A Panoptic History of Vietnam

This essay concisely tells the history of Vietnam as a region from the dawn of civilization to the present day, in less than 9,000 words – even in a single word. Rather than a history of the Viet states, it’s a history of Au Lac, Jiaozhi, Linyi, Funan, Champa, Dai Viet, and modern Vietnams. It sheds light on the big picture, deep patterns, historical trends, and causal dynamics, while paying attention to important details. It shows, among other findings, that the core element of Vietnamese statecraft has changed as the global configuration of power was transformed. More specifically, the key to success for anyone who ruled Vietnam changed from the ability to leverage the frontier of an empire (1st millennium BCE to the 15th century) to the skill in navigating the politics between great powers (16th century to the present).