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O-Level Paper 1: How Europeans widened their grip

the French in Vietnam, 1870s to 1920s (an either/or choice against Indonesia)

What the syllabus expects

The way France pushed its authority into Annam and Tonkin, taking its earlier footing before 1870 as the starting point
Scope: Not tested is everything predating 1870: the religious and commercial stakes France held, what the Tay Son uprising meant for the French foothold, and how Cochin-China was run by France beforehand
Why France chose to broaden the reach of its authority
Scope: A rising hunger for empire and zones of dominance, demand for raw materials plus fresh markets and bases, and the turmoil stemming from a feeble Vietnamese court
The leading figures who drove France's widening authority
How French governance reshaped Vietnam politically once 1870 had passed
Scope: A tighter French political hold, its centralised administration reaching well past the country's south
The economic reshaping that French rule brought about
Scope: Growth in commercial crops such as rice and in coal mining that built an export economy, together with the arrival of private ownership and monopolies held by the state
How French rule reshaped society
Scope: Movement of people across Indochina, the emergence of a local class holding land beside peasants without any, and an elite schooled in Western ways
How locals reacted to the political, economic and social shifts brought under French rule