French Colonial Period
During the period of undeclared hostilities in Tonkin that preceded the outbreak of the Sino-French War in August 1884, the allegiance of Ninh Bình was of considerable importance to the French, as artillery mounted in its lofty citadel controlled river traffic to the Gulf of Tonkin. Although the Vietnamese authorities in Ninh Bình made no attempt to hinder the passage of an expedition launched by Henri Rivière in March 1883 to capture Nam Dinh, they were known to be hostile towards the French. In November 1883, on the eve of the Sơn Tây Campaign, the French occupied the citadel of Ninh Bình without resistance and installed a garrison.
Read more about this topic: Ninh Binh
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“The third day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me
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—Unknown. The Twelve Days of Christmas (l. 8–10)
“In colonial America, the father was the primary parent. . . . Over the past two hundred years, each generation of fathers has had less authority than the last. . . . Masculinity ceased to be defined in terms of domestic involvement, skills at fathering and husbanding, but began to be defined in terms of making money. Men had to leave home to work. They stopped doing all the things they used to do.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)
“Stupid word, that. Period. In America it means “full stop” like in punctuation. That’s stupid as well. A period isn’t a full stop. It’s a new beginning. I don’t mean all that creativity, life-giving force, earth-mother stuff, I mean it’s a new beginning to the month, relief that you’re not pregnant, when you don’t have to have a child.”
—Michelene Wandor (b. 1940)