The Yên Thế Insurrection or officially Yên Thế Uprising () was a 25-year-long popular revolt in Yên Thế Rural District of

Tonkin Tonkin, also spelled Tongkin, Tonquin or Tongking, is an exonym referring to the northern region of Vietnam. During the 17th and 18th centuries, this term referred to the domain '' Đàng Ngoài'' under Trịnh lords' control, including both the ...

, against the French protectorate and in defiance of the

Nguyễn Dynasty The Nguyễn dynasty (, chữ Nôm: 茹阮, chữ Hán: 朝阮) was the last List of Vietnamese dynasties, Vietnamese dynasty, preceded by the Nguyễn lords and ruling unified Vietnam independently from 1802 until French protectorate in 1883 ...

's collaborative stance.

History

At the beginning of the 20th century,

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

had suppressed almost all protest movements. Yên Thế Insurrection lead by Hoàng Hoa Thám, at the time, had narrowed the scope of operations and fully suppressed in 1913. The revolt was led by the "Sacred Panthera of Yên Thế" (Hùm thiêng Yên Thế), Đề Thám, lasting some two decades (1887–1913). The rebellion was violent with intervals of truce when the French colonial authorities settled for peace, ceding four

cantons A canton is a type of administrative division of a country. In general, cantons are relatively small in terms of area and population when compared with other administrative divisions such as counties, departments, or provinces. Internationally, th ...

to Đề Thám's control. The policy of appeasement and containment was chosen after several military campaigns sweeping through the mountainous terrain to defeat Đề Thám failed to stomp out the resistance. Đề Thám variously resorted to

guerrilla warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include recruited children, use ambushes, sabotage, terrori ...

, harassing local patrols, and at other times launching full attacks on French colonial forces. The insurrection collapsed with the murder of Đề Thám in 1913 by an agent working for the French. The surviving forces were scattered, ending one of the longest chapters of anti-French resistance in pre-modern Vietnam.

1884–1892

In the period from 1865 to 1885, the Northern mountains of the Empire of Annam suffered the raging of armed groups from

Guangxi Guangxi,; officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam (Hà Giang Province, Hà Giang, Cao Bằn ...

, who were expelled after the

Taiping Rebellion The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a civil war in China between the Qing dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The conflict lasted 14 years, from its outbreak in 1850 until the fall of ...

collapsed. The local authorities of the

were unable to remove these forces, so they decided to leave

. In the end, that political gap arises local forces, who have soon rebelled to rule their area. Among those local leaders, many people have relied on relationships with groups called the external enemies (giặc Khách, "Guest enemy") to manipulate power and even protect their rights. Until the end of the 19th century, the western mountains of

Bắc Giang province Bắc Giang �ak˧˥:zaːŋ˧˧was a former Provinces of Vietnam, province in the Northeast (Vietnam), Northeast region of Vietnam. History Its oldest name was Kinh Bắc (京北, "north fcapital"), a sub-division has ever included two ...

have not been exploited. Refugees from the lower lands soon need to unite to defend themselves. However, in the process of expanding the new land, they were close with the forces from

based on two purposes : Trade and weapons. Their most frequent partner was the

Black Flag Army The Black Flag Army (; , chữ Nôm: ) was a splinter remnant of a bandit and mercenary group recruited largely from soldiers of ethnic Zhuang background and former Taiping soldiers who crossed the border in 1865 from Guangxi, China into north ...

. Lưu Vĩnh Phúc's groups of soldiers often advanced from this mountainous area to ambush the French in the

Red River Delta The Red River Delta or Hong River Delta () is the flat low-lying plain formed by the Red River and its distributaries merging with the Thái Bình River in Northern Vietnam. ''Hồng'' (紅) is a Sino-Vietnamese word for "red" or "crimson". T ...

. In less than 5 years, small Yên Thế Thượng area (now An Thượng commune) was the beginning of a series of indigenous troops, who were mostly farmers. Each such group usually stands behind a leader, who claimed to be the commander (提督, đề đốc, Provincial Military Commander), or marshal (thống chế), or governor-general (tổng đốc) ... . In fact, the authority of those individuals was very small and not recognized by the Nguyễn Court. At the beginning all Yên Thế Thượng was under the control of Đề Hả (Lương Văn Nắm) and Đề Sặt (Đỗ Văn Hùng), who had the effort to lead the exploration of the wasteland and then deported the Yellow Flag Army. The Yellow Flag were inherently conflicting with the

, thus both Đề Sặt and Đề Hả decided to support the

. In March 1892 about 2,200 French soldiers under the command of General Voron opened a fierce attack on the Yên Thế barracks. The Yên Thế force was defeated, causing some leaders to surrender. In April 1892, Đề Hả died. The French documents has reported that he died of

dysentery Dysentery ( , ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications may include dehyd ...

, while the revolt groups did not think so. These people doubt that Đề Sặt colluded with the French to assassinate their leader.

1893–1897

In 1893, Đề Hả's adopted son Trương Văn Nghĩa temporarily took power. He soon ordered Đề Truật (Dương Văn Truật) to lead about 12 subordinates to Sặt village (now Cầu Gồ township) to kill Đề Sặt. Đề Sặt's head was displayed in Nhã Nam market for the public to admire. Since that time, Trương has really become the leader of the Yên Thế insurgents with his title Đề Thám.

1898–1908

1909 to 1913

1914 to 1917

Influence

Legacy

Since the late 1980s the entire area of Phồn Xương township (capital of Yên Thế District), where the ruins of Đề Thám barracks, were previously planned to become the Yên Thế Uprising relic area (Khu di tích khởi nghĩa Yên Thế). After the time of

Covid-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

pandemic, the Bắc Giang Provincial People's Committee tried to invest to embellish this relic area to become a province-level tourist destination and currently in the review period to become a country-level special monument. Currently Yên Thế Festival is the most important cultural and tourism event of

. It includes many activities to honor the

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...

s such as : The flag sacrifices, the vow, the parades, the wrestling, chess battles and especially the

folk songs Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has be ...

. This event was held on March 16 every year since the 1980s and soon recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage.

Arts

The image of Đề Thám and Yên Thế insurgents has been solemnly gone into Vietnamese art since the 1920s until now. In 1987, in the process of making the historical movie ''Hoàng Hoa Thám'', the crew of filmmaker Trần Phương from the Vietnam Feature Film Studio conducted a part of Phồn Xương clay citadel of Yên Thế insurgents, which was based on French documents and especially the memories of Madame Destham. Currently, it continues to be maintained as part of the historic tour in Yên Thế District of

Bắc Giang Province Bắc Giang �ak˧˥:zaːŋ˧˧was a former Provinces of Vietnam, province in the Northeast (Vietnam), Northeast region of Vietnam. History Its oldest name was Kinh Bắc (京北, "north fcapital"), a sub-division has ever included two ...

. ;Literature *''Phồn Xương''. 1986 poem by

Tố Hữu Tố Hữu (4 October 1920 – 9 December 2002) was a Vietnam, Vietnamese revolutionary poet and politician. Tố Hữu is considered one of the most important Vietnamese poets of the 20th century. His poems are known for their lyrical beauty, ...

;Films *''Yên Thế the Return Day'' (Yên Thế ngày về). 1987 documentary film about Madame Hoàng Thị Thế and her childhood memories *''Hoàng Hoa Thám''. 1987-8 feature film, 2 parts **The Leader with the Maroon Shirt (Thủ lĩnh áo nâu) **The Fire on the Horizon (Lửa cháy đường chân trời) *''Road to Origin : Yên Thế Uprising and Its Historical Relics''Nẻo về nguồn cội : Khởi nghĩa Yên Thế – Những dấu tích lịch sử
/ref> (Nẻo về nguồn cội : Khởi nghĩa Yên Thế – Những dấu tích lịch sử). 2016 documentary film by the

Vietnam Television Vietnam Television (), operating under its official abbreviation VTV, is the State media, national television broadcaster of Vietnam. As the state broadcaster under the direction of under the Government of Vietnam, VTV is tasked with "propaga ...

Notes and references

Notes

References

*Chabrol, Emmanuel-Pierre-Gabriel (Commandant).
Opérations militaires au Tonkin / le commandant breveté Chabrol
', Henri Charles-Lavauzelle, Paris, 1896. *A. L. Bouchet, ''Au Tonkin. La vie aventureuse de Hoang Hoa Tham chef pirate'', Paris, 1939. * Hoàng Thị Thế (author) & Lê Kỳ Anh (translator) & Khổng Đức Thiêm (editor), ''Kỷ niệm thời thơ ấu'' (Memories of My Childhood), Publishing by Ty Văn hóa Hà Bắc (Hà Bắc Provincial Department of Culture), Bắc Giang Town,

North Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; ; VNDCCH), was a country in Southeast Asia from 1945 to 1976, with sovereignty fully recognized in 1954 Geneva Conference, 1954. A member of the communist Eastern Bloc, it o ...

, 1963. * * George Coedes. ''The Making of South East Asia'', 2nd ed.

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

Press, 1983. * Trần Ngọc Thêm. ''Cơ sở văn hóa Việt Nam'' (The Foundation of Vietnamese Culture), 504 pages. Publishing by Nhà xuất bản Đại học Tổng hợp TPHCM.

Saigon Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025. The city's geography is defined by rivers and canals, of which the largest is Saigo ...

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

, 1995. * Trần Quốc Vượng, Tô Ngọc Thanh, Nguyễn Chí Bền, Lâm Mỹ Dung, Trần Thúy Anh.
Cơ sở văn hóa Việt Nam
' (The Basis of Vietnamese Culture), 292 pages. Re-publishing by Nhà xuất bản Giáo Dục Việt Nam & Quảng Nam Printing Co-Ltd.

Hanoi Hanoi ( ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Vietnam, second-most populous city of Vietnam. The name "Hanoi" translates to "inside the river" (Hanoi is bordered by the Red River (Asia), Red and Black River (Asia), Black Riv ...

, 2006. *''Tập bản đồ hành chính Việt Nam'' (Vietnamese administrative maps), Nhà xuất bản Tài nguyên – Môi trường và Bản đồ Việt Nam, Hà Nội, 2013. *Keith, Charles P. (summer 2013). "The Curious Case of Hoàng Thị Thế". Journal of Vietnamese Studies. University of California Press. 8 (3): 71–119. doi:10.1525/vs.2013.8.3.71. * Li Tana (2011). ''Jiaozhi (Giao Chỉ) in the Han period Tongking Gulf''. In Cooke, Nola ; Li Tana ; Anderson, James A. (eds.). The Tongking Gulf Through History. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 39–44. ISBN 9780812205022. * Li Tana,
Towards an environmental history of the eastern Red River Delta, Vietnam, c.900–1400
', Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 2014. * Samuel Baron, Christoforo Borri, Olga Dror, Keith W. Taylor (2018). ''Views of Seventeenth-Century Vietnam : Christoforo Borri on Cochinchina and Samuel Baron on Tonkin''. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-1-501-72090-1. *Quyết định s�
1537/QĐ-TTg
của Thủ tướng Chính phủ Việt Nam : Về việc phê duyệt Quy hoạch tổng thể bảo tồn, tôn tạo và phát huy giá trị di tích lịch sử quốc gia đặc biệt Những địa điểm Khởi nghĩa Yên Thế tại tỉnh Bắc Giang.

External links

Đề Thám – thời kỳ huy hoàng : Cuốn sách đặc biệt về 'hùm thiêng' Yên Thế ra mắt bạn đọcLễ hội kỉ niệm 140 năm khởi nghĩa Yên Thế : Tôn vinh những giá trị truyền thống dân tộc
* ttps://dcs.bacgiang.gov.vn/detail/-/asset_publisher/M0UUAFstbTMq/content/khoi-nghia-yen-the-bai-hoc-lich-su Historical experiences from the Yên Thế Uprising {{DEFAULTSORT:Yen The Insurrection 1880s in Vietnam 1890s in Vietnam 1900s in Vietnam 1910s in Vietnam 1880s conflicts 1890s conflicts 1900s conflicts 1910s conflicts 19th-century rebellions 20th-century rebellions Wars involving Vietnam Rebellions in Vietnam