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Month: September 2022

Thái Hòa/Nghĩa Đàn/Phú Quý: why so little activity?A portrayal of the protests of the Nghệ-Tĩnh soviets relative to the concessions of Phú Qúy.

Thái Hòa/Nghĩa Đàn/Phú Quý: why so little activity?

Published September 8, 2022 by admin

One unfortunate challenge to this project is that I can’t yet show you the full Geographic Information System that lies behind what you see here. Eventually, my dream is that you, the users, will be able to manipulate all of the data in that system so you can do your own, sophisticated analysis, following simple instructions. But for now we should rely on what we have here.

If you have questions or want me to explore something that grabs your attention, please let me know.

As I prepare to write grants to return to Vietnam and think about what new information I can share about the Nghệ-Tĩnh Soviets, I want to share with you interesting observations. If you have ideas about them, please share with me.

The first concerns what is now known as Thị xã Thái Hòa (Thai Hoa town), but was known in the past as Nghĩa Hùng, Nghĩa Đàn commune, and, during the colonial era, as Phú Quý (or, Phú Qui).

A portrayal of the location of concessions in the area of Nghĩa Đàn, Nghê An.
The concessions of Phú Quý. From https://thenghetinhsoviets.org/concessions/

I do know that just before and after World War I, Phú Quý had a number of important French and Vietnamese boosters who really tried to modernize and strengthen the economy of Nghĩa Đàn Commune. Phú Quý had electric lighting in 1920, far earlier than many places in Indochina, for example.

A snip from a colonial-era economic map showing the names of concession owners in north-central Annam.
Selection from Tonkin et Nord-Annam, Carte agricole 1/1.000.000… / dressée par la Direction des Affaires économiques de l’Indochine… Indochine française. Inspection générale des travaux publics. Cartographe

Of course, this was during the colonial era, and was grounded in the disadvantageous distribution of land to French and French-favoring Vietnamese settlers through concessions.

A snip from a 1:100000 scale colonial-era topographic map, centered on Nghĩa Đàn.
From map 88W, Carte d’Indochine series 1:100000.

The main crop was coffee, and I understand that coffee production continues in Nghĩa Đàn but that growers ship the beans elsewhere for processing. Is this true?

A snip from a 1:50000 scale US Army topographic map, centered on Nghĩa Đàn.
From US Army Map Service 1:50000: Nghia Hung, map 6047-I, 1965.

You can see from the map above that the concessions have left a strong mark on the land.

In a subsequent post, we will review the names of the main settlers. For now, let us look at what appears to be an anomaly. From what I know now, Nghĩa Đàn Commune, despite being a center of the colonial economy, didn’t see much activity during the Nghệ-Tĩnh Soviets.

A portrayal of the protests of the Nghệ-Tĩnh soviets relative to the concessions of Phú Qúy.

There don’t seem to be many sources of potential tension that we see elsewhere in the Nghệ-Tĩnh Soviets except the concessions themselves. Yes, there is a militia post, but there is no significant Catholic population, very little Communist Party activity…why so little activity here? I see one protest in Long An Trung, but that’s it! (see the Combined Map, center on Thái Hòa, and you see for yourself).

I will have to investigate further. I have ordered the following books to examine…do you know of any others I should examine?

Đảng cộng sản Việt Nam. Đảng bộ huyện Nghĩa Đàn. Ban chấp hành. Lịch Sử Đảng Bộ Huyện Nghĩa Đàn (1930-2008). Edited by Ngô Đăng Tri. Hà Nội: Nhà xuất bản Chính trị quốc gia, 2010.

Nguyễn Văn Tuyên, Huyền Lam, Nghĩa Đàn (Vietnam : Nghĩa Đàn District). Ủy ban nhân dân, and Đảng cộng sản Việt Nam. Huyện ủy Nghĩa Đàn. Nghĩa Đàn Đất Nước-Con Người. Hà Nội: Nhà xuất bản Văn hóa-thông tin and Công ty phát triển trí tuệ văn hóa-giáo dục Việt Nam hợp tác xuất bản, 2008.

Đảng cộng sản Việt Nam. Đ̀ảng ủy thị xã Thái Hòa. Lịch Sử Lực Lượng Vũ Trang Nhân Dân Thị Xã Thái Hòa, 1945-2011. Hà Nội: Nhà xuất bản Quân đội nhân dân, 2014.

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Updating the concessions of Nghệ-Tĩnh

Published September 5, 2022 by admin

I have updated the approximate sites of concessions (land-grants to French people and French-favoring Vietnamese) in Nghệ-Tĩnh. If you look at the Map of the Concessions now, the number of such spaces is really quite extensive! I wonder how those spaces have shaped current land use? I wonder what stories about them may still circulate?

Note that with the update of September 2022, I added six “unknown” concessions marked on the Carte d’Indochine 1:100000 maps. It is unclear if these concessions functioned by 1928, but I have included them anyway.

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Added two new pages: Police and Army Activity Locations April 1930 – Jan. 1932 and Police and Army Activity Routes April 1930 – Jan. 1932

Published September 3, 2022 by admin

After much effort and many mistakes, I added two new pages: Police and Army Activity Locations April 1930 – Jan. 1932 and Police and Army Activity Routes April 1930 – Jan. 1932. These pages capture the places visited by and the approximate routes take by the 1st. Company of the Battalion mixte de l’Annam (BMA) and the 13th, 14th, and 15th companies of the 5th Regiment of the French Foreign Legion. They give some sense – absent the places visited and the routes taken by the 1e Tirailleurs tonkinois and the Garde indigène, who had significant roles to play during the Nghệ-Tĩnh Soviets – of the levels of violence eventually imposed over the region by the French. On the other hand, there are whole, heavily-populated regions relatively free of intrusion: parts of Nghi Lộc, Cẩm Xuyên, etc. Why? This is where more careful analysis will become important.

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