David Marr characterises earlier traditional anti-colonial rebellions before the Thái Nguyên uprising such as the Can Vuong movement (Save the King) as being led by scholar-gentry whose followings were limited to members of their own lineages and villages.

[7] Leaders of these movements were ineffective in mobilising the general population beyond the scope of their influence, and in liaison and coordinating military or strategic activities on a wider scale in other provinces and regions.

According to Zinoman, the Thái Nguyên Rebellion was especially noteworthy due to the role which prisons, a product of the colonial era, played in bringing together men from different walks of life to unite for a common purpose.

[9] While imprisoned in Thái Nguyên, Ba Quyến got to know that Đội Cấn, one of the Vietnamese sergeants in the local garrison, had considerable experience operating in the Thai Nguyen area and had been plotting an uprising for years.

[11] Bản chức Thái Nguyên Quang phục quân Đại đô đốc, từ trước tới nay không hề có giây phút nào lãng quên nỗi khổ của đồng bào dân chúng.

Ngay khi còn sống lam lũ ở chốn quê làm nghề cày ruộng, lòng hằng băn khoăn tức tối về thảm họa vong quốc.

Nhưng lúc nào cũng nuôi hoài bão cừu thù với Pháp tặc không hề biến tâm thoái chí.

Phen này chúng ta quyết ra sức phấn đấu để khôi phục độc lập cho Tổ Quốc.

Ta hãy cố sức phấn đấu phen này, đồng tâm hiệp lực, đả đảo quân thù, tuốt gươm giết giặc.For the third attempt, the plotters decided to strike after hearing rumours that some of them were to be transferred.

[note 5] Từ 30 năm qua xứ sở chúng ta hoang vắng như sa mạc, những người tài chí phải sống buồn tủi, cuộc đời tối tăm.

[...] Tất cả những tai họa mà trời giáng xuống đầu chúng ta đã kết thúc từ ngày hôm nay.

Cấn joined the Garde Indigene (native gendarmerie) as a youth and served his entire adult life on the remote Tonkinese frontier guarding prisoners and fighting bandits for the French.

The leading Vietnamese anti-colonial party of the early 20th century was the Vietnam Restoration League (VNRL) (Việt-Nam Quang-phục Hội) founded by Phan Bội Châu in 1912.

[note 8] Due to his conviction of involvement in a 1913 bombing attack at Phu Tho, Quyến had been sentenced to hard labor for life and transferred to the Thái Nguyên penitentiary in July 1916.

The French assumed power in Tonkin in 1884 and collaborated with Luong Tam Ky, leader of the Yellow Flags who took twenty years to catch and kill Đề Thám.

Under such adverse conditions, Zinoman argues the incarceration experience intensified prisoners' sensations of being interconnected, built strength and confidence of character, and the will to fight against the colonial state responsible for this injustice.

In Thái Nguyên, all prisoners were subjected to the brutal regime of forced and dangerous labour of building roads and construction of public works, unsanitary conditions, abuses and beatings resulting in a high number of deaths.

Commandant Nicolas of the Garde Indigene downplayed the movement's political character so as to preserve the reputation of his corps as essentially loyal and trusted, but were 'forced' to rebel due to the harsh local conditions or tactics of intimidation.

This is in spite of the evidence that the rebellion involved participants from various social classes, had support from hundreds of civilians, and used visual symbols (such as armbands and flags) and a proclamation demanding the end of the French rule.

To diffuse responsibility for the flaws on the penitentiary's design, Sarraut claimed the First World War had disrupted the plan to tackle overcrowding in Thái Nguyên by deporting political prisoners to penal colonies elsewhere.

Instead of underlining the Darles' leading role for triggering the uprising, Lieu highlights the profound anti-colonial inclinations of Sergeant Cấn and paints him as an active agent who plotted secretly against the French state.

Despite the gaps, Zinoman argued one could discern the existence of communications between Cấn and Quyến, inclusive decision making involving other participants, sense of comradeship transcending class and regional divisions resembling modern political nationalism.

[31] As the rebels in Thái Nguyên uprising came from over thirty provinces and represented a wider cross-section of society of various classes, the event was marked to be significant in having 'modern' elements of having transcended the social and regional limitations that hampered the development of earlier movements.

They were more successful than their predecessors in integrating anti-colonial forces from different parts of French Indochina and establishing organisation structures and communication channels that transcended class divisions and geographical boundaries.

[citation needed] Apart from the sense of transition from 'traditional' to 'modern' Vietnamese nation-consciousness in the movements after the 1920s, Zinoman argues that "prisons were as significant as schools and political parties in creating a 'consciousness of connectedness'", and the Thái Nguyên uprising may be considered as amongst the "earliest manifestations of modern anti-colonial nationalism".

[33] The colonial penal institution, "founded to quell political dissent and maintain law and order" was in turn appropriated by the imprisoned into "a site that nurtured the growth of communism, nationalism, and anti-colonial resistance".