldiers in 1972]]
Despite having a long recorded ethnic history, the formation of the ethnic Vietnamese or Kinh identity, only begun by the late 19th and early 20th century, with the help of the colonial administration. Following the colonial government's efforts of ethnic classification, nationalism, especially [[Ethnic nationalism|ethnonationalism]] and eugenic [[social Darwinism]], were encouraged among the new Vietnamese intelligentsia's discourse. Ethnic tensions sparked by Vietnamese ethnonationalism peaked during the late 1940s at the beginning phase of the [[First Indochina War]] (1946–1954), which resulted in violence between Khmer and Vietnamese in the [[Mekong Delta]].

The mid-20th century marked a pivotal turning point with the [[Vietnam War]], a conflict that not only left an indelible impact on the nation but also had far-reaching consequences for the Vietnamese people. The war, which lasted from 1955 to 1975, resulted in significant social, economic, and political upheavals, shaping the modern history of Vietnam and its people. Following the [[reunification of Vietnam|end of the Vietnam War]] in 1975, the post-war era brought economic hardships and strained social dynamics, prompting resilient efforts at reconstruction, reconciliation, and the implementation of economic reforms such as the [[Đổi Mới]] policies in the late 20th century.