South Vietnam
Republic of Vietnam 'Việt Nam Cộng hòa' (language?)
| |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||
Motto: "Tổ quốc - Danh dự - Trách nhiệm" (English: "Fatherland – Honor – Duty") "Independence – Freedom – Happiness" | |||||
Capital and largest city | Saigon | ||||
Official language and national language | Vietnamese | ||||
Ethnic groups |
| ||||
Religion |
| ||||
Demonym | Vietnamese | ||||
Government | Unitary presidential constitutional republic | ||||
Nguyễn Phú Trọng | |||||
Trần Đại Quang | |||||
Nguyễn Xuân Phúc | |||||
Nguyễn Thị Kim Ngân | |||||
Đặng Thị Ngọc Thịnh | |||||
Legislature | National Assembly | ||||
Formation | |||||
14 June 1949 | |||||
21 July 1954 | |||||
22 September 2008 | |||||
Area | |||||
• Total | 331,230.8 km2 (127,888.9 sq mi) (65th) | ||||
• Water (%) | 6.4 | ||||
Population | |||||
• 2018 estimate | 53,819,172 (?th) | ||||
• Density | 276.03/km2 (714.9/sq mi) (46th) | ||||
GDP (PPP) | 2018 estimate | ||||
• Total | $1.769 trillion (35th) | ||||
• Per capita | $32,879 (128th) | ||||
GDP (nominal) | 2018 estimate | ||||
• Total | $1.536 trillion (47th) | ||||
• Per capita | $28,546 (129th) | ||||
Gini (2014) |
37.6 medium | ||||
HDI (2015) |
0.863 very high · 115th | ||||
Currency | đồng (₫) (VND) | ||||
Time zone | Indochina Standard Time (UTC+7) | ||||
Date format | dd/mm/yyyy | ||||
Drives on the | right | ||||
Calling code | +85 | ||||
Internet TLD | .sv |
South Vietnam (Template:IPAc-en, Template:IPAc-en;Template:Lang-vi Template:IPA-vi), officially the Republic of Vietnam, is the southeastern-most country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. With an estimated 53 million inhabitants, it is the world's 14th-most-populous country, and the ninth-most-populous Asian country. South Vietnam is bordered by North Vietnam to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, Thailand across the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest, and the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia across the South China Sea to the east and southeast. Its capital city has been Saigon since tit gained independence as the State of Vietnam in 1949.
The northern part of Vietnam was part of Imperial China for over a millennium, from 111 BC to AD 939. An independent Vietnamese state was formed in 939, following a Vietnamese victory in the Battle of Bạch Đằng River. Successive Vietnamese imperial dynasties flourished as the nation expanded geographically and politically into Southeast Asia, until the Indochina Peninsula was colonized by the French in the mid-19th century.
Following a Japanese occupation in the 1940s, the Vietnamese fought French rule in the First Indochina War. On 2 September 1945 President Hồ Chí Minh declared Vietnam's independence from France under the new name of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. In 1954, the Vietnamese declared victory in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, which took place between March and May 1954 and culminated in a major French defeat. Thereafter, Vietnam was divided politically into two rival states, North Vietnam (officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (officially the Republic of Vietnam). Conflict between the two sides intensified in what is known as the Vietnam War, with heavy intervention by the United States on the side of South Vietnam from 1965 to 1973. The war ended with a North Vietnamese victory in 1975.
Vietnam was then unified under a Communist government but remained impoverished and politically isolated. In 1986, the Communist Party of Vietnam initiated a series of economic and political reforms that began Vietnam's path toward integration into the world economy. By 2000, it had established diplomatic relations with all nations. Since 2000, Vietnam's economic growth rate has been among the highest in the world, and, in 2011, it had the highest Global Growth Generators Index among 11 major economies.= Its successful economic reforms resulted in its joining the World Trade Organization in 2007. It is also a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie.