History of Vietnam during World War I

While seeking to maximize the use of Indochina's natural resources and manpower to fight the war, France cracked down all Vietnamese patriotic movements.

The French entry into World War I saw the authorities in Vietnam press-gang thousands of "volunteers" for service in Europe, leading to uprisings in Tonkin and Cochinchina.

Exposed to new political ideals and returning to a colonial occupation of their own country (by a ruler that many of them had fought and died for), resulted in some sour attitudes.

They first saw action with the 12th ID during the 2nd Battle of the Aisne on the Chemin des Dames on the 5–7 May 1917 following up the attack of the regiments to which they are attached and were involved in resupplying the forward troops, consolidating trenches and in the organization of any captured territory.

[10] As the Vietnamese fought and died on the French side, their involvement and losses on the battlefields contributed significantly to Vietnam's national identity.

In 2004, a Russian journalist published a handbook of human losses in the 20th century which included the Vietnamese military deaths during World War I - over 12,000[11] men died.

Lacking a unified nationwide organization, the Vietnamese national movement, though still vigorous, failed to take advantage of the difficulties France was experiencing as a result of the war to stage any significant uprisings.

In May 1916, the 16-year-old king, Duy Tân, escaped from his palace in order to take part in an uprising of Vietnamese troops organized by Thái Phiên and Trần Cao Vân.

In 1917 the moderate reformist journalist Phạm Quỳnh had begun publishing the quốc ngữ journal Nam Phong in Hanoi.

In 1916, underground societies in Cochinchina tried to attack several administrative centers, including the central prison in Saigon and the residence of the local French governor.

On the night of February 14, 1916, thousands of people armed with knives and wearing amulets infiltrated Saigon and fought French police and troops, who succeeded in defeating them.

In 1913 Nguyễn Văn Vĩnh succeeded in publishing Đông Dương Tạp Chí (Indochinese Review), a strongly antitraditional but pro-French journal.

Nguyen Van Vinh's publications, while largely pro-Western, were the major impetus for the increasing popularity of quốc ngữ in Annam and Tonkin.

The decrease of both French investments in and imports to Vietnam during the war had opened opportunities to entrepreneurial Vietnamese, who began to be active in light industries such as rice milling, printing, and textile weaving.

These factors, combined, led to the rise of a wealthy Vietnamese elite in Cochinchina that was pro-French but was frustrated by its own lack of political power and status.