Early Years
Born Nguyễn Phúc Đảm, son of the Emperor Gia Long's first concubine Thuận Thiên (also known as Trần Thị Đang), it was assumed that Gia Long's grandson and son of Prince Nguyễn Phúc Cảnh would become the next Emperor. Prince Cảnh had died in 1801 before Gia Long had unified Vietnam. However, in 1816 Gia Long appointed Phúc Đảm as his successor. Long chose him for his strong character and his deep aversion to westerners. Before his ascension, he was reported by French missionaries in a report to the French government as having praised the Japanese for having expelled and eradicated Christianity from their country. He was reported as believing that it was not ideal to have two religions in one country. Upon ascending the throne, he took the name Minh Mạng.
Long's death coincided with the re-establishment of the Paris Missionary Society's operations in Vietnam, which had closed in 1792 during the chaos of the power struggle between Gia Long and the Tây Sơn brothers before Vietnam was unified. In the early years of Minh Mạng's government, the most serious challenge came from one of his father's most trusted lieutenants and a national hero in Vietnam, Lê Văn Duyệt, who had led the Nguyễn forces to victory at Quy Nhơn in 1801 against the Tây Sơn Dynasty and was made regent in the south by Gia Long with full freedom to rule and deal with foreign powers. Duyệt opposed the enthronement of Minh Mạng.
Read more about this topic: Minh Mang
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