| Summary/Abstract |
This article examines the role and prominence of the military as the key institution of the new Nguyen dynasty in Vietnam at the beginning of the 19th century. The military had brought the new regime to power during the wars with the Tay Son regime, and the end of the conflict did not end the military’s role. I argue, contrary to existing scholarship which emphasizes the Nguyen as a civilian bureaucratic regime, that the military remained critical to the survival of the new regime. While the Nguyen slowly began the transition to civil rule, the military remained the predominant institution of the dynasty well into the middle of the century. Moreover, I argue that the regime’s military orientation had profound effects on the Vietnamese populations who were subject to conscription and the associated hardships of labor projects and suppression of insurgencies.
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