Changes in political - economic - social life in Thua Thien Hue (1858 – 1883)

The Nguyen court (Tu Duc emperor) on the one hand sent troops to Da Nang to support, on the other hand actively carried out the work of organizing the defense of ports and sea gates on the land of Thua Thien and Hue capital, organized drills to ensure the support of the capital once the French army advanced.

In that context, the army and the people of Thua Thien joined hands to fight against the enemy. From Hue 2.000 Forbidden soldiers, 200 Vu Lam soldiers, and 400 soldiers of Hai Van customs entered Da Nang to fight the French. In addition, the Hue court also ordered the Thua Thien officials to recruit Chien Tam soldiers. In December 1858, the Chien Tam Army was changed to the Nghia Dung, reinforced into Quang Nam to fight the war.

After 18 months of advancing into Da Nang but failing to achieve the goal of advancing inland, on March 23, 1860, the Franco-Spanish coalition had to withdraw all its forces to the south.

Although the French and Spanish forces were driven out of Da Nang, then the imperial army could not exert its power to defend the country on the southern front, so from 1860 to 1862, the provinces of Gia Dinh, Bien Hoa, Dinh Tuong and Vinh Long fell respectively. Under pressure from the French, the Hue court agreed to sign the Nham Tuat Treaty (1862) with 12 clauses, cutting off three provinces in the Southeast (Gia Dinh, Bien Hoa, Dinh Tuong) and the Con Lon Islands for France.

The people of Thua Thien Hue as well as the people of the whole country are extremely opposed to the concessions and land cutting off for the enemy of the Nguyen court. The risk of losing a country is becoming a serious threat.

The loss of the three southeastern provinces of Nam Ky exposed the weakness of many aspects of the country and the limited capacity of the Nguyen Dynasty. In this context, Vietnamese people who have the knowledge and enthusiasm to save the country want to renovate the country in order to create real strength and promote self-reliance to help the country escape from foreign invasion.

Hue, as the capital of the whole country, automatically became the center of the national reform movement - where reformers across the country as well as in the locality gathered to discuss, exchange new letters, draft and bring innovative petitions to Hue court. The petitions mentioned innovation in many fields: economics, politics, military, defense, law, culture and education. The proponents of the reform movement are quite diverse from Christians, ordinary educated people, Confucianists, passers-by, dismissed officials..., In Thua Thien Hue, there are Dang Huy Tru and Nguyen Lo Trach.

However, Hue court did not implement reforms on a large scale, was very timid and exploratory, and carried out discrete, urgent, perfunctory and not radical reforms. As a result, both the reform trend and the reform work of the Hue court came to a complete failure.

Political upheaval followed changes in economics, culture and education in Thua Thien Hue

Economically, the court encouraged the development of agriculture, reclamation and water trea