The making of saigon from the nguyen lor

The names of these two locations were later changed around during the French occupation, what was called Saigon then became today’s Chinatown Chợ Lớn, and Bến Nghé became today’s Saigon.

The Making of Saigon

from the Nguyen Lords to 1954 ©

by

Dr Vu Hong Lien British Academy and ECAF fellow 2013

London - 2013

One astonishing fact about Vietnam that maritime travellers don’t realise until they arrive

in Saigon, today’s Ho Chi Minh city, is that their ships could easily travel up the Saigon river

to dock at the city centre, whatever the size The ease of travelling inland from the main West Maritime Route, linking China with India and further west via the South China Sea, has enticed thousands upon thousands of mariners to make this journey over the centuries; their journeys eventually became the reason for the birth of the city itself in the 17th century It would be fair to say: without the Saigon river, there would be no Saigon, ‘without Saigon,

East-there would be no modern Vietnam, đổi mới and integrated as we see it today.’1

As the most important commercial hub of Vietnam, Saigon has a humble origin as a frontier post where people from a diverse background came to make their fortune and/or to escape their former lives, for whatever reason The city of Saigon as we know it today took shape over a long period of nearly 400 years, and went through several stages of development under different masters, from Khmer kings to the Nguyễn dynasty of Vietnam, the French colonial power, and then Vietnam again The first time the territory was mentioned in Vietnamese documents was in 1623 when it was called Prei Nokor of Zhenla-the old name of Cambodia This date was the occasion when the then king of Cambodia Chey Chetta II agreed to let the Việt set up two custom-posts at this location and an adjacent site called Kas Krôbey (today’s Bến Nghé of District 1)2 The names of these two locations were later changed around during the French occupation, what was called Saigon then became today’s Chinatown Chợ Lớn, and Bến Nghé became today’s Saigon

1

Nguyen Dinh Dau, ‘Người Sài-gòn, có hay không?’, interview by Pham Cuong of VietNamNet (Feb-2008),

http://vietnamnet.vn accessed August 2013 ‘Không có Sài Gòn thì không có nước Việt Nam đổi mới và hội

nhập như hiện nay.’

2 The area was called Ben Nghe in Vietnamese because it was where many buffaloes came to bathe, the younger

ones were called nghe

Historically, the site of today’s Saigon was a wild and muddy area but not unhabitable as observed by the Nguyễn when they came to establish their custom-posts They would have found a Khmer settlement here, surrounded by stagnant ponds and dense jungle full of wildlife The Khmers have settled here for many years, if not centuries, living perhaps by the raw products they found in the area, such as wild animals, trees for building house and fuel and a certain kind of leaves called cần đóp for roofing The term ‘Prei’ in Khmer means

forest or jungle They lived in stilt houses on dry high ground along a stretch of land running north up to the Đồng Nai river, about 20 kms away Archaeological activities during the 1940s uncovered a number of ancient Khmer artefacts, among them a clay pot made in a typical Khmer style, in this area Above ground, the presence of the Khmers was noted by two typical characteristics: pieces or slabs of a stone floor, built higher than its surrounding ground, presumed to be their temple floor, and at least one Banyan tree, a Khmer favourite that they like to grow at Buddhist places of worship This site has been identified as the Cây Mai pagoda, formerly known in Vietnamese history as the Cambodian Buddhist Temple (Chùa Cao Miên), locating at a point north of the Canal of Bến Nghé in today’s Phú Lâm/Chợ Lớn area (District 6)

The Khmers continued to live at or nearby this location even after the Việt came to settle in large number Thanks to this connection, the Nguyễn later chose the area to be the exile capital of the Cambodian king of second rank, Ang Nan (Nặc Ông Nộn) in 1674 when Ang Nan was chased out of Cambodia during a royal dispute Ang Nan lived here for 15 years, and succeeded by his son In 1697 the son returned to the Khmer capital of Oudong to marry the current king’s daughter and eventually succeeded him as the new King of Cambodia Going further back in history, there had long existed at this site a highly civilised people belonging to a culture known as Sa Huỳnh, who were skilled in crafting metal objects, sophisticated jewelleries and knew how to cultivate rice, evidences of their existence have been found underground in many areas of Saigon today The Sa Huỳnh people existed from about 1000BCE to 200CE when their name vanished The next generation of inhabitants who replaced them, or, perhaps, absorbed their identity, was known as the Oc-Eo culture people, who, in turn, existed until the 7th century when their territory became a part of Zhenla

Artefacts from both the Sa Huỳnh and the Oc-Eo people show signs that they traded with people from far away, such as the Roman Empire and China, but whether the site of Saigon was a port of the trading network at the time is still unknown Shipwrecks and their cargoes off the coast of Vietnam from the 9th to the 14th century showed that the early long-distance trade was conducted through the Gulf of Thailand, the ports of North Vietnam and the coast

of Central Vietnam Whether there was no trade or no evidence of trade found in the area of Saigon during these centuries is still a question without answer at this stage

From the 14th century onward, the boom of maritime trade with China under the Ming 1644) and with merchants from Europe, the Middle-East, and other Southeast-Asian states provided ample opportunities for Cambodian, Burmese, Siamese and Vietnamese royals to get rich through trading monopolies, and commoners through their peripheral activities International traders came to sell their goods and to buy precious stones, metals, ceramics, silk and cotton, incense, ivory, lacquer, livestock such as elephants, and rhinoceros horn,

(1368-brought to them from far inland via a system of rivers linking Siam, Cambodia and the Mekong Delta The royals profited further from extracting their custom duties Vietnam at the time enjoyed similar benefits from their ports further north, such as Vân Đồn, Hanoi, Danang and Hội An, while the Cham to their south profited from their own Vijaya, today’s Quy Nhơn city, until they were overwhelmed by the Nguyễn

Saigon

Bien Hoa

Mekong Delta

Sailing in Southeast-Asia, wherever the sailors found themselves, depends on the monsoon winds, the north-easterly wind for the southbound voyages between late December and early March and the south-easterly wind in July for the northbound traffics In between, the merchants needed somewhere to stay and a number of trading depots along the East-West Maritime Route were created as the result, Saigon was known to be one of these from the 17thcentury onward While resting, the merchants stocked up on local products which were brought to them from the hinterland mainly by boats A barge, or junk, could carry a larger load and travel more efficiently than oxcarts, or by porters, who would have to negotiate difficult and unpredictable roads Between Cambodia, Siam, Laos and today’s coast of Vietnam, the main waterway was the Mekong river, and its many tributaries such as the Tonle Sap Further north from the Mekong, the Đồng Nai river acted as the main artery between the inland and the coast Saigon, Prei Nokor and Kas Krôbei of the 17th century, was just under 100 kilometres from the coast and 18 kms from the point the Đồng Nai joined the Saigon river at today’s city of Biên Hòa before flowing out to sea

The 17th century was a busy time for the Nguyễn Lords who held power in central Vietnam, and resided in Phú Xuân, today’s Huế Despite, or because, of their on-going war with their rival, the Trịnh, the power behind the court in today’s Hanoi, the Nguyễn began to expand southward to occupy more land, and to secure crucial supplies such as rice and materials for ship-building and weapon production Following the footsteps of the first Lord Nguyễn Hoàng and continuing under his successors, the Việt moved steadily and systematically south

in a colonising movement later termed the Nam Tiến They first took over a large swathe of

land from the kingdoms of Champa, the group of coastal polities occupying the lower part of central Vietnam By 1653, the Việt had moved far enough south to have a Khmer-Việt border that did not exist before By the end of the seventeenth century internal trouble had weakened the Khmer court to the point that the Vietnamese could expand further westward and southward, almost without resistance Later, under the pretext that Việt immigrants were mistreated in the Mekong Delta and at the locations they considered their own, or that they were asked to intervene on behalf of certain factions of the Cambodian court, the Nguyễn firmly occupied the land between the two main rivers Mekong and Đồng Nai, pushing even further south of the Mekong river, and consolidated their presence in Saigon

Before Chey Chetta II’s era (r.1618-28), the capital of Cambodia was Lovek by the river Tonle Sap, halfway between Phnom Penh and the lower end of the Tonle Sap, another busy trading post of Southeast Asia Unfortunately, the wealth of Lovek caught the eye of the Thai

in Siam and they promptly took the city in 1594, taking away many Khmer citizens as workers/slaves The sack of Lovek began a decline in the fortune of Cambodia and the geo-political importance of its capital When the new king Chey Chetta II managed to gain partial independence from Siam, he chose to establish a new capital at Oudong, south of Lovek, in

1618, about 40 km from today’s Phnom Penh Chey Chetta II was well aware how precarious his position was, and sought to strengthen it by turning to the Nguyễn in Vietnam Relations between the Khmer royals and the Nguyễn have been excellent since the beginning of the 17thcentury It was tightened further by his marriage to Princess Ngọc Vạn, daughter of Lord Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên in 1620 Three years later, through this connection, Lord Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên asked the Cambodian king to allow him to establish two custom-houses at the river

ports of Prei Nokor and Kas Krôbei, the reason was to collect taxes from Vietnamese merchants trading between Vietnam, Cambodia and Siam The traders tended to gather and rest in this area before travelling on in either direction Chey Chettha II agreed; the term of the agreement was 5 years It would not be long before both locations prospered, became more populated and turned into thriving markets, the five-year term was not mentioned again, even though, according to Cambodian chronicle, it was once raised as an issue after the death

of Chey Chetta II in 1627, but was quickly squashed by his Việt widow, the Nguyễn Princess Cambodia then degenerated into a civil war when princely factions allied with different neighbouring states to enhance their claims to the throne One of the factions brought in the Vietnamese Nguyễn who intervened by force and entrenched themselves in Cambodia The issue of Prei Nokor and Kas Krôbei fell sideways and the Việt took over the sites permanently

Following the establishment of the Nguyễn custom-houses of Saigon and Bến Nghé in 1623, Việt immigrants began to settle in the region, starting from the north-eastern area of Mô Xoài (today’s Bà Rịa, part way between Saigon and Vũng Tàu) and the town of Nông Nại (today’s Biên Hòa) before moving into Saigon itself The two towns of Mô Xoài and Nông Nại then acted as two ends of a territorial arch marking the northernmost boundary of settlements that

became Phủ Gia Định by the end of the 17th century In the land below this arch, people from all walks of life and a variety of ethnicity lived together, although not always in harmony The most prominent among these were the Khmer, the Việt and, later, the Chinese who arrived in 1679 These Chinese belonged to one of the two groups of 3000 Ming loyalists who sailed south from China to ask the Nguyễn for asylum from the Qing and were told to settle in today’s Biên Hòa, but gradually expanded south to become neighbours of the traditional Khmers and the Việt The second Ming group was directed to settle in today’s Mỹ Tho on the Mekong

Whatever their ethnic origins, the inhabitants made the most of the fertile land, the plentiful

of fish in the many streams, creeks, canals and rivers of the area and used the waterways as their main means of transport Commercial activities grew as more immigrants came to settle and the area soon became a thriving zone of settlement From then until the time the south of Vietnam was taken by French forces in 1859, the various inhabitants of Gia Định lived side

by side, and to a lesser extent, mixed up in three distinct enclaves: the Khmer in Phú Lâm, the Chinese in Chợ Lớn and the Việt in Bến Nghé The Chinese were particularly industrious at their first chosen site by the Đồng Nai river Here, they established a large port on a river

island called Cù Lao Phố Before long, this island became a major depôt of goods from the Vietnamese highlands and Cambodia, earning it the name of Cảng Đại Phố (the great port of

Phố), a busy market only second to Bến Nghé, nearer to the sea As the commercial activities grew, the population expanded, the inhabitants then enlarged their settlements in a haphazard way, turning them into sections of a bustling town until the Nguyễn decided to take firmer control under Lord Nguyễn Phúc Chu

By 1693, the Nguyễn have taken the last Cham land of Panduranga and were in the middle of

an uneasy truce with their rival, the Trịnh from the north It was a fortuitous time for them to pay more attention to the southern land With Panduranga added to the existing provinces, the new land under the Nguyễn’s control now stretched from today’s Bình Thuận to the Mekong

Delta, a huge piece of land that was renamed Phủ Gia Định Nguyễn Phúc Chu then appointed a governor, the Grand Mandarin Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh, to this Phủ.

Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh quickly established administrative units for the area, such as towns,

districts and villages and then appealed to people from northern provinces to move in to settle The existing Chinese were grouped into their own villages and called the Minh Hương (Ming loyalists), a name still familiar to many Vietnamese today In this year, the Minh Hương were officially entered in the Việt population register Nông Nại/Biên Hòa became the district of Phước Long and Saigon the district of Tân Bình Each administrative unit was managed by a civil official, supported by a joint force of army and navy, and protected by

security guards Under Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh, the number of people in Phủ Gia Định was

recorded as over 40,000 households, the region was listed as thousands of square kilometres For his governing seat, Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh chose the former Prei Nokor, Saigon, which was quickly developed into a site where products from both the mountains and the Mekong Delta gathered to find the best maritime traders from India, Japan, China and even further in both east-west directions The produce from the Mekong were transported north via a system of rivers and canals, and from the mountains by foot-porters along the upstream of the river Đồng Nai where it was full of rapids and cascades Further downstream, the goods were carried by boats as the water became calmer north of Biên Hòa

For most of the 18th century, the market that became the city of Saigon continued to grow out

of necessity Houses, official buildings and garrisons were constructed but roads were haphazardly built, ‘some were straight, others were crooked’, as the main means of transport was still by waterways Mid-18th century, however, was a busy time for commerce with rice from the Mekong Delta being the most sought after commodity As the war between the Nguyễn and the Trịnh intensified, the need for rice increased accordingly Many new canals were dug by hand during this period for the small natural rivers and creeks serving the area tended to silt up during the dry season, forcing merchants to cease all activities and wait until the water was high enough to travel again The delay during the dry season became intolerable to the Nguyễn authority They ordered an extensive clean-up of the existing canals and for new canals to be dug to facilitate the flow of water The first ones were dug in Saigon, which is today’s Chợ Lớn A major canal called Ruột Ngựa was created in 1772, so called because it was ‘as straight as a horse gut’ When completed, this canal played a crucial role in the flow of riverine traffic in and out of the then Saigon

Other canals followed suit after Saigon became a refuge for the Nguyễn Lords two years later Some canals were dug by official orders, others by residents to answer to their particular needs such as the Phố Xếp in today’s Chợ Lớn Dug in 1778 by the Ming loyalists who emigrated to the area from their enclave in Biên Hòa after they were massacred by the Tây Sơn in 1773 The Chinese refugees resettled on the high ground here and lived by growing vegetables, the new canal Phố Xếp was much needed for their produce to reach the market at Bến Nghé, via the existing system of waterways linking the area with the ports The convenience of water travel in Saigon and Bến Nghé drew more people to settle along the river and canal banks, bringing with them a variety of skills, such as pottery making,

boat-building, wood carving, jewellery making and carpentry etc Each group of artisans gathered in their own enclave, creating a rich tapestry of professional wards flourishing along the rivers and canals of Saigon, some of them, such as the potters were still in business until the beginning of the 20th century, when a French canal cleaning and filling campaign drove them out of business The growth of the handicraft industries, in turn, inspired yet more canals to be dug, each one carried the name of the product they were created for Along the canals and the rivers, there were several boatyards acting as ‘garages’ for boat repair and maintenance These yards were built on slightly higher ground, making them convenient for later land constructions, once the canals were filled up to become roads in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

Back in the 18th century, canal construction was one of the most important activities of the Nguyễn for not only did they help to increase the production of foodstuffs, they played a crucial role in getting supplies in and out of Gia Định for the Nguyễn’s continuing war with the Tây Sơn Life under the Nguyễn at the time was a life depending on water and it brought with it a style of housing that still prevails in many areas of Saigon today, the half on-half off stilt houses In this style, half of the house would be on land while the other half would stick out over the water and supported by wooden pillars The owners’ boats could be tethered to the pillars and waste products would be dropped onto the water Next to this type of housing

is the boathouse version, where the owners lived entirely on their boats, which also served as their main transport and their means of a livelihood, similar to the European gypsies and their caravans on land The boathouse lifestyle then gave its name to another familiar location of Saigon, Nhà Bè, the main trading centre of Gia Định under Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh

Nhà Bè (barge house) was the point where three rivers Đồng Nai, Saigon and Nhà Bè converged, a few kilometres south of today’s central Saigon It first got its name when a businessman took the initiative to build a covered barge and equipped it with cooking facilities to cater to the many boat traders who moored in the area while waiting for the right tide to travel further or to return home As river boats were small by necessity, it was hard for the boat owners to cook comfortably on-board, the barge kitchen was most welcomed Later

on, many more restaurant or food barges followed suit, turning the site into a busy market and gave the site its name that is still in use today, even though the market itself has long vanished in the late 18th century Up until 1775, Nhà Bè also housed a large depôt where products taken as taxes were stored up for the annual tribute to the court in Hanoi This depôt was abolished after the Nguyễn Lord Nguyễn Phúc Thuần came to establish his residence in Saigon

Boat houses and traffic along one of the canals

The Nguyễn, by the second half of the 18th century, were under heavy pressure from both their traditional rival, the Trịnh, and a new one, the Tây Sơn from Bình Thuận Lord Nguyễn Phúc Thuần was defeated by the Tây Sơn at the beginning of 1775 Accompanied by his nephew, Lord Nguyễn Phúc Ánh, Nguyễn Phúc Thuần abandoned his capital Phú Xuân and

escaped by ship to Phủ Gia Định while the Tây Sơn were in pursuit The Nguyễn Lord settled

in Saigon but was soon defeated and on the move again In 1777, the Tây Sơn captured Gia Định and killed all the Nguyễn royals, including Lord Nguyễn Phúc Thuần Nguyễn Phúc Ánh, a young man of only 15, alone escaped the massacre to continue the war with the Tây Sơn

To cope with the Tây Sơn’s advance, the Nguyễn built an earthen wall along the Saigon river The many rivers and canals of the area then became an important part of the Nguyễn’s military strategy from 1778 onward Many canals were blocked or ‘mined’ by submerged pointed stakes to stop Tây Sơn ships from entering into the area The war was a dire time described by Trịnh Hoài Đức as ‘there’s a shortage of everything, no supplies were coming into the markets, only simple foodstuffs were available, salt became a rare commodity, rice was even rarer, both commoners and officials were suffering ’

During the next two decades, Nguyễn Huệ of the Tây Sơn and the last Nguyễn Lord Nguyễn Ánh fought a running battle up and down the southern coast of Vietnam according to the

monsoon winds The land of Gia Định and its strategic city of Saigon changed hands at least five times When the area belonged to the Nguyễn, Nguyễn Ánh established rules and governed it as his own territory When the Tây Sơn took over, they established their own rules and taxes Like it or hate it, other ethnic people living in and around Saigon were drafted into the war, such as the Khmer in the Nguyễn army and the Chinese who were drawn into both armies Apparently, they changed sides as new masters came and went, and as such, they suffered the same fate as their chosen side’s The Chinese in particular were severely punished in their enclave of Cù Lao Phố/Biên Hòa in 1773, when the Tây Sơn were the victors Their bustling port of Đại Phố was destroyed, houses, shops and depots were burned

to the ground Those who escaped the carnage moved down to form a new Chinese enclave in today’s Chợ Lớn

In January 1780, having won over in Gia Định, Nguyễn Ánh proclaimed himself king in Bến Nghé/Saigon but did not manage to settle in the city permanently as the Tây Sơn returned to dislodge him, forcing him to escape further south, to Hà Tiên, then Siam, and to the islands in the Gulf of Thailand In 1782, the Chinese in today’s Chợ Lớn were again punished under the Tây Sơn in one of the worst massacres in the history of South Vietnam, when over 10,000 Chinese were killed, their bodies littered the rivers and canals of the area The water was so badly polluted that for months, nobody dared touch any fish and other river products The massacre of the enterprising Chinese created a shortage of many commodities, the price of tea went up many folds in the following year, for example

This time, though, the Chinese managed to regroup and recover enough to continue the development of their enclave in Chợ Lớn, gradually taking over more quarters and turned Chợ Lớn into their own Chinatown Built to the south-southwest of today’s Saigon, Chinatown Chợ Lớn took shape along the canal of Bến Nghé Along both sides of the canal they built stone steps and landing piers, shops and warehouses in bricks, some houses were reserved as hotels for Chinese merchants from far away when they came to trade The main commercial style of activities then, and now, was wholesale The main products were rice, fresh produce, fish and salt from the Mekong Delta but a huge number of other products was also brought here by foreign Chinese merchants

The importance of the canal Bến Nghé to Lord Nguyễn Ánh in Saigon area prompted Emperor Minh Mạng to engrave its image onto the largest bronze urn, representing Emperor Gia Long, in 1836 when he created the nine bronze urns to be symbols of the Nguyễn in Huế

Bến Nghé on Gia Long urn - Huế

Lord Nguyễn Ánh re-took Gia Định in a decisive battle in 1790 and was finally able to establish his capital in Saigon Nguyễn Ánh then began to consolidate this area as a base for a long-term war with the Tây Sơn by establishing law and order, setting tax levels, and organising the cultivation of the land Soldiers were made to work in army plantations all over the land of Gia Định to stock up rice and other staple foods Farmers were recruited and encouraged to form pioneering groups to develop remote areas, those who were too poor to buy their own equipment and animals were given cattle and agriculture implements for which they would pay back by a portion of their crops Taxes were generally levied by measures of rice Soldiers and farmers alike were exempted from corvée duty for a year if they paid enough taxes the year before

For Saigon, his new capital, Nguyễn Ánh built a huge octagonal fortification to keep the Tây

Sơn out called the Turtle Citadel, or Thành Quy, after its shape that the Nguyễn Lord-now king has chosen himself The citadel was more commonly known as the Bát Quái (Ba-gua in

I-Ching) It was designed in a mixed French and Vietnamese style by a French architect, Théodore Lebrun, and fortified according to the Vauban principles of defence3 The building

of this citadel later inspired Nguyễn Ánh to create his much more famous citadel of Huế after

3 This style was made famous by the French military engineer Sébastien Le Prestre, Marquis de Vauban 1707), who was hailed in his time as the most skilled architect in the art of building unbreachable fortifications

(1633-he was crowned Emperor Gia Long in 1802 T(1633-he Huế imperial citadel was of a different shape and size but in the similar defence style of Vauban

The Turtle Citadel

The construction of the Turtle Citadel was undertaken by 30,000 soldiers who worked day and night under the supervision of Colonel Victor Ollivier, one of Nguyễn Ánh’s trusted officers at the time It was surrounded by three natural waterways, the Saigon river to the east, the canal of Thị Nghè to the north and the canal of Bến Nghé to the south The citadel perimeter was measured 3,800 metres and there were 8 gates, each with its own names, such

as Càn Nguyên, Li Minh, Khôn Hậu, Khảm Hiền, Chấn Hanh, Cấm Chí, Tốn Thuận and Đoài Duyệt under the reign of Nguyễn Ánh/Gia Long The gates were renamed under his successor, Emperor Minh Mạng, to become Gia Định, Phiên An, Củng Thần, Vọng Thuyết, Phục Viễn, Hoài Lai, Tĩnh Biên and Tuyên Hóa

Inside, the citadel was served by 8 main roads, each road started from a gate The main horizontal road running across the centre of the citadel coincides with today’s Hai Bà Trưng

street The interior of the citadel was served by a system of canals designed for the purpose of irrigation and transport, two of them flow out to the Saigon river from the heart of the citadel where imperial palaces of the king, the crown prince and the queen were situated, flanked by the arsenal, the armoury, the hospital and other peripheral buildings A large shipyard was built at one corner of the citadel, on the bank of the Saigon river where it connected with the canal of Thị Nghè Here, warships of all shapes and sizes were built for the Nguyễn to continue their war against the Tây Sơn

The perimeter walls of the Turtle Citadel were built with packed earth and stones quarried from Biên Hòa, reinforced with gun turrets and guard houses Each wall was measured over 5-metre-high, enclosing the area around the Notre Dame Cathedral of Saigon today, but whether the heart of the citadel coincides with the Cathedral itself, as stated by a number of scholars, is debatable The simple reason for this is, if Hai Bà Trưng was the main road dividing the citadel into two equal sections, then its heart cannot be the Cathedral, which locates several hundred metres south of Hai Bà Trưng according to today’s map, unless the then street was at a lower point than its location today Also, according to this map, the walls

of the citadel coincide with Đinh Tiên Hoàng/Tôn Đức Thắng street, Nam Kỳ Khởi Nghĩa,

Lê Thánh Tôn, and Nguyễn Đình Chiểu

Once completed, with a resident king in place, the Turtle Citadel became the convergence point for all land and river traffics, the heart of the main roads linking Saigon with Phnom Penh, the rice rich Mekong Delta, the strategic location of Biên Hòa and the riverine system leading out to the East-West Maritime Route The political importance of the Citadel and its bustling commercial activities then became a magnet attracting more people to settle around its walls and dotting along a stretch of land bordering the Bến Nghé canal, to Chợ-Lớn proper, a few kilometres away The urban planning of the area around the Citadel was entrusted to a Vietnamese architect, Trần văn Học, who arranged and divided the area into square quarters flanked by straight roads, similar to the design of a chequerboard

The Turtle Citadel and its surrounding area in 1815

For over 10 years, from 1790 to 1801, the Turtle Citadel served as the seat of Nguyễn Ánh/Gia Long while the monsoon war with the Tây Sơn continued until 1799 when Nguyễn Ánh gained a decisive victory at Quy Nhơn Two years later, he pushed northward to Hanoi and eventually unified the country in 1802 Only then that Nguyễn Ánh abandoned the Turtle Citadel to resettle in Huế The citadel was downgraded to be a fortress guarding the land of the south.Phủ Gia Định was renamed Trấn Gia Định and placed under a military governor Seven years later, the name was changed again to Gia Định Thành governed by a viceroy The first military governor of Gia Định Thành was Nguyễn Văn Nhơn and the last viceroy

was Lê Văn Duyệt

Even without the presence of the king, the city of Saigon/Chợ Lớn continued to grow The site of the ‘city’ of Saigon was described by Trịnh Hoài Đức as about 6 kms to the south of

the trấn and served by straight roads intersected with each other to form square quarters

where the Viet and the Chinese lived together

‘Houses and shops lined up along the roads selling silk brocade, ceramics, paper, jewelleries, books, medicines, next to tea houses and noodle shops There was nothing lacking from one end of the town to the other At the north end there were a temple and three Chinese club houses for Fujian, Guangdong and Chiu Chow clans When it

Cho-Lon

Saigon

was full moon, the area turned into a busy, noisy metropolis where boys and girls came out to promenade up and down the streets There was a famous well in the area, the water was pure and sweet and never ran dry A small river flowed past the area, over which a wooden bridge was built and covered with a tiled roof In the middle of the area, there was a market called Bình An where rare and coveted goods from the mountains, the rivers and the sea were displayed alongside local products At night, the market was lit by lanterns for commercial activities to continue’

The description of the Chinese clan houses and their temples fit a major quarter of Chợ Lớn today Along with the construction of roads, more canals were dug during this period, the most important one was called An Thông, a part of the Bến Nghé canal, where a number of smaller canals, such as the Rạch Cát and the Chợ Đệm joined up, linking the two natural rivers Vàm Cỏ Đông and Tây and the Mekong Delta with Chợ Lớn area This particular system of waterways was the main reason for both Chợ Lớn and Saigon to prosper under Gia Long, Minh Mạng, Thiệu Trị and part of Tự Đức

Under Gia Long’s successor, Emperor Minh Mạng, the Turtle Citadel was governed by the eunuch Viceroy Lê Văn Duyệt, who was appointed to this position twice, the first time in 1812-16 under Gia Long, and again in 1820-32 under emperor Minh Mạng He was known as

a powerful Grand Mandarin who was a strict disciplinarian, but was much feared and respected by the locals, the remnants of the Cham and the Khmers The Viceroy of Gia Định was a powerful position for it had jurisdiction over the entire South Vietnam, the northern autonomous Cham enclave in Bình Thuận and Cambodia, who was a vassal of Vietnam at the time Unlike his father who trusted Lê Văn Duyệt completely, Emperor Minh Mạng viewed the Grand Mandarin with suspicion from the start, perhaps because it was rumoured that Lê Văn Duyệt advised Gia Long against his choice as successor, also, because Minh Mạng’s own father-in-law, Huỳnh Công Lý, was beheaded by Lê Văn Duyệt for an alleged misdeed, regardless of the Emperor’s instruction from Huế

Lê Văn Duyệt’s seal Tả Quân Chi Ấn, 1802

After this incident, Minh Mạng looked at the extent of Lê Văn Duyệt’s power with increasing alarm, especially when the Viceroy decided to fortify the Turtle Citadel further by building the encircling walls higher It was an act that Minh Mạng considered as preparation for rebellion He decided to break up the strong grip of Lê Văn Duyệt in the south by instigating several changes Some of Lê Văn Duyệt’s own staff, or family members, lost their posts during this purge, to be replaced by Minh Mạng’s own men Among those who lost their positions was Lê Văn Khôi, Lê Văn Duyệt’s adopted son, who was put in jail for an unspecified offence The Turtle Citadel was renamed Phiên An The area under the control of

Gia Định Thành was divided into 6 smaller administrative units called provinces From then

on, the old Gia Định became known commonly as Lục Tỉnh (the six provinces), three on the east and three on the west

In 1833, after the death of Lê Văn Duyệt, Lê Văn Khôi rose up, entrenched himself in the now Phiên An Citadel and tried to establish Gia Định as an autonomous region He proclaimed himself the Great Commander, and organised a court as if he himself was a king When a powerful army and navy was despatched from Huế to lay siege to the Citadel, Lê Văn Khôi enlisted the help from Siam It took nearly 3 years for the forces from Huế to chase away the Siam and capture the citadel, Lê Văn Khôi, meanwhile, died during the siege The citadel was razed to the ground in 1835 and nearly two thousand people were captured and killed Lê Văn Duyệt’s tomb was destroyed, his grave was marked by a chain and lock, as if his remains were now in prison In 1848, Emperor Tự Đức pardoned Lê Văn Duyệt and

awarded him a new title of Vọng các công thần, chưởng Tả quân Bình Tây Tướng quân Quận Công, his grave was unchained and rebuilt Today, the tomb is still revered by local residents

as a venue for worship that Saigoneses must visit during the new year celebration of Tết

In 1836 another citadel was built as a new fortress guarding the south and was named the

Citadel of Phoenix, Thành Phụng, near and to the northeast of the old Turtle Citadel. The Citadel of Phoenix was built as a more modest structure in square shape, over an area flanking by today’s streets of Nguyễn Đình Chiểu, Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm, Mạc Đĩnh Chi and Nguyễn Du Guarded by four turrets at its corners, the perimeter of the Phoenix Citadel was measure just under 2 kms, its walls were as high as its predecessor’s but only had 4 gates and surrounded by large moats This citadel was also known as the Gia Định citadel and, later, the Citadelle de Saigon

Thành Phụng or La Citadelle de Saigon as redrawn in 1867

Such was the picture of Saigon when the French navy arrived in February 1859, as an offshoot of a military campaign by a joint French-Spanish naval force further north Under the command of Vice-Admiral Rigault de Genouilly a fleet of 12 ships came to Danang in Sept-Oct of 1858 with the intention of taking Huế, the capital of Vietnam at the time, but they were still unable to proceed to Huế by the end of the year The popular revolution that they were promised by the missionaries did not materialise Bogged down by diseases, such as dysentery and choléra, while meeting with strong Vietnamese resistance, the bulk of the fleet left Danang and proceeded to the South in January of 1859 Their first target was the Phoenix Citadel

The ease of travel from the South China Sea to Saigon has now turned into a lethal weapon against its survival Following the journey that many merchant ships had taken before, the French fleet travelled up the Saigon river to the area in front of the Phoenix Citadel From

this vantage point they released a heavy barrage of bombardment against the defenders, before launching a ground assault The citadel quickly succumbed on February 17 1859 The military commander Võ Duy Ninh committed suicide

Vice-Admiral de Genouilly entered the Citadel, ordered an inventory and turned it into his own headquarters The battle for the citadel was not over by then, however Under the order

of the then Emperor Tự Đức, reinforcement from the Mekong Delta was called up but they could not retake the Citadel under heavy shelling from the French ships The Vietnamese then resorted to guerrilla tactics, which were affective to the point that the vice-admiral decided to withdraw partially and to destroy the fort On March 8 1859 French troops set up explosives all over the Citadel, the explosions then set fire to everything within When the fire abated, the French force had destroyed a large arsenal of over 200 cannons, 20,000 firearms, pistols and swords, 100 tonnes of ammunition of various sorts and 80,000 tonnes of rice, a huge amount that would have been enough to feed all the inhabitants and troops for at least a year

When the main French fleet went north to re-join the war in China, they left in Saigon a small unit, only 800 men, supported by 6 ships of different sizes to control the area Skirmishes continued between the Vietnamese and this unit The Việt by then had entrenched themselves

in a garrison called Kỳ-Hoà (today’s Chí Hoà), behind a solid line of defence under the command of Nguyễn Tri Phương It wasn’t long before the main French navy returned, following a Franco-Chinese ceasefire in October 1860 The French fleet under the command

of Admiral Léonard Charner arrived back in Saigon in February 1861, took the Kỳ-Hoà garrison, the last defence of Saigon disintegrated and Charner claimed victory.

Two months after his taking of Saigon, Admiral Charner signed a decree dated 11 April 1861 setting out the limits of the City of Saigon (Ville de Saigon), which now included both Sài Gòn (today’s Chợ Lớn) and Bến Nghé These limits were later modified in October 1865 under Admiral Roze who decreed that the City of Saigon covered only the old Bến Nghé area, a piece of land of only 3 km2 lying within today’s District 1 The area formerly known

as Saigon was separated into Chợ Lớn

By March 1862, four out of six provinces of South Vietnam had fallen to French forces A Treaty was negotiated and agreed between the court of Huế and the French admiral of the fleet It was signed by Senior Minister Phan Thanh Giản in Saigon with Admiral Bonard who, by then, had replaced Charner According to the Treaty of Saigon, June 1862, Vietnam ceded to France 3 eastern provinces, Saigon was included in the package The provinces were placed under the control of the French Ministry of the Navy as the first piece of French overseas territory in Vietnam, and part of the concession known later as French Cochinchina.

The organisation of Cochinchina began even before the Treaty of 1862 was signed The first governor of Cochinchina, Admiral Bonard, immediately established an administration along the line of the British system in India, and the Dutch in Java, by using local officials working under the direction of the French authority.New taxes were imposed on opium, salt, alcohol, and a variety of imports The French authority in Saigon was also responsible for issuing licenses for new factories One of the first French companies to set up shop in Saigon was Denis Frères who came in 1863 to occupy a block of today’s Đồng Khởi street

The management of the eastern provinces was well in place by the time the 3 western provinces were taken in 1867 ‘It took only 5 days to appoint all the administrative posts’