war1

In general, the Empire of Vietnam was a peace-loving nation. The first modern military system was established by Emperor Tu Duc to combat the invasion of France from Cochinchina. Naturally, the army was primitive compared to the French, armed with outdated muskets and very loosely trained and organized. However, the Annamese army was later looked after by the French, updated and modernized to a degree and in World War I troops were shipped from Vietnam to defend a France they had never seen as all British and French colonial nations were bound to do. Generally they served in areas the French deemed relatively unimportant. Many Vietnamese were not happy about defending France, their unwelcome rulers, from the Germans whom the Vietnamese had no quarrel with. Emperor Thanh Thai angered the colonial authorities by buying only German merchandise during World War I. Nevertheless, the French and Vietnamese bled together and were joined by the toils of war.

Dressed in French overcoats with more traditional headgear, most Vietnamese troops served in work details such as this rather than in actual combat. France was certainly not the only country in Europe to believe that Asians and other colonials were inferior soldiers. Even for some colonists from "white" populated nations like Australia, Europeans were reluctant to put colonials in areas deemed most important to the war and dispatched them to less crucial fronts.