Thông tin lịch sử An Giang

16/12/2019 440 0

An Giang is located in a relatively special geographical position, at the southwestern border of the Fatherland, where the source of the Mekong River flows into Vietnam. An Giang province was officially recorded in the administrative system in 1832. After 190 years of formation and development (1832 - 2022), with many ups and downs, An Giang is a locality with a rich history, culture, and a rich tradition of patriotism and revolution.

The Vietnamese migrated to the Southern region from the beginning of the 17th century after Lord Nguyen Hoang entered the South and established Phu Yen in 1611. Farmers and fishermen from Thanh Nghe and Thuan Quang regions went to Mo Xoai (Ba Ria) to do business. After the marriage of Princess Ngoc Van and King Chey Chetta II of the Kingdom of Chenla, in 1620, the wave of legal migration became stronger. Vietnamese immigrants were present in many areas of the Southeast region such as Bien Hoa, Dong Nai, Saigon, etc.

In 1679, Longmen General Duong Ngan Dich and General Cao Loi Liem Tran Thuong Xuyen (remnants of Trinh Thanh Cong who led the failed "anti-Qing, restore Ming" movement in Taiwan) brought more than 3,000 soldiers and relatives and 50 warships to Da Nang to surrender. Lord Nguyen Phuc Tan allowed Tran Thuong Xuyen to go to Ban Lan in Dong Nai (now Bien Hoa), and Duong Ngan Dich to go to My Tho, a Southern region with an additional Chinese community.

In 1692, the king of Champa, Ba Tranh, led his army to build ramparts, rob and kill the people of Dien Ninh district (Binh Khang palace). Lord Nguyen Phuc Chu sent Cai Co Nguyen Huu Canh as Commander to suppress the rebellion. In 1693, Nguyen Huu Canh captured the king of Champa. Lord Nguyen then annexed Champa into Dang Trong (Dai Viet) and established a town called Thuan Thanh.

After annexing all of Champa, Lord Nguyen paid attention to the Southern region, which at that time belonged to the Kingdom of Chenla. In 1698, Lord Nguyen Phuc Chu sent Commander Nguyen Huu Canh to inspect Dong Nai, established Phuoc Long district with Tran Bien citadel and Tan Binh district with Phien Tran citadel, and established Gia Dinh prefecture. On the thousand-mile land from Mo Xoai - Ba Ria (adjacent to Binh Thuan prefecture) to the Tien River bank, there were only more than forty thousand Vietnamese households and a few indigenous ethnic minorities (Stieng, Choro, and Khmer). The population in the land between Tien and Hau rivers was even smaller. The majority were Khmer, a few were residents of Ngu Quang, who entered by sea (via Ba Lai and Dai estuaries... of Tien River), living by rice cultivation and fishing.

In the early 18th century, after Mac Cuu offered Ha Tien land, submitted to Lord Nguyen and was appointed as the General of Ha Tien, a part of Vietnamese migrants came to make a living in the new land with the Chinese (following Mac Cuu) and the Khmer (from Luc Chan Lap down the Mekong River). In 1757, Lord Nguyen put Nac Ton on the throne in the Kingdom of Chan Lap, Nac Ton gave Tam Phong Long land to Lord Nguyen (through Mac Thien Tu) to repay the help in times of trouble and regain the throne. Lord Nguyen sent Nguyen Cu Trinh and Truong Phuc Du to receive and grant the Long Ho palace, then established 3 regions: Chau Doc, Tan Chau [1]  and Dong Khau [2]  to protect the border area. In 1779, Lord Nguyen Anh began to pay attention to dividing the boundaries of the three regions: Tran Bien, Phien Tran and Long Ho. The tax regime was established but was very light compared to other places. In 1780, Lord Nguyen Anh changed the name of Long Ho palace to Vinh Tran palace and then changed it to Tran Vinh palace. After unifying the country, in 1808, King Gia Long established Gia Dinh citadel in the Southern region and divided it into five towns: Bien Hoa, Phien An, Dinh Tuong, Vinh Thanh and Ha Tien. Vinh Thanh town has 1 Dinh Vien prefecture and 4 districts:

+ Vinh Binh district has 2 communes: Vinh Truong commune (52 villages and hamlets), Binh Chinh commune (48 villages).

+ Vinh An district has 2 communes: Vinh Trinh commune (29 villages), An Trung commune (52 villages and wards).

+ Vinh Dinh district has not been divided into communes (has 37 villages).

+ Tan An district has 2 communes: Tan Minh commune (72 villages), An Bao commune (63 villages and farms).

At that time, Vinh Thanh town was very large, including the two provinces of Vinh Long and An Giang, and travel was very difficult. It also had an important border area, adjacent to the Kingdom of Chenla, a kingdom that was dependent on Vietnam and was being fiercely disputed by Siam. Therefore, King Gia Long and later King Minh Mang paid attention to digging canals such as Thoai Ha Canal, Vinh Te Canal... to facilitate transportation and border defense.

Thus, An Giang province was the last land to be annexed to the map of Dai Viet (Dang Trong) in the year Dinh Suu (1757). Before that, this land was called Tam Phong Long, belonging to Thuy Chan Lap of the Kingdom of Chan Lap. According to the living and residing habits of the Khmer people, they did not live there, almost abandoned it. According to Chu Dat Quan's description in the book "Chan Lap phong tho ky" (in the 13th century), when he came to the land of the South today, he only saw "tall rattan trees, ancient trees, yellow sand, white reeds" and "further out of sight were only grass fields, hundreds, thousands of wild buffaloes gathered in herds". Three or four centuries later, the landscape of this land has not changed, still wild, dense, swampy, deserted, and home to insects, wild animals, snakes, crocodiles, etc. By the second half of the 18th century, Le Qui Don recorded in the book Phu Bien Tap Luc:  "In Gia Dinh prefecture, Dong Nai land from the seaports of Can Gio, Loi Lap, Cua Dai, Cua Tieu inwards is all dense forest for thousands of miles".  That almost ownerless wilderness was truly awakened when Vietnamese settlers set foot there to settle and open up.

The first people to open up this land were mostly poor people from Ngu Quang, Binh Dinh - Phu Yen, who could not stand the oppression of the contemporary regime. They gradually entered here by sea, mainly using sailboats and junks. There were a few Vietnamese and Chinese residents from Bien Hoa, Gia Dinh, and My Tho who moved to the new land. At first, they lived in the land that is now Cho Moi district, Sa Dec (and called themselves "two districts"), then moved to Chau Doc, Tan Chau, and then formed villages on the west bank of the Hau River in the early 19th century. At that time, Chau Doc and Tan Chau were still very sparsely populated, so King Gia Long called it "New Chau Doc". After completing the digging of Thoai Ha and Vinh Te canals, Nguyen Van Thoai recruited people and established Thoai Son village on the bank of Thoai Ha canal, next to Nui Sap in 1822; established 5 villages along the banks of Vinh Te canal (Vinh Nguon, Vinh Te, Vinh Lac, Vinh Gia, Vinh Dieu), forming Tinh Bien prefecture in the mid-19th century. In Dong Xuyen (now Long Xuyen city), in 1789, Lord Nguyen Anh established Dong Xuyen for a while and then abandoned it. The establishment of 2 villages Binh Duc and My Phuoc also happened in the early 19th century, at the same time as the villages established on the west bank of Hau river. When An Giang province was established, the book Dai Nam Nhat Thong Chi recorded the population of An Giang province as 25,645 people.

The Khmer people were present in An Giang earlier than the Vietnamese. In the 13th century, the weakened Kingdom of Chenla was always under attack and threat from the Ayuthaya Dynasty (Siam), to the point that they had to leave the capital Siem Reap. In the 14th century, there were migrations along the Mekong River from Luc Chenla to Thuy Chenla. These were migrations of monks, officials, and commoners to avoid chaos and war, especially when the Angkor Dynasty collapsed under the invasion of the Siamese Dynasty. An Giang province today has mountainous areas, not swampy in the districts of Tri Ton, Tinh Bien, Thoai Son, suitable for the living and residence habits of the Khmer people, so many Khmer people stopped to live, creating the Khmer community in An Giang today.

The Cham people came to An Giang a bit later than the Vietnamese. In 1757, Nguyen Cu Trinh was interested in building a fort in Chau Doc and recruiting the Con Man people (Cham Islam people who migrated to Chenla) to guard the border. This was the first group of Cham people in Chau Doc and they were the nucleus that attracted their brothers in Chenla to follow in the first two decades of the 19th century. The Nguyen Dynasty accepted the Cham people (including Malaysians) and settled them in 7 villages (Chau Giang, Katambong, Phum Soai, Lama, Kacoi, Ka Coki, Sabau) near Chau Doc with about 5,000 people. By the mid-19th century, the Cham people (including Malaysians) migrated to Chau Doc several times due to dissatisfaction with the discrimination and terror of the Chenla dynasty, creating the Cham (Chiem) community in An Giang.

The Chinese came to An Giang at the same time as the Cham. The Chinese in An Giang came from My Tho and Ha Tien after the Tam Phong Long land was offered by King Nac Ton of Cambodia to Lord Vo Vuong Nguyen Phuc Khoat. At the end of the 18th century, the Chau Doc area was still wild, without any organized villages and communes, the population was sparse, there were only a few Khmer hamlets and a few Cham hamlets. In 1808, King Gia Long established Vinh Thanh town, in February 1816, he established Chau Doc fort and assigned Vinh Thanh fort governor Luu Phuoc Tuong to oversee the construction of the fort. About a year later, in February 1817, Chau Doc fort was completed. This was an important place to protect Ha Tien and support the defense of Nam Vang (of Cambodia). After many years of wandering in the South, King Gia Long once commented: "Chau Doc and Ha Tien's borders are no less than the Northern citadel" .  At that time, the population in Chau Doc was also very small. After building Chau Doc fort, Gia Long appointed Diep Hoi, a talented and diligent Chinese, as Chau Doc Governor, and ordered the recruitment of more Vietnamese and Chinese people there. In November 1821, King Minh Mang ordered the convicts who were conscripted and exiled (over 130 people) in Bac Thanh to be transferred to Gia Dinh. Upon reaching Gia Dinh citadel, they were released from their shackles and sent to Chau Doc to follow Nguyen Van Thoai's menial labor, and were given monthly money and rice to support themselves. After completing the Vinh Te canal, in 1830, the Gia Dinh citadel governor reported:  "Chau Doc fort has established 41 communes, villages and wards, with 800 people, and the terrain has not been fully exploited yet".

An Giang province was the last area to be incorporated into the map of Dai Viet. When Nguyen Cu Trinh took over and granted the Long Ho palace, the administrative boundaries at that time were unclear. In the early period, communes, hamlets, and villages had not yet been formed. It was not until King Gia Long unified the country that villages and hamlets were established, but they were still very sparse./.

Source: https://www.angiang.dcs.vn/

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