Research on Tonkin - Cochinchina civil war (Vietnam) during the 17th and 18th centuries through western materials

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Research on Tonkin - Cochinchina civil war (Vietnam) during the 17th and 18th centuries through western materials

Anh Thuan Truong

Abstract

Introduction. The article researches Tonkin - Cochinchina Civil War (in Vietnamese history, also known as Dang Trong - Dang Ngoai War or Trinh - Nguyen War) that took place from the early 17^th century to the late 18^th century in Vietnam. Methods and Materials. When researching this matter, the author used Western materials, including writings, reports, correspondences, diaries, etc., of Western missionaries, merchants, and travellers used to operate in Vietnam in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. The author combines two main research methods of historical science (historical method and logical method) with other research methods (system, analysis, synthesis, comparison, etc.) to clarify the article's contents. Analysis. In the 17^th and 18^th centuries, the struggle for political power between two powers: Trinh Lord in Tonkin and Nguyen Lord in Cochinchina, caused Vietnam to undergo a fierce civil war that lasted for more than a century. This civil war was scattered mentioned in Western missionaries, merchants, and travellers' materials (including writings, reports, correspondences and diaries), operating in Vietnam during this period. The cause of the civil war outbreak, force correlation between two sides, happening of some battles and using foreign resources of Trinh Lord and Nguyen Lord to defeat the enemy, those were the contents recorded by Westerners. Despite not much adequate, researchers also have a basic visualization of Tonkin - Cochinchina Civil War's panorama taking place in Vietnam in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. Results. Based on researching several contents related to Tonkin - Cochinchina Civil War, mentioned in writings, reports, correspondences, and diaries of Westerners present in Vietnam in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, the author analyzed to draw out the advantages and limitations of these materials. On that basis, the author initially clarifies its value for the research and assessment of Tonkin - Cochinchina Civil War of Vietnamese scholars at present and in the future.

Key words: Civil war, Vietnam, Tonkin, Cochinchina, Trinh Lord, Nguyen Lord, 17^th century, 18^th century.

ИССЛЕДОВАНИЕ ГРАЖДАНСКОЙ ВОЙНЫ ТОНКИН - КОХИНХИНА (ВЬЕТНАМ) В XVII-XVIII вв. ЧЕРЕЗ ПРИЗМУ ЗАПАДНЫХ МАТЕРИАЛОВ

Университет Дананга, Университет науки и образования, г. Дананг, Вьетнам

Аннотация. Введение. В статье исследуется гражданская война Тонкин - Кохинхина (в истории Вьетнама также известная как война Данг Чонг - Данг Нгоай или война Трин - Нгуен), которая длилась с начала XVII до конца XVIII в. во Вьетнаме. Методы и материалы. В основу работы положены западные материалы, в том числе отчеты, переписка, дневники западных миссионеров, торговцев и путешественников, которые посещали Вьетнам в XVII и XVIII веках. Для более полного изучения данного вопроса в качестве основных методов исследования автор использует исторический и логический методы, а также применяет такие методы исследования, как системный подход, анализ, синтез, сравнение и др. Анализ. В XVII и XVIII вв. политическая борьба за власть между двумя родами - Лорд Трин в Тонкине и Лорд Нгуен в Кохинхине - вызвала во Вьетнаме жестокую гражданскую войну, которая длилась более века. Причины начала гражданской войны, соотношение сторон, участвовавших в борьбе, военные столкновения и использование иностранных ресурсов Лорд Трин и Лорд Нгуен для разгрома врага - обо всем этом можно прочитать в материалах западного происхождения. Хотя эти свидетельства не всегда объективны, но они помогают создать общее представление панорамы гражданской войны Тонкин - Кохинхина в XVII и XVIII веках. Результаты. Автору удалось установить преимущества и недостатки исторических материалов западного происхождения, уточнить их значение для оценки вьетнамскими учеными гражданской войны Тонкин - Кохинхина и обозначить перспективы изучения.

Ключевые слова: гражданская война, Вьетнам, Тонкин, Кохинхина, Лорд Трин, Лорд Нгуен, XVII век, XVIII век.

Introduction

The 17^th and 18^th centuries were a turbulent period in Vietnamese history. During this time, various political forces' confrontation led to several wars for gaining the right to rule this nation¹. In particular, the conflict between Trinh Lord's governments in Tonkin and Nguyen Lord in Cochinchina that took place from the first half of the 17^th century to the late 18^th century was considered one of the critical events that had a profound effect on the history of Vietnam in this period. In essence, that was a civil war. Because at that time, both Trinh Lord and Nguyen Lord, although they held absolute power over the land they governed, still recognized the supreme rulership of the Emperor of the Later Le dynasty², and they were also the high ranking mandarins of this dynasty [63, pp. 174-175].

In fact, in the 17^th century, Trinh Lord and Nguyen Lord's direct conflicts mainly took place in the period of 1627-1672. After 46 years of fierce fighting, both sides were exhausted in terms of human and material, so they had to cease war and accepted a state of long-term national division in 1672. Gianh River, also called Linh Giang in the historical record, became the boundary that divides Vietnam into two regions. The region from Linh Giang to the South was called Cochinchina under the rule of Nguyen Lord, and the area from Linh Giang to the North was called Tonkin, under the management of the government of Trinh Lord. However, that does not mean that after 1672, conflicts between these two powers altogether ceased. In fact, more than a century later (16721774), two sides were always in a state of “cold war” with the preparation and strengthening of their military, economic and defence potential as well as enlisting the support of Western countries (Portugal, Netherlands, UK, France, etc.) to oppose their political opponent. That made this civil war practically occur in the period of 1627-1672 and last until the end of the 18^th century. It was not until 1774, when the final battle between Tonkin and Cochinchina took place with the victory of Trinh Lord (Tonkin), that this civil war ultimately ended.

Researchers can find several Han script bibliographies on the Tonkin - Cochinchina Civil War, recorded by the official historians of the Later Le dynasty³ or the Cochinchina government's officials in the 17 ^th and 18 ^th centuries⁴ or the National Historiographer's Office of Nguyen Dynasty in the 19 ^th century⁵. However, these historical records had certain limitations. The first was that they paid too much attention to presenting the progression of seven battles between Trinh Lord in Tonkin and Nguyen Lord in Cochinchina in the 1627-1672 period, but paid little attention to the “cold war” that took place from after 1672 to the late 18^th century. The second was the objectivity of the historical records⁶. The above limitations could be completely overcome when researchers use the original documents recorded by Westerners who appeared in Vietnam in the 17^th and 18 ^th centuries. Because for this war, they are bystanders, had no relation with both forces participating in the war. Therefore, they would not have any reason to record what they witnessed about this war dishonestly.

So,Westerners recorded the Tonkin - Cochinchina Civil War in Vietnam in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, but who are they? They were missionaries of different religious orders ⁷, came to Vietnam to evangelize the people of this country. They were the Western merchants ⁸ who brought European goods to Vietnamese for sale, and at the same time bought indigenous products, aromatizers and medicinal herbs and took them back to the West. They could also travelers ⁹ who came to Vietnam to satisfy their curiosity and expand the understanding of this nation and people. So why did they take notes on this civil war? Apparently, their work (evangelization, trade, tourism) had nothing to do with the civil war for political power between Trinh Lord and Nguyen Lord, which took place in Vietnam at that time. However, the fierce and brutal context caused by this conflict brought Western missionaries, merchants, and travellers certain obstacles in their work. Therefore, in the writings, correspondences and reports sent to Europe at that time, even in diaries of personal journeys, the Western missionaries, merchants, and travellers directly or indirectly mentioned the Tonkin - Cochinchina Civil War along with its adverse effects at each particular period.

Methods and materials

In the process of studying this issue, the author uses original historical records (writings, reports, correspondences, diaries, etc.) recorded by Westerners (missionaries, merchants, travellers, etc.) who were present and worked in Vietnam in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, referring directly or indirectly to the Tonkin - Cochinchina Civil War. These documents existed in two forms. Firstly, they were published in Europe as separate and typical works such as Histoire du Royaume de Tunquin [47], Divers Voyages et Missions [46], Relazione de' felici successi della Santa Fede Predicata da' Padri Della Compagnia di Giesu Nel Regno di Tunchino [48] of Alexandre de Rhodes, Relation de la nouvelle mission des peres de la compagnie de Jesus au royaume de la Cochinchine [5] of Christoforo Borri, Delle missioni de' padri della Compagnia di Giesй nella provincia del Giappone, e particolarmente di quella di Tumkino [29] of Giovanni Filippo de Marini, Voyages and descriptions [16] of William Dampier, Recueil de plusieurs relations et traitez singuliers et curieux de J.B Tavernier [59] of Jean- Baptiste Tavernier, Journal du voyage de Siam fait en 1685 et 1686 [13] of Fran^ois-Timoleon Abbe de Choisy, etc. Secondly, they were selected, edited, translated and published in a number of works such as Mission de la

Cochinchine et du Tonkin avec gravure et carte geographique [35] of Fortune de Montezon et al, Views of Seventeenth-Century Vietnam: Christoforo Borri on Cochinchina and Samuel Baron on Tonkin [ 18] (Olga Dror and K.W. Taylor editors and annotators), La Geste fran?aise en Indochine: Histoire par les textes de la France en Indochine des origines a 1914 [57] of Georges Taboulet, De Oost-Indische compagnie en Quinam, de betrekkingen der Nederlanders met Annam in de XVII eeuw [6] of Wilhelm Jozef Maria Buch, Aux origines dune eglise. Rome et les missions d' Indochine au XVIIe siecle [11] of Henri Chappoulie, Histoire moderne du pays d'Annam (1592-1820) [33] of Charles

B. Maybon, Lettres edifiantes et curieuses: concernant l'Asie, l'Afrique et l'Amerique, avec quelques relations nouvelles des missions, et des notes geographiques et historiques [30] of Louis- Aime Martin, etc. The above-mentioned documents played an important role in providing a necessary basis for the author to conduct research accurately and objectively on the Tonkin - Cochinchina Civil War in Vietnam in the 17^th and 18 ^th centuries.

Approaching the research issue from the perspective of history, the author applies the historical method, with the desire to reproduce systematically and accurately the panorama of the Tonkin - Cochinchina Civil War in Vietnam in the 17^th and 18 ^th centuries. To achieve this goal, the author applies methods of selecting, collating, system, synthesizing, statistics, comparison, and analyzing data and historical events and phenomena mentioned in the original material source (writings, reports, correspondences, diaries, etc.) of Western missionaries, merchants, and travellers, who operated in Vietnam in the period. On that basis, the author clarifies the advantages and limitations of this material source, at the same time, considers and evaluates its significance and value for the study of the Tonkin - Cochinchina Civil War in the 17^th and 18 ^th centuries. That is the manifestation of the application of the logical method in the process of studying this issue. Thus, the clarified contents in the article are the result of the combined application of the research mentioned above methods. civil war vietnam tonkin

Analysis

When researching writings, correspondences, reports and diaries of the Westerners (including missionaries, merchants and travellers) who operated in Vietnam in the 17 ^th and 18^th centuries, it could be realized that these documents mainly referred to the Tonkin - Cochinchina Civil War in the following aspects: The first was about the cause of the civil war. This content could be found in the documents of two Jesuit missioners Alexandre de Rhodes ¹⁰ and Christoforo Borri¹¹. As a missionary who thoroughly and creatively applied the guideline of “adaptation to indigenous culture” [2, pp. 412-413], fluent in Vietnamese language and spent a long time in Cochinchina (1624-1626, 1640-1645) as well as Tonkin (1627-1630), so missioner Alexandre de Rhodes also more or less had a certain understanding of the political situation of Vietnam during this period. Talking about the cause of the outbreak of the Tonkin - Cochinchina Civil War, in three works Histoire du Royaume de Tunquin, Divers Voyages et Missions, and Relazione de' felici successi della Santa Fede Predicata da' Padri Della Compagnia di Giesu Nel Regno di Tunchino, Alexandre de Rhodes said, Cochinchina was only split from Tonkin for less than 50 years. Still, 700 years earlier¹², this area was only one province of Tonkin. The person who started to bring Cochinchina out of dependence on the Tonkin government was the ancestor of Nguyen Lord who ruled Cochinchina at the time of Alexandre de Rhodes's arrival in this land¹³. The ancestor that Alexandre de Rhodes mentioned here was Nguyen Hoang ¹⁴. Nguyen Hoang was Trinh Kiem's wife's brother. In the second half of the 16^th century, Nguyen Hoang noticed that his brother-in-law Trinh was secretly attempting to assassinate, to monopolize political power that belonged to him¹⁵. So, he asked his older sister (i.e. Trinh Kiem's wife) to tell his brother-in-law to allow him to Cochinchina for the ruling. Trinh Kiem approved that petition along with another malicious scheme. He wanted to take advantage of the natural severity and social complexity of this southernmost land of Vietnam (Cochinchina) to kill his wife's brother who was intending to gain power and opposed him. In a report on the missionary situation in Cochinchina called Relation de la nouvelle mission des peMres de la compagnie de Jesus au royaume de la Cochinchine, Christoforo Borri - a Jesuit missioner who worked in this area from 1618 to 1621 said that in the first period of coming to rule this land,

Nguyen Hoang knew that his power was not strong enough to oppose Trinh Lord, so he still made peace with Tonkin by paying taxes in full to Tonkin [5, p. 83]. However, after his death (1613), his successor son Nguyen Phuc Nguyen went one step further in realizing the intentions to oppose the Tonkin government by strengthening the exchange relations with the Portuguese and declaring not to pay taxes to Tonkin [48, p. 140]. That made Trinh Lord become angry and bring troops to fight against Nguyen Lord in 1627, which triggered the Tonkin - Cochinchina Civil War lasting for more than 100 years.

The second was about the force correlation between Tonkin and Cochinchina in this civil war. This was one of the contents most frequently reflected in the materials of the Westerners who operated in Vietnam during the 17^th and 18 ^th centuries.

Regarding the Tonkin army's size and strength in the fierce battle with Cochinchina, this issue was found in the documents of Samuel Baron¹⁶, William Dampier¹⁷ and two Jesuit missionaries named Giovanni Filippo de Marini¹⁸ and Joseph Tissanier¹⁹. Specifically, in A Description of the Kingdom of Tonqueen, Dutch trader Samuel Baron said that the permanent army of Trinh Lord in the 17^th century could not be below 140,000 people. In urgent cases, the Tonkin government could mobilize a force twice higher than this number. In addition to the infantry, Trinh Lord could also mobilize 8,000 to 10,000 war horses for the war against Nguyen Lord, 300 to 400 war elephants, about 220 war galleys with different sizes and sizes and 500 galleys used to transport foodstuffs, supplies and troops [18, p. 212].

Jesuit missioner Giovanni Filippo de Marini was present at Tonkin from 1646 to 1658. This was the period of time of the fourth (1648) and the fifth (1655-1660) battles between armies of Trinh Lord and Nguyen Lord. Therefore, during the process of evangelizing in this area, he had the opportunity to witness firsthand the scale of the Tonkin army mobilized by Trinh Lord to participate in these two battles. Those were recorded by him with quite specific numbers in the report bearing the name Delle missioni de' padri della Compagnia di Giesh nella provincia del Giappone, e particolarmente di quella di Tumkino. Giovanni Filippo de Marini said, because at that time, Tonkin was in a state of war with Cochinchina, Trinh Lord always prepared a relatively large army force. As early as 1641, the Tonkin army's infantry's total number of troops, including the regular and reserve forces, reached 335,000 people. Besides, Trinh Lord also held 12,000 cavalries, more than

2.0 war elephants and transport elephants along with 2,000 war galleys. Whenever Trinh Lord issued an order to attack, he could immediately mobilize 30,000 elite troops. That was not to mention 40,000 soldiers, or even more, garrisoned in the imperial capital. In Boccin (Bo Chinh, now Quang Binh province) - the area where direct battles between two sides took place and occupied in 1655-1656 by the Cochinchina army, Tonkin government arranged here the number of troops up to 60,000 people [29, pp. 62-63].

Working with Giovanni Filippo de Marini in Tonkin in 1658, missioner Joseph Tissanier in his report on missionary activities in this area named Relation du voyage du P. Joseph Tissanier de la Compagnie de Jesus depuis la France Jusqu'au Royaume du Tonkin also mentioned the mighty Tonkin army in the war with Cochinchina. He said that Trinh Lord held an army with nearly 50,000 troops and appointed nearly 60,000 troops to the border area bordering Cochinchina. In Trinh Lord's troops participating in the war, there were also 500 war elephants and 500 war galleys, fully equipped with weapons and means serving for war [35, p. 103].

Trinh Lord in Tonkin not only focused on building and strengthening the army during the wartime with Cochinchina but also when two sides ceased the war (1672), the permanent maintenance of a large army force that was ready to fight was still carried out by Trinh Lord. This was mentioned in Voyages and descriptions of a Western traveller named William Dampier, who arrived in Tonkin in 1688. As recorded by William Dampier, at that time, the Tonkin army had from

70.0 to 80,000 people, mainly infantry, including nearly 30,000 troops stationed in the imperial capital, to protect Le King and Trinh Lord. The remainder was in the southern border area, which borders Cochinchina. William Dampier also said that Trinh Lord's army force always seriously performed the drill and used many different types of cannons with different sizes [16, pp. 69-76].

In response to the Tonkin army's strength, to protect the area that he was ruling while seeking to defeat a political opponent or at least gain an advantage on the battlefield, Nguyen Lord in

Cochinchina also constantly built and strengthened the defence force. However, ruling on a region without a long history of reclamation and sparse population, Nguyen Lord could not have the same favourable conditions as Trinh Lord in Tonkin in organizing a military force on a large scale. In 1670 - a period of time quite close to the seventh battle between Trinh Lord and Nguyen Lord (1672), missioner Benigne de Vachet²⁰ who was evangelizing at Cochinchina, recorded in a memoir that the total number of troops in the Cochinchina army was 40000 people [57, p. 66]. Missioner Abbe de Choisy²¹, in the book Journal du Voyage de Siam fait en 1685 et 1686, also said that as of 1679, the Cochinchina army had about 30,000 troops. In which Nguyen Lord and three princes directly held

19,0 troops. The rest was placed under the command of generals, stationed permanently at the border area adjacent to Tonkin [13, p. 363].

To strengthen the defence capacity at estuaries against the Tonkin naval attack, Lords Nguyen in Cochinchina also focused on developing the galley squadron. Jesuit missioner Christoforo Borri in the report Relation de la nouvelle mission des peres de la Compagnie de Jesu, au Royaume de la Cochinchine said clearly that, in 1618, Nguyen Lord in Cochinchina had more than 100 war galleys, always ready to fight. Each war galley was equipped with cannons and muskets with full ammunition [5, p. 86]. Missioner Alexandre de Rhodes in work named Histoire du Royaume de Tunquin, recorded the number of Cochinchina war galleys of 200 [47, pp. 22-23]. A report by The Dutch East India Company also said that in 1642, Nguyen Lord had about 230 to 240 war galleys. Each galley carried 64 people, including rowers and troops. They were armed with three guns [6, p. 122], spear and long-handled sickle to fight against Tonkin's war galleys. Meanwhile, as recorded by Abbe de Choisy, in 1685-1686, the Cochinchina court held 131 war galleys. Each galley carried two sailors, three commanders, six furnace burners, two drummers and 60 rowers. Also, three high ranking mandarins of three provinces in this area at that time had several own war galleys that were allocated as follows: 30 in Dinhcat province (Quang Tri), 17 in Cham province (Quang Nam), and 15 in Niaroux province (Khanh Hoa) [13, pp. 361-362]. Thus, the data on war galleys of Cochinchina in the 17^th century recorded by some Westerners, as mentioned above, was different. However, on the whole, the number of war galleys of Cochinchina was still less than that of Tonkin, as observed by missioner Alexandre de Rhodes [47, p. 19].

Besides, in response to Tonkin's powerful elephant troop force at that time, Nguyen Lord in Cochinchina also paid much attention to building this arm to promote the great advantages of elephants in the area ruled by him. In a report by The Dutch East India Company, in 1642, the Cochinchina government had 600 war elephants [6, p. 122] always ready to fight against Tonkin.

Thus, in general, it could be seen that Cochinchina's army forces, including the infantry, the navy and elephant troop were not as large and powerful as those of Tonkin. However, during this civil war, Tonkin could not defeat Cochinchina after several battles in the 1627-1672 period. The cause of this problem was mentioned by several Westerners who worked in Vietnam in the 17^th century. Jesuit missioner Christoforo Borri in the report Relation de la nouvelle mission des peres de la Compagnie de Jesu, au Royaume de la Cochinchine confirmed that the army of Cochinchina displayed its fighting power both at sea as well as on the mainland thanks to artillery. This made it easier for Nguyen Lord to perform the ploy against Trinh Lord [5, p. 82]. In his work A Description of the Kingdom of Tonqueen, Samuel Baron said that the weakness of the Tonkin army force was in the fighting spirit. Despite having a large army force, when approaching the border of Cochinchina, facing the opponent's enemy fortifications and trenches and being engulfed in the screams of Nguyen Lord army, especially when some people were dying due to battles or illnesses in their line, Trinh's troops often suffered from a mental breakdown, turned back and fled away. Furthermore, during the battles with Cochinchina, the Tonkin army was placed under the command of eunuchs. Samuel Baron said that was also one reason for the consecutive and prolonged defeats of the Tonkin army in this civil war [18, p. 213]. Also, missioner Alexandre de Rhodes in work named Histoire du Royaume de Tunquin, pointed out that the quantity advantage of the Tonkin army would become limited when it had to move a long distance from Thang Long (Hanoi capital) before reaching the border of Cochinchina (Quang Binh province). During the battles, Trinh Lord wanted to apply the “quick fight and quick win” strategy because the carried amount of food and supplies could only meet the army's essential needs in three or four months. On the contrary, Nguyen Lord tightly defended and deliberately lengthened the time to make Trinh Lord bog down in the battle and face food shortage. Therefore, Trinh Lord had to withdraw his army if he did not want to see his army starve to death [47, pp. 151-152].

The third was the evolution of some battles between Tonkin and Cochinchina armies. Based on the Vietnamese's original historical materials in the 17^th, 18^th, and 19^th centuries, it could be known that, during the Tonkin - Cochinchina Civil War, two sides fought seven times in the 16271672 period. In which Trinh Lord brought troops to attack the South up to 6 times (1627, 1633, 1643, 1648, 1661-1662, 1672) and only one time Nguyen Lord proactively attacked the North (1655-1660) [63, pp. 117-164]. From 1672 onwards, two sides declared a cease-fire, but the “cold war” continued for more than 100 years. It was not until 1774, taking advantage of when Nguyen Lord government in Cochinchina was dealing with the outbreak and widespread of Tay Son uprising ²², that Trinh Lord in Tonkin once again launched an attack against this area. This was the last battle in the Tonkin - Cochinchina Civil War, marked by a victory for Trinh Lord [62, pp. 290-204, 346-346; 63, pp. 315-322].

However, it's regrettable that the whole course of the Tonkin - Cochinchina Civil War in the 17^th and 18 ^th centuries was not mentioned systematically, fully and completely in the documents of Westerners working in Vietnam at this period. Researchers today can only find some materials or generalized records of the civil war's results at each specific time [47, p. 19; 15, p. 381] or somewhat brief and discrete descriptions of some battles between Trinh Lord and Nguyen Lord armies. This was completely explainable, since Westerners came to Vietnam at different times, it may be the moment of a battle in progress, but also the time when two sides ceased fire. They recorded documents during those specific times. Therefore, it was evident not to cover the entire civil war with all conflicts that took place between the two sides.

Of the eight battles between the Tonkin and Cochinchina armies between 1627 and 1774, the documents recorded by Westerners operating in Vietnam during this period also mentioned only three battles that took place in 1627, 1643 and 1672.

Jesuit missioner Alexandre de Rhodes mentioned the first battle between the Tonkin and Cochinchina armies in 1627 in three works compiled by him named Histoire du Royaume de Tunquin, Divers Voyages et Missions, and Relazione De' Felici successi della Santa Fede Predicata Da' Padri Della Compagnia di Giesu Nel Regno Di Tunchino. Specifically, on March 19, 1627, he and missioner Pedro Marquez ²³ arrived in Cua Bang (Thanh Hoa province), started the mission of evangelization in Tonkin. At that time, Trinh Lord was leading troops to fight against Nguyen Lord. Alexandre de Rhodes witnessed and recorded the Tonkin army's mighty scale moving towards the Cochinchina border at that time. The leading troop consisted of more than 200 war galleys fully equipped with weapons. Trinh Lord's squadron included 24 larger and more splendid decorated war galleys would follow. These galleys had sails made of smooth fabric and rope braces plaited from red silk thread. Behind the Trinh Lord's fleet was another squadron with more than 200 galleys, and further followed by more than 500 large-sized transport boats carrying food to serve both the navy and the infantry. Also, in Trinh Lord's army, there were 300 war elephants carrying cannons. As estimated by Alexandre de Rhodes, the total number of the navy and the infantry reached 120,000 people, excluding sailors and commanders [48, pp. 137139; 46, p. 92]. However, after two months of fighting, Trinh Lord found that invading and defeating Nguyen Lord in Cochinchina was not as easy as he imagined. At that time, Nguyen Lord arranged on the mountain peaks in the border area the dummies dressed in Portuguese costumes, holding sticks and guns, pointed straight towards the Tonkin army. That made Trinh Lord's troops become panic-stricken and dare not attack because thinking that the Portuguese were providing weapons and helping Nguyen Lord against them. Besides, Nguyen Lord's army also carried out a scheme of laying many ropes ²⁴ and pointed stakes hidden underwater at estuaries to prevent the Tonkin's navy from attacking. Meanwhile, the prolongation of the war caused Trinh Lord to face more food shortage problems and risk of rebellion among the troops. Therefore,

Trinh Lord decided to withdraw his army [47, pp. 27-28, 151-152].

The third battle between Tonkin and Cochinchina armies took place in 1643, presented by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier²⁵, a French traveler in the document Relation nouvelle & singuliere du royaume de Tunquin, avec plusieurs figures & la carte du Pais, based on recording his brother's telling about this event. To fulfil his intention of defeating Nguyen Lord in Cochinchina, Trinh Lord in Tonkin mobilized a powerful force with

8.0 war horses, 94,000 troops and 722 war elephants which 130 were used for combat and the rest was used to transport food. Trinh Lord also had 318 long and narrow war galleys, equipped with paddle and mast [59, p. 24]. Baptiste Tavernier also said that the Cochinchina military force at that time was stronger than Tonkin. Therefore, after penetrating Nhat Le estuary (Quang Binh province) to attack Nguyen Lord but having no result, Trinh Lord had to withdraw his troops. However, to increase the defence, Trinh Lord dispatched several generals to stay to guard the vulnerable areas bordering Cochinchina.

The seventh battle between Tonkin and Cochinchina armies took place in 1672, mentioned in a letter written in 1766 by Jesuit missioner Nuntius de Horta²⁶. He mentioned 1671 ²⁷, Trinh Lord in Tonkin made an expeditionary into Cochinchina with unprecedented drastic nature. Trinh Lord prepared very thoroughly and mobilized

80.0 elite troops for the war, aiming for a resounding victory. Meanwhile, the army of Nguyen Lord in Cochinchina at this time had less than 25,000 troops. Despite this, after three days of fighting, Tonkin's army suffered heavy losses, having destroyed 17,000 troops. Therefore, Trinh Lord had to withdraw his army and no longer attempted to wage war with Cochinchina [30, pp. 581-582].

The fourth was about establishing the relationship and using Lords Nguyen and Trinh Lord's foreign resources to win or advantage the Tonkin - Cochichina Civil War. When entering this civil war, both Trinh Lord in Tonkin and Nguyen Lord in Cochinchina wanted to defeat the enemy to gain dominance over Vietnam's entire territory at that time. To achieve this goal, both sides directly or indirectly seek foreign assistance, especially in the military. This was recorded by Westerners present in Vietnam in the 17^th and 18 ^th centuries.

In the report Relation de la nouvelle mission des peres de la Compagnie de Jesus au Royaume de la Cochinchine, Jesuit missioner Christoforo Borri, who was present in Cochinchina in the first half of the 17^th century, mentioned the interest of Nguyen Lord in Western weapons, especially cannons. According to him, one of the reasons that Nguyen Lord had enough courage to rebel against Trinh Lord in Tonkin was that for a long time before that, he ordered fishers to collect a variety of cannons of the West from the Portuguese and Dutch ships were sunk by the storm near the coast of Cochinchina²⁸. Early access and regular training with the Western cannons and harquebus made the Cochinchina troops proficient in using these weapons. Missioner Christoforo Borri also said that promoting commercial activities with Japanese merchants has brought Nguyen Lord many weapons from this country, especially catane swords with excellent quality [5, pp. 82-83].

Nguyen Lord also regularly bought Western guns to strengthen the military's combat capacity. In 1658, at the time ofthe fifth battle (1655-1660) between the Cochinchina and Tonkin armies taking place, Nguyen Lord gave the Jesuit missioner Pedro Marquez 10,000 silver ingots to go to Macao to buy cannons for the Cochinchina army, and Pedro Marquez completed the assigned duty [11, pp. 173, 237]. In 1695, Nguyen Lord had a problem with British trader Thomas Bowyer about supplying Cochinchina cannons that fired bullet sizes from 7 to 8 live [33, p. 98]. Pierre Poivre ²⁹, a merchant from the French East India Company to Cochinchina in 1749, also recalled that, as seen around Nguyen Lord's palace, there were 1,200 cannons, and all were made of brass. Among them, there were many cannons of different sizes bearing Portuguese and Spanish badges. They were brought to the trading port of Faifo by European merchants (known as Hoi An city, Quang Nam province at present) and sold to Nguyen Lord [14, p. 90; 33, p. 99]. The Cochinchina government also had the opportunity to access Western weapons through donations of the foreigners, although in limited numbers. In 1682, the French East India Company, through missioner Louis Laneau³⁰ - Titular Bishop of Metellopolis, gave Nguyen Lord two cannons [53, p. 49]. Or in 1689, the Macao Senate gave Nguyen Lord two bronze cannons in exchange for the exemption of some taxes from the Cochinchina government [33, p. 99].

Trade relations with Western merchants, especially the Portuguese, gave the Cochinchina army many cannons to service the war with Tonkin. However, Nguyen Lord also clearly saw the potential risks, if too dependent on Macao's weapons. So, the Cochinchina government wanted to implement a more proactive plan for the manufacture of cannons. Finally, in 1658 ³¹, Nguyen Lord also achieved his objective. A Portuguese named Joao da Cruz³² went to Cochinchina to help Nguyen Lord cast the Western cannon [9, pp. 312-313]. Missioner Louis Chevreuil ³³ - a French missionary who was present in this area from 1663 to 1665 said that Joao da Cruz received respect and preferential treatment from Nguyen Lord because he was able to manufacture beautiful cannons for the Cochinchina army. Every year, in addition to the money the Nguyen Lord government gave to his family, Joao da Cruz was also paid 500 equi for his salary [9, p. 313]. In fact, thanks to Joao da Cruz, the Portuguese gun-casting technique was quickly introduced into Cochinchina. It was received and applied by the Vietnamese in making a large number of cannons at a later stage.

If in Cochinchina, Nguyen Lord strengthened his military might through relations with Western countries, especially the Portuguese, in Tonkin, a similar process took place in the 17^th and 18 ^th centuries. However, the chosen Western force was not Portuguese but Dutch. In fact, Trinh Lord in Tonkin initially moved to establish relations with the Portuguese. When the Jesuit missioner Giuliano Baldinotti³⁴ arrived in Tonkin together with the Portuguese merchants in 1626, they received a warm welcome from Trinh Lord in the hope that the Portuguese would support and aid Tonkin in the war with Cochinchina at that time [4; 33, p. 93]. However, due to knowing the good relationship between the Portuguese and Nguyen Lord in Cochinchina, although Trinh Lord wanted to entice the Portuguese, inwardly, he still had certain scepticism. In his report on Tonkin's mission situation from 1626 to 1627 named La Relation Sur le Tonkin du P. Baldinotti, Giuliano Baldinotti mentioned Trinh Lord's asked him and the Portuguese merchants made an oath that they should always be good and loyal friends to Tonkin. They must also pledge not to go to Cochinchina to help Nguyen Lord [4, p. 76]. Alexandre de Rhodes - a Jesuit missioner working in Tonkin from 1627 to 1630 also confirmed this in work named Histoire du Royaume de Tunquin [47, p. 124]. However, then Trinh Lord found that the Portuguese did not want to give up their longstanding friendship with Nguyen Lord in Cochinchina, so the enthusiasm he gave to the Portuguese at first was gradually reduced.

Realizing that he could not expect anything from the Portuguese, Trinh Lord promoted the establishment of relations with the Dutch in the hope could rely on the Dutch's power of dominating the sea surface at that time to defeat Cochinchina. In 1637, the Tonkin government offered The Dutch East India Company for helping them fight Cochinchina. In 1641, when the ship Meerman of The Dutch East India Company arrived in Tonkin, Trinh Lord zealously welcomed and received Dutch merchants as soon as they arrived at Ke Cho (Hanoi capital). This was certainly not out of the purpose of wanting to have a Dutch commitment to support Tokin in the fight against Cochinchina. After that, Trinh Lord also wrote some letters to the representatives of The Dutch East India Company in Batavia (Jakarta, Indonesia) and Formosa (i.e. Taiwan), with the desire to establish frequent commercial relations and received help from the Dutch during his war with Nguyen Lord [33, pp. 94-95]. In particular, the relationship between Tonkin and the Dutch had a critical turning point in 1643. In Histoire du Royaume de Tunquin, Jesuit missioner Alexandre de Rhodes said, at that time, after being unable to resolve previous conflicts with the Cochinchina government, at the request of Trinh Lord, the Dutch decided to send three war galleys to Tonkin to join the Trinh army to fight against Nguyen Lord [47, p. 19; 58, pp. 15-20]. This event put an end in relations between the Dutch and Cochinchina. From then to the late 17^th century, the Dutch only went to do business in Tonkin. Trading in weapons between Tokin and the Netherlands was also recorded during this period [33, p. 98]. In 1658, when the missioner Tissannier arrived in Tonkin, he recorded a Dutch taught a Trinh Lord's martial mandarin to make grenades used in war [35, p. 95]. It showed that at that time, the Dutch more or less had the transfer of

Western weapon manufacturing techniques to the Vietnamese in Tonkin.

In addition to trading with the Dutch to acquire Western weapons for the war against Cochinchina, Trinh Lord in Tonkin also established relations with the British. In the documents on the commercial transactions between the British and Tonkin in the 17^th century, Trinh Lord government's purchase of cannons, ammunition, gunpowder and saltpetre was always mentioned. Like the Portuguese in Cochinchina, the British in Tonkin also intended to help the Trinh Lord government manufacture Western cannons in this area. In 1678, British merchants operating in Tonkin asked Bantam Presidency (Java) to send a gunmaker to this area to teach Western guncasting techniques to the Vietnamese. Through this, the Vietnamese probably learned the Western method of casting guns. Besides, Trinh Lord also purchased cannons from British merchants to serve the war against Cochinchina in the 17^th and 18^th centuries [18, p. 213; 33, pp. 97-98].

Results

From the early 17^th century to the late 18^th century, Vietnam had to go through one of the most prolonged and most fierce civil wars in its formation and development history. That was the civil war between two political forces: Trinh Lord in Tonkin and Nguyen Lord in Cochinchina. It was worth noting that this civil war was not only recorded by Vietnamese historians but was also mentioned directly or indirectly in the documents of Western missionaries, merchants and travellers present in Vietnam at that time. They went to Tonkin and Cochinchina at different times. Moreover, their time spent in these two regions was not too long, making Westerners records of the Tonkin - Cochinchina Civil War in the 17^th and 18^th centuries not comprehensive and complete. The confusion or non-profound explanation of some contents or the inconsistency in the records and data related to this civil war could be easily found in Westerners' documents. This was an unavoidable problem. Because Westerners would inevitably encounter certain obstacles and difficulties in terms of language and perception when recording and researching Vietnamese history in a relatively long period, full of complicated fluctuations in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. Even so, when connecting these somewhat discrete, scattered and unsystematic materials, researchers can still have the most basic and general visualization of the appearance of the Tonkin - Cochinchina Civil War. In which the cause of the civil war, the force correlation between two sides, the happenings of some battles as well as the calculation of Trinh Lord and Nguyen Lord in using external resources to defeat the opponent were the most mentioned contents in the documents recorded by Westerners working in Vietnam in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. In particular, it must be seen that objectivity is the most prominent advantage of these documents compared with the historical materials compiled by the Vietnamese at the same time. Therefore, it has contributed to supplementing valuable historical materials, helping Vietnamese researchers to have a more multidimensional and comprehensive approach in the process of reproducing the panorama of the Tonkin - Cochinchina Civil War as well as assessing its influence and impact on the history of Vietnam in the ancient and medieval period.

NOTES

¹ In the 17^th and 18^th centuries, Vietnam underwent two major civil wars. The first was the civil war between Trinh Lord in Tonkin and Nguyen Lord in Cochinchina from 1627 to 1774. Then, from 1787 to the late 18^th century, this country continued to be engulfed in the fire of battle when facing a civil war between Nguyen Anh's force - a descendant of Nguyen Lord and Tay Son's force - the monarchy was set up from the peasant uprising movement in Cochinchina in the late 18^th century [60, pp. 293-297, 368-401; 63, pp. 117-164, 315-322].

² Later Le dynasty was the longest standing monarchy in Vietnamese history. The Late Le Dynasty was established by Le Loi - the leader of the Lam Son uprising in 1428. This dynasty underwent two stages of development: the Early Le period from 1428 to 1527 and the Revival Le period from years 1533 to 1789 [25, pp. 316-349, 391-433; 62, pp. 233-366].

³ The happening of the Tonkin - Cochinchina Civil War in the period 1627-1672 was mentioned in Dai Viet sir ky toan thu (ЙЙЙНЙйІІг Complete Annals of Dai Viet) - a set history book compiled by Ngo Si Lien and other official historians of Later Le dynasty in the 15^th, 16^th, and 17^th centuries and printed in 1697 [54, pp. 612, 617, 666-667, 669, 673, 677686, 703-704].

⁴ Nguyen Khoa Chiem (1659-1736) - a mandarin

of Nguyen Lord government in Cochinchina wrote Nam trieu cong nghiep dien chi'ЖЙ^:

History of the Southern Dynasty) in 1719. In this work, he presented the evolution of Nguyen Lord and Trinh Lord's fighting in the 17^th century [26, pp. 7-9].

⁵ Dai Nam thirc lucVeridical

records of Dai Nam) was a great history set ofNguyen dynasty, started to be compiled in 1821 and completed in 1894. The history set consisted of two parts: Tien Bien and Chinh Bien. The Tien Bien part included 12 volumes, recording the history of nine Nguyen Lord generations and mentioning many contents related to Tonkin - Cochinchina Civil War in the 17 ^th and 18^th centuries [42, pp. 42-191]. Kliam dinh Viet suthong giam cuong muc ($Сд?Й№ ІІШ# ^A mirror of Vietnamese history prepared by imperial order) was a history set compiled by Quoc su quan trieu Nguyen (Pit ^ і $ If: The National Historiographer's Office ofNguyen Dynasty) in the period of 1856-1884. This history set recorded the history of many monarchies of Vietnam. In which, the section on the Later Le dynasty mentioned the civil war between Trinh Lord in Bac Ha (Tonkin) and Nguyen Lord in Nam Ha (Cochinchina) [43].

⁶ The book Nam trieu cong nghiep dien chi

(j^j: History of the Southern Dynasty)

was compiled by Nguyen Khoa Chiem - a mandarin of Nguyen Lord. Meanwhile, Nguyen Lord was one of two forces participating in the Tonkin - Cochinchina Civil War, so the records in this book would not surely ensure objectivity. Meanwhile, two history sets Dai Nam thirc luc (ЙШЙІІТ Veridical records of Dai Nam) and Kham djnh Viet sir thong giam cuong muc (лЕ ШІ Ж І™ ІРІ^: A mirror of Vietnamese history prepared by imperial order) were compiled under the direction of the Nguyen Emperors. They were descendants of the Nguyen Lords, so in recording the Vietnam history in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, especially the Trinh - Nguyen War, it will be difficult to avoid praising and defending Nguyen Lords and deliberately downplaying the role of Trinh Lord [63, pp. 174-176].

⁷ In the 17^th and 18^th centuries, Jesuit missionaries such as Alexandre de Rhodes, Christoforo Borri, Giuliano Baldinotti, Giovanni Filippo de Marini, Joseph Tissanier, Nuntius de Horta etc., as well as a missioner of The Society of Foreign Missions of Paris such as Louis Chevreuil, Benigne de Vachet, Abbe de Choisy, etc., used to work in Vietnam. They recorded the Tonkin - Cochinchina Civil War in their writings, reports, correspondences, and diaries in such a process.

⁸ Among the Western merchants who came to Vietnam in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, Samuel Baron - an employee of the English East India Company and Pierre Poivre - a merchant of the French East India Company, were two people who mentioned the Tonkin - Cochinchina Civil War in their reports, writings and correspondences.

⁹ William Dampier and Jean-Baptiste Tavernier were two Western travellers who directly or indirectly recorded the Tonkin - Cochinchina Civil War in their traveller's notes.

¹⁰ Alexandre de Rhodes was born on March 15, 1593 in Avignon, in a Jewish family On April 14, 1612, he joined the Jesuits in Rome and was ordained a priest in 1618. At the end of the year, he was accepted by the Jesuit Superior for Eastern Asia's mission after having applied three times for a missionary trip between 1614 and 1618. He arrived in the Portuguese capital to board the ship to Eastern Asia, but because he was suspended for too long in Goa until May 29, 1623, he reached Macao. Initially, he planned to go to Japan to the mission, but his wish was unsuccessful, so he was sent to Vietnam. He came to Cochinchina, Vietnam, for the first time in December 1624 and returned to Macao to go to Tonkin, Vietnam, in July 1626. On March 19, 1627, he arrived in Tonkin and was expelled from the area in May 1630. From 1630 to 1640, he taught theology at the Institute of Madre de Deus. Between 1640 and 1645, he returned to the mission in Cochinchina. In July 1645, he left Cochinchina for Macao and then went to Europe. In 1654, he went to Persia and died at Ispahan on November 5, 1660 [40, p. 106].

¹¹ Christoforo Borri was one of the Western missionaries who had merit in bringing Christianity into Vietnam in the first half of the 17^th century. He was born in 1583 in Milan (Italy) and died on May 24, 1632, in Rome. In 1601, he joined the Society of Jesus. In 1618, he went to Cochinchina (Vietnam) and served for the mission work there until 1621. During this time, he wrote a report called Relatione della nuova missione delli P.P. della Compagnia di Gesh al Regno della Cocincina, published in Europe in 1631. Besides the contents related to the Jesuit missionary situation in Cochinchina, he also recorded natural conditions, politics, economy, society, culture, etc., of this area [34; 40, p. 34-35].

¹² In this detail, Alexandre de Rhodes made a confusion. He went to Vietnam to evangelize, write and publish Histoire du Royaume de Tunquin, Divers Voyages et Missions, and Relazione de' felici successi della Santa Fede Predicata da' Padri Della Compagnia di Giesu Nel Regno di Tunchino in the 17^th century. That means that 700 years ago, that he mentioned here, were the 11^th century. At that time, Vietnam had the national name Dai Viet under the rule of the Ly dynasty. The southern border was only limited to Ha Tinh province, meaning it excluded the territory of Cochinchina in the 17^th century. From then to the 14^th century, through different methods, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien, Quang Nam, and Quang Ngai were merged into Dai Viet's territory. In particular, along with Emperor Le Thanh Tong's “Southward” advance in 1471, Dai Viet's border was extended to Binh Dinh and Phu Yen nowadays. Thus, from the second half of the 15^th century onwards, the entire territory of Cochinchina in the 17^th century was really managed by the Vietnamese [3, pp. 99-100; 23, pp. 65, 68-69; 31, p. 62].