Question

The Vietnamese nationalists started a movement to drive out the French from Vietnam; it is popularly known as _________.
1. The ‘Go West Movement’
2. The ‘Go French Movement’
3. The ‘Go Vietnam Movement’
4. The ‘Go East Movement’

Answer 1

Hint:
India and this country’s relations have been complex. It began when India was born as an independent nation in 1947.

Complete answer:
The French troops came to Vietnam in 1858 and around the mid 1880s they had established a strong grip over the northern region. With due course of time, France started capturing different parts of the country.

For France, colonies were important as they were the medium to extract natural resources and other essential goods. Also, economic exploitation was not only the key feature of French colonisation but they also wanted to bring modern civilisation to Vietnam.

They glorified the French and represented the Vietnamese as primitive and backward, they also asserted that Vietnamese are only capable to do manual labour. The French schools asked the Vietnamese to adopt the western style of having short hair which also faced backlash as Vietnamese traditionally kept long hair. The French started controlling all private, public life and even the religious beliefs of people. This colonial domination induced the anti-imperialist sentiments and a spirit of nationalism was emerging.

By the end of 19th century and early 20th, Vietnamese nationalists started having close relations with Japan and China. These two countries provided refuge in order to establish a network of Asian revolutionaries. The ‘Go East Movement’ became very popular in the first decade of the 20th century. In order to resist the French colonialism, some 300 Vietnamese students around 1908 went to Japan to acquire modern education as through education they would question colonial domination.

Therefore, the correct answer is Option 4.

Note:
For Vietnamese nationalists, the foremost objective was to overthrow the French and re-establish Nguyen dynasty. While Vietnamese were challenging colonial domination in every aspect, still they considered foreign arms and aid. They regarded the Japanese as ‘Fellow Asians.’