How did social and economic conditions in French Indochina contribute to the rise of Vietnamese nationalism? Write your answer in a paragraph of 125 words. ench colonization changed Vietnam in many ways. In politics, French colonial officials replaced the Vietnamese rulers. Only those who were sympathetic to the French were allowed to keep their positions. Others, including those who were educated, could only obtain low-level and low-paying positions within the bureaucracy. The French practiced direct rule over their colonies because they were concerned about giving too much power to Vietnamese officials.

French colonial rule also changed Vietnam's economy. The French wanted raw materials for industry and wanted to create a market for French manufactured goods. To take resources from Vietnam, the French used the Vietnamese people for labor. Peasants worked on French-owned mines and plantations under bad working conditions. From 1917 to 1944, it is thought that twelve thousand workers died from poor working conditions and disease on just one Michelin rubber plantation. Few laws protected Vietnamese workers and the laws were not enforced.

Most peasants worked in mines and on plantations for low wages. Others had to work to pay heavy taxes to the French. The French used the tax income to keep up the colony and to pay for large public works projects the French started in Vietnam. These projects included building roads, railways, bridges, and harbors. Each of these helped France take more wealth from Vietnam.

The French were also interested in improving agricultural production. The French built irrigation works in the Mekong Delta to keep salt water from the South China Sea from flooding farmland. The improvements provided more land to grow rice. However, the increased supply of rice did not feed the Vietnamese people. Rather, the French produced the rice for export. Under French rule, Indochina became the world's largest exporter of rice. Production for export became the goal of all of France's economic activities in Vietnam. Of course, the money from the export trade went to the French rather than the Vietnamese.