First Chinese Domination of Vietnam - Economy

Economy

Vietnamese paid heavy tributes and taxes to the Hans. The Chinese mandarins tried to occupy large areas of land and changed them into Chinese style farms and brought Chinese peasants to work them. The Chinese attempted to impose Chinese culture, institutions, educational system, politics, language, art, music, architecture and religion on the Vietnamese, and imported Chinese administrators to replace the local nobility. However, implementation of a foreign administrative system and the Sinicization was not easy, frequent uprisings and rebellions were indicative of Vietnamese resistance to these changes.

Vietnam was a country without a written language prior to Chinese influence. Under foreign rule, the Vietnamese people gain their writing system, but lost much of their spoken language, and their national identity.

The Hans were anxious to extend their control over the fertile Red River Delta, in part to serve as a convenient supply point for Han ships engaged in the growing maritime trade with South and Southeast Asia. During the first century of Chinese rule, Vietnam was governed leniently, and the Lạc lords maintained their feudal offices. In the first century A.D., however, the Han Dynasty intensified its efforts to assimilate its new territories by raising taxes and instituting marriage reforms aimed at turning Vietnam into a patriarchal society more amenable to political authority.