Early settlement The earliest settlement in the area was a
Funan temple at the location of what later is the Phụng Sơn Buddhist temple, founded in the 4th century AD. A settlement called Baigaur was established on the site in the 11th century by the
Champa. The first
Vietnamese people crossed the sea to explore this land completely without the organisation of the
Nguyễn Lords. Thanks to the marriage between Princess
Nguyễn Phúc Ngọc Vạn – daughter of Lord
Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên – and the King of Cambodia
Chey Chettha II in 1620, the relationship between Vietnam and Cambodia became smooth, and the people of the two countries could freely move back and forth. In exchange, Chey Chettha II gifted Prei Nokor to the
Nguyễn lords.
Nguyễn dynasty (Citadel of Eight Trigrams) or Thành Quy'' (Citadel of Tortoise) in 1795. In 1679, Lord
Nguyễn Phúc Tần allowed a group of Chinese refugees from the
Qing dynasty to settle in
Mỹ Tho,
Biên Hòa and Saigon to seek refuge. In 1698,
Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh, a Vietnamese noble, was sent by the Nguyễn rulers of
Huế by sea to establish Vietnamese administrative structures in the area, thus detaching the area from Cambodia, which was not strong enough to intervene. He is credited with the expansion of Saigon into a significant settlement. King
Chey Chettha IV of Cambodia tried to stop the Vietnamese and was defeated by Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh in 1700. In February 1700, he invaded Cambodia from
An Giang. In March, the Vietnamese expedition under Cảnh and a Chinese general
Trần Thượng Xuyên (Chen Shangchuan) defeated the main Cambodian army at Bích Đôi citadel, king Chey Chettha IV took flight while his nephew
Ang Em surrendered to the invaders, as the Vietnamese marched onto and captured Cambodia's capital
Phnom Penh. In 1788,
Nguyễn Ánh captured the city, and used it as a centre of resistance against Tây Sơn. Two years later, a
Vauban citadel called
Gia Định, or
Thành Bát Quái ("Eight Diagrams") was built by Victor
Olivier de Puymanel, one of the
Nguyễn Ánh's French mercenaries. The citadel was captured by
Lê Văn Khôi during
his revolt of 1833–35 against emperor
Minh Mạng. Following the revolt, Minh Mạng ordered it to be dismantled, and a new citadel, called
Phụng Thành, was built in 1836. In 1859, the citadel was destroyed by the French following the
Battle of Kỳ Hòa. the city was planned by the French to transform into a town for
colonization. During the 19th and 20th centuries, construction of French-style buildings began, including a
botanical garden, the
Norodom Palace,
Hotel Continental,
Notre-Dame Cathedral, and
Bến Thành Market, among others. In April 1865,
Gia Định Báo was established in Saigon, becoming the first newspaper published in Vietnam. During the French colonial era, Saigon became known as "Pearl of the Orient" (''''), or "Paris of the Extreme Orient". On 27 April 1931, a new
région called
Saigon–Cholon consisting of Saigon and Cholon was formed; the name Cholon was dropped after South Vietnam gained independence from France in 1955. From about 256,000 in 1930, Saigon's population rose to 1.2 million in 1950. The state was proclaimed in July. In July 1954, the
Geneva Agreement partitioned Vietnam
along the
17th parallel (
Bến Hải River), with the
Việt Minh, under
Ho Chi Minh, gaining complete control of
the northern half of the country, while the southern half remained under the rule of the State of Vietnam. The State officially became the
Republic of Vietnam when Bảo Đại was deposed by his Prime Minister
Ngô Đình Diệm in the 1955
referendum, On 22 October 1956, the city was given the official name, '''' ("Metropolitan city of Saigon"). After the decree of 27 March 1959 came into effect, Saigon was divided into eight districts and 41 wards. In July 1969, District 10 and District 11 were founded, and by 1975, the city's area consisted of eleven districts,
Gia Định,
Củ Chi District (
Hậu Nghĩa), and
Phú Hòa District (
Bình Dương). In the 1950s, with the U.S. providing nearly $2 billion in aid to the Diệm regime, the country's economy grew more rapidly under the
capitalist model; Beginning in the 1960s, Saigon experienced economic downturn and higher inflation, as it was completely dependent on U.S. aid and imports from other countries. The city had "prostitutes, drug addicts, corrupt officials, beggars, orphans, and Americans with money", and according to
Stanley Karnow, it was "a black-market city in the largest sense of the word". Ngô Đình Diệm then later turned on other paramilitary groups in Saigon, including the
Hòa Hảo Buddhist reform movement. and the city came under the control of the
Vietnamese People's Army. On 29 October 2002, 60 people died and 90 were injured in the International Trade Center
building fire in Ho Chi Minh City. Ho Chi Minh City, along with its surrounding provinces, is described as "the manufacturing hub" of Vietnam, and "an attractive business hub". In terms of cost, it was ranked the 178th-most expensive major city in the world according to the Mercer Cost Of Living 2024 survey of 226 cities. In terms of international connectedness, as of 2024, the city was classified as a "Beta+" city by the
Globalization and World Cities Research Network. ==Geography==