Yen Bai Province - History

History

The area was occupied in ancient times, given the favourable communications along the Hong and Chay Rivers. Several archaeological digs in the province have unearthed ancient temples and other sites. Stone tools have been excavated in Mù Cang Chải District.

Vietnam had gradually become a French colony between 1859 and 1883. Initially, military resistance to French rule came through the Cần Vương movement led by Ton That Thuyet and Phan Dinh Phung, which sought to install the boy Emperor Ham Nghi at the head of an independent nation. However, with the death of Phung in 1895, military opposition effectively ended. The only other notable incidents after this came in 1917 was the Thai Nguyen rebellion. The lack of militant activity changed in the late 1920s with the formation of the VNQDD, or Vietnamese Nationalist Party. The VNQDD attempted clandestine activities to undermine French rule, which resulted in French scrutiny of their activities. This led to their leadership group taking the risk of staging a large scale military attack in the Red River Delta in Northern Vietnam. It was only on 10 February 1931 that VNQD could, in collaboration with civilian supporters, launch the Yên Bái mutiny, an uprising of Vietnamese soldiers in the French colonial army. Thus, Yen Bai was the first of the battles during the First Indochina War. Yen Bai and Thai Yugyen were key military posts of the Viet Minh, which were supplied with arms from China to fight the French during this War.

On 9 February 1930 part of the 4th Regiment of Tonkinese Rifles stationed at Yen Bai mutinied against their French officers but were suppressed by loyal troops from the same unit. The attack was the largest disturbance against the colonisation of Vietnam since the Can Vuong monarchist movement of the late 19th century. The aim of the revolt was to inspire a wider uprising among the general populace in an attempt to overthrow the colonial regime and establish independence. The Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang (VNQDD, the Vietnamese Nationalist Party) had previously attempted to engage in clandestine activities to undermine French rule, but increasing French scrutiny on their activities led to their leadership group taking the risk of staging a large scale military attack in the Red River Delta in northern Vietnam. This incident led to wide spread disturbances against French rule across northeastern Vietnam during 1930–31.

In the "Yen bai Uprising of 1930" against the French colonial rule, many French army officers were killed. To putdown the uprising, the French resorted to aerial bombardment and even Napalm Bombs were used. The rebellion was put down ruthlessly by the French within a day; many Vietnamese soldiers and 12 VNQDD leaders were executed. Following this repressive action by the French, there were frequent anti-colonialist strikes and riots throughout the country, which were all put down ruthlessly. This resulted in breaking the backbone of the VNQDD and the Communist Party in North Vietnam for a considerable period.

The French maintained control of their colonies until World War II, when the Japanese war in the Pacific triggered the invasion of French Indochina in 1941.

In 1961, a large bronze cylindrical jar was discovered with carved images of males and females in copulation. In 1964 an 80,000 year old skeleton was unearthed in Hum Cave in Luc Yen District. In 1996, another bronze jar was discovered along with the 2000 year old remains of a 6 year old girl on Choi Mountain in the commune of Hop minh, Tran Yen District.