The Great Depression of the 1930s had a deep impact on Vietnam.
(i) The prices of rubber and rice fell. This led to rising rural debts, unemployment and rural uprising in the poorest provinces of Nghe An and Ha Tinh. However, the French suppressed these uprisings with great severity. It used planes to bomb demonstrators.
(ii) In February 1930, Ho Chi Minh brought together competing nationalist groups to establish the Vietnamese Communist (Vietnamese Cong San Dang) Party. It was later renamed the Indo-Chinese Communist Party.
(iii) Ho Chi Minh was inspired by the militant demonstrations of the European Communist parties.
(iv) In 1940, Japan occupied Vietnam, as part of its imperial drive to control Southeast Asia. The nationalists now had to fight against the Japanese as well as the French. The League for the Independence of Vietnam (Vietnam Doc Lap Dong Minh), which came to be known as the Vietminh fought the Japanese occupation and recaptured Hanoi in September 1945.
(v) The Democratic Republic of Vietnam was formed and Ho Chi Minh was made the Chairman.
