VIetnam

​Since the 16th century, Europeans had tried with vary degrees of success to establish influence in Vietnam. However, it was not until the failed 1858 French attack on the port city of Da Nang, that major efforts to colonize the country began. From 1859-1886, the French and their allies fought a bloody war of conquest which concluded with the creation of French Indochina (which also included modern-day Laos and Cambodia) in Oct. 1887.
 
In the six decades that followed the campaign, the people of Vietnam’s labor was exploited to extract the country’s natural resources and build France’s wealth. The era of French colonization resulted in many Western styles of education, religion, and governance being forcibly enacted as well as the replacement of Chinese characters with the Latin alphabet.
 
Those who resisted French occupation were exiled, imprisoned, or executed.
 
In 1919, at the end of the First World War, the allied powers met in Paris to rebuild and reimagine the international community in what is remembered as Treaty of Versailles. It was at the conference that US President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed that the prerogatives of colonized people be given equal weight to that of their European colonizers. Inspired by Wilson’s declaration, a group of Vietnamese nationalists, delivered a petition to the American delegation asking that this also apply to Vietnam. There is no evidence that Wilson ever read the petition.
 
In 1940, French occupation was briefly interrupted when Japan invaded Indochina, and established control over Vietnam first through the Nazi puppet regime of Vichy France and then through the rule of Emperor Bao Dai. It was during this time that Ho Chi Minh, the man who delivered the Vietnamese nationalists’ petition at Versailles, returned to Vietnam and formed the Viet Minh. When the United States entered the Second World War, the Viet Minh were supported by the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS), in their resistance campaign against Japan.
 
Japan’s defeat in 1945 resulted in a power vacuum in Vietnam called the August Revolution. Which resulted in the abdication of Bao Dai. On Sept. 2, 1945, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was declared by Ho Chi Minh. More than a year later, France–– with the aid of anti-communist forces–– reinvaded Vietnam during the First French Indochina War. But French control was permanently overthrown after the Viet Minh victory at the 1954 Battle of Dien Bien Phu.
 
Two months after Dien Bien Phu, the world powers met in Geneva to address the conflict in Indochina. The Geneva Conference resulted in the creation of the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Kingdom of Laos, as well as two separate states in Vietnam governed by the communists (North Vietnam) and the West (South Vietnam).

Guam

​In 1565–– forty-four years after the CHamoru’s contact with Magellan–– Spain officially claimed Guam as part of its empire. However, colonization of Guam and the other Mariana Islands did not begin until 1668 with the arrival of Jesuit missionaries intent on spreading the Christian gospel. That same year, Chief Quipuha of Hagatna converted to Catholicism and allowed the Jesuits to build a church on his land–– therefore creating a base of operation for Spain.
 
During this time, Guam became an important stopping point on the galleon trade between the Philippines and Mexico which introduced crops from both Asia and the Americas to the island, as well as the Spanish language and other cultural practices.
 
CHamoru resistance to the Spanish Colonizers came a to head in 1670 when the Spanish-Chamorro Wars began. Major Spanish reprisal followed after the 1672 killings of several missionaries, including Diego Luis San Vitores, by CHamoru resisters. The wars resulted in the destruction of several villages and the deaths of many CHamorus. Once rebellion was mostly reduced in Guam, Spain turned to further conquest of the other Mariana Islands which ended with the conquest of Gani. The wars ended in 1699 after some 1,900 CHamorus from Gani were forcibly relocated to Guam.
 
As Spanish colonies in the Americas gained their independence, Guam’s economic support transferred from Mexico to the Philippines. With the Manila Galleon trade ending, the island became an important stop for merchant vessels, including whalers.
 
In 1898, the Spanish-American war led to the US capture of the Philippines and Guam, triggering the first era of American occupation. Governance of the island was transferred to the US Navy which was stationed in the harbor near Hagatna.
 
At the Treaty of Versailles, the League of Nations put the Northern Mariana Islanders under Japanese administration.  
 
On Dec. 8, 1941–– a day after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor–– Japan invaded Guam, beginning an era of occupation that lasted until the US retook the island on July 21st, 1944. Today, Guam celebrates this date as Liberation Day.
 
With the world transitioning from the Second World War to the Cold War, the US Military began to increase its presence on Guam, turning the island into a mega base of operation. As a result, the hot conflicts the US would fight during the Cold War in Asia would put Guam and its people directly on the front lines.