Mekong Delta

Funan and Chenla period god Vishnu found at Óc Eo (6–7th century AD). The Mekong Delta was likely inhabited long since prehistory with the civilizations of Funan and Chenla maintaining a presence in the Mekong Delta for centuries. Archaeological discoveries at Óc Eo and other Funanese sites show that the area was an important part of the Funan civilization, bustling with trading ports and canals as early as in the first century AD and extensive human settlement in the region may have gone as far back as the 4th century BC. While there is no clear consensus on the ethnic makeup of those living in the region during the Funan, archaeologists suggest that they may have had connections to Austroasiatic people. Khmer inscriptions appear during the Chenla period. Angkor Borei is a site in the Mekong Delta that existed between 400 BC-500 AD. This site had extensive maritime trade networks throughout Southeast Asia and with India, and is believed to have possibly been the ancient capital to the civilization of Funan. Champa incursions In the early 15th century, Champa began mounting several incursions in the Mekong Delta. The declining Kingdom of Cambodia asked the Chinese Ming Empire for intervention in 1408 and 1414. Despite that, in 1421 Indravarman VI of Champa commemorated his victory over the Khmer and installed a statue of Tribhuvanākrānta (Visnu) in Bien Hoa. In 1757, Vietnamese lords had acquired control of Cà Mau. By the 1860s, French colonists had established control over the Mekong Delta and established the colony of French Cochinchina. Vietnamese period , circa 1760. The Vietnamese acquisition of the Mekong Delta can be divided into two phases: Marriage agreement and interventions In 1621, Lord Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên arranged a contract marriage between his daughter Nguyễn Phúc Ngọc Vạn and Cambodian king Chey Chettha II in exchange to the establishment of a Vietnamese trade port in town of Prei Nokor (now Ho Chi Minh City) and tax exemptions for Vietnamese settlers moving into the area. Vice versa, the Nguyễn will help Cambodia politically and militarily to counter against Ayutthaya Kingdom (Siamese) pressures. Earliest Vietnamese settlements in the Mekong Delta appeared and centered around Đồng Nai and Mỗi Xoài (today Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu). In 1658, without any excuses, the Nguyễn invaded Cambodia and deposed the only Khmer Muslim king Ramathipadi I (Sultan Ibrahim). 16 years later, the Nguyễn again militarily interfered Cambodian internal royal affairs, putting Prince Ang Nan into power. The Nguyễn invited fleeing Chinese refugees to settle in Mekong River entrance towns of Mỹ Tho and Biên Hoà In 1688, the Chinese revolted against Nguyễn lords. King Ang Nan died in 1691, and the revolt was soon resolved. After fully subjugating Champa in 1697, the Nguyễn lords sent marquis Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh and a small expedition to annex Prei Nokor, renamed it to Gia Định, establishing Vietnamese administrative structures, and explore deep into the lower Mekong Delta from Mỹ Tho to An Giang. The Muslims rose up and joined the Vietnamese chasing the Cambodians. Due to heavy spring rain, the Muslim segment lost contact with the main army of Nguyễn Cư Trinh, and were surrounded by 10,000 Cambodians at Vô Tà Ân in early 1755. Muslim troops piled carts and wagons into a defensive perimeter and stood their ground against Cambodian attacks until being relieved by Nguyễn Cư Trinh. With the help of mediation by Mạc Thiên Tứ of Hà Tiên, a ceasefire agreement was reached between King Chey Chettha V and Lord Nguyễn Phúc Khoát in 1756: Cambodia ceded Gò Công and Tân An to the Vietnamese, Chey Chettha V was deposed, while Ang Tong was restored as King of Cambodia. Ang Tong offered the Nguyễn two districts of Trà Vinh and Ba Thắc as tributes. In 1757, Ang Tong died and was succeeded Outey II. With the help of the Nguyễn Lords and the Principality of Hà Tiên, Outey II regained the throne from usurpers. He gave all remaining Mekong Delta lands to Mạc Thiên Tứ, and Mạc Thiên Tứ swapped all these areas to the Nguyễn in exchange for the Mạc clan's total autonomy in Hà Tiên. The new lands were divided into two districts: Rạch Giá and Cà Mau. Beginning during the French colonial period, the French patrolled and fought on the waterways of the Mekong Delta region with their ''Divisions navales d'assaut (Dinassaut)'', a tactic which lasted throughout the First Indochina War, and was later employed by the US Navy Mobile Riverine Force. During the Vietnam War—also referred to as the Second Indochina War—the Delta region saw savage fighting between Viet Cong (NLF) guerrillas and the US 9th Infantry Division and units of the United States Navy's swift boats and hovercraft (PACVs) plus the Army of the Republic of Vietnam 7th, 9th, and 21st Infantry Divisions. As a military region the Mekong Delta was encompassed by the IV Corps Tactical Zone (IV CTZ). In 1975, North Vietnamese soldiers and Viet Cong soldiers launched a massive invasion in many parts of South Vietnam. While I, II, and III Corps collapsed significantly, IV Corps was still highly intact due to under Major General Nguyễn Khoa Nam overseeing strong military operations to prevent VC taking over any important regional districts. Brigadier General Lê Văn Hưng, the head of 21st Division commander, stayed office in Cần Thơ to continue defending successfully against VC. On 29 April 1975, the last U.S. Consul General Terry McNamara and his diplomats evacuated by marine boat from Cần Thơ to the South China Sea. When the South Vietnamese President Dương Văn Minh ordered unconditional surrender, both ARVN generals in Cần Thơ, General Lê Văn Hưng and Nguyễn Khoa Nam, committed suicide. At Binh Thuy Air Base some ARVN soldiers and air base personnel who defended the air base were evacuated by helicopters and several jet fighters to Thailand shortly after hearing Minh's surrender. Within hours, VC soldiers occupied the base and captured those ARVN and air base personnel who didn't escape. In Mỹ Tho, Brigadier General Trần Văn Hai, who was in charged protecting National Highway 4 (now NH1A) from Saigon to Cần Thơ, committed suicide. Tran was one of the three ARVN generals who refused to be evacuated by American forces when the North Vietnamese soldiers invaded Saigon. Several ARVN soldiers continued to fight against the VC but later either surrendered or disbanded when faced with VC counterattacks. In the late 1970s, the Khmer Rouge regime attacked Vietnam in an attempt to reconquer the Delta region. This campaign precipitated the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia and subsequent downfall of the Khmer Rouge. ==Geography==

The Mekong Delta, as a region, lies immediately to the west of Ho Chi Minh City (also called Saigon by locals), roughly forming a triangle stretching from Mỹ Tho in the east to Châu Đốc and Hà Tiên in the northwest, down to Cà Mau at the southernmost tip of Vietnam, and including the island of Phú Quốc. The Mekong Delta region of Vietnam displays a variety of physical landscapes, but is dominated by flat flood plains in the south, with a few hills in the north and west. This diversity of terrain was largely the product of tectonic uplift and folding brought about by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates about 50 million years ago. The soil of the lower Delta consists mainly of sediment from the Mekong and its tributaries, deposited over thousands of years as the river changed its course due to the flatness of the low-lying terrain. The present Mekong Delta system has two major distributary channels, both discharging directly into the East Sea. The river carries over 160 million tons of sediment, including 6.5 million tons of sand, each year. Historic sediment loads are estimated to be higher, but have been reduced due to damming for hydropower in the upper reaches of the Mekong River Basin, and sand mining in the riverbed. Sediment is the driving factor in building the delta seaward (progradation), and upward (aggradation) from seasonal flooding, and is counteracted by coastal erosion and sea level rise. The Holocene history of the Mekong Delta shows delta progradation of about 200 km during the last 6 kyr. During the Middle Holocene the Mekong River was discharging waters into both the East Sea and the Gulf of Thailand. The water entering the Gulf of Thailand was flowing via a palaeochannel located within the western part of the delta; north of the Camau Peninsula. Upper Pleistocene prodeltaic and delta front sediments interpreted as the deposits of the palaeo-Mekong River were reported from central basin of the Gulf of Thailand. The Mekong Delta is the region with the smallest forest area in Vietnam. or 7.7% of the total area are forested as of 2011. The only provinces with large forests are Cà Mau and An Giang, together accounting for two-thirds of the region's forest area, while forests cover less than 5% of the area of all of the other eight provinces and cities. Climate change concerns Being a low-lying coastal region, the Mekong Delta is particularly susceptible to floods resulting from rises in sea level due to climate change. The Climate Change Research Institute at Cần Thơ University, in studying the possible consequences of climate change, has predicted that, besides suffering from drought brought on by seasonal decrease in rainfall, many provinces in the Mekong Delta face risk of flooding by the year 2030. Plans are currently being made to breach dykes in the upper Mekong delta, as a sedimentation enhancing strategy. This will not only increase the water retention capacity of the upper delta region, alleviating pressure on the lower delta, but also reintroduce sediment-rich water which may result in land elevation. Another problem caused by climate change is the increasing soil salinity near the coasts. Bến Tre province is planning to reforest coastal regions to counter this trend. The duration of inundations at an important road in the city of Cần Thơ is expected to continue to rise from the current total of 72 inundated days per year to 270 days by 2030 and 365 days by 2050. This is attributed to the combined influence of sea-level rise and land subsidence, which occurs at about annually. Additionally, international and local initiatives, including significant environmental funding and legislation like Resolution 120 in 2017, emphasize sustainable management and conservation of natural resources, focusing on nature-based solutions such as retrofitting dikes, mangrove restoration, and multi-value farming to mitigate environmental degradation. In August 2019, a Nature Communications study using an improved measure of elevation estimation, found that the delta was much lower than previous estimates, only a mean above sea level, with 75% of the delta—an area where 12 million people currently live—falling below . It is expected that a majority of the delta will be below sea level by 2050. ==Demographics==

The inhabitants of the Mekong Delta region are predominantly ethnic Vietnamese. It is home to the largest population of Khmer outside of Cambodia. The Khmer minority population live primarily in the Trà Vinh, Sóc Trăng, and Muslim Chăm in Tân Châu, An Giang and Cà Mau provinces. There are also sizeable Hoa (ethnic Chinese) populations in the Kiên Giang, and Trà Vinh provinces. The region had a population of 17.33 million people in 2011. The languages spoken in the Mekong Delta are mainly Vietnamese and Khmer which cover almost the majority of the population. Then there are also various Chinese languages spoken by the Hoa community, as well as the Cham and Mekong Delta Malay languages which are the lingua franca for the Muslim community there. The population of the Mekong Delta has been growing relatively slowly in recent years, mainly due to out-migration. The region's population only increased by 471,600 people between 2005 and 2011, while 166,400 people migrated out in 2011 alone. Together with the central coast regions, it has one of the slowest growing populations in the country. Population growth rates have been between 0.3% and 0.5% between 2008 and 2011, while they have been over 2% in the neighbouring southeastern region. Net migration has been negative in all of these years. The region also has a relatively low fertility rate, at 1.8 children per woman in 2010 and 2011, down from 2.0 in 2005. ==Provinces==

The Mekong Delta is by far Vietnam's most productive region in agriculture and aquaculture, while its role in industry and foreign direct investment (FDI) is much smaller. Agriculture 2.6 million ha in the Mekong Delta are used for agriculture, which is one fourth of Vietnam's total. The region's industry accounts for 10% of Vietnam's total as of 2011. Cà Mau province is home to a large industrial zone including power plants and a fertiliser factory. Accumulated foreign direct investment in the Mekong Delta until 2011 was $10.257bn. Companies from Ho Chi Minh City have also invested heavily in the region. Their investment from 2000 to June 2011 accounted for 199 trillion VND (almost $10bn). ==Infrastructure==

The construction of the Cần Thơ Bridge, a cable-stayed bridge over the largest distributary of the Mekong River, was completed on April 12, 2010, three years after a collapse that killed 54 and injured nearly 100 workers. The bridge replaces the ferry system that currently runs along National Route 1, and links Vĩnh Long province and Cần Thơ city. The cost of construction is estimated to be 4.842 trillion Vietnamese đồng (approximately 342.6 million United States dollars), making it the most expensive bridge in Vietnam. The region is served by 4 airports: • Can Tho International Airport • Ca Mau Airport • Rach Gia Airport • Phu Quoc International Airport (serving the island of Phú Quốc) However, Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Nhat International Airport is another alternative airport which provides more domestic and international destinations. The airport is approximately located 160 km north of Cần Thơ. ==Culture==

Life in the Mekong Delta revolves much around the river, and many of the villages are often accessible by rivers and canals rather than by road. The region is home to cải lương, a form of Kinh/Vietnamese folk opera. Cai Luong Singing appeared in Mekong Delta in the early 20th century. Cai Luong Singing is often performed to the accompaniment of guitar and zither. Cai Luong is a kind of play telling a story. This often includes two main parts: the dialogue part and the singing part to express their thoughts and emotions. Cuisine The Mekong Delta cuisine relies heavily on fresh products which is abundant in the new land with heavy use of seafoods and unique ingredients of the region such as palm sugar, basa fish and wild herbs and flowers such as điên điển, so đũa, kèo nèo. The history of the region being a newly settled area reflects on its cuisine, with Ẩm thực khẩn hoang or Settlers cuisine means dishes are prepared fresh from wild and newly-caught ingredients. The cuisine is also influenced by Khmer, Cham and Chinese settlers. This differs itself from the cuisine of other regions of Vietnam. Literature and movies Nguyễn Ngọc Tư, an author from Cà Mau province, has written many popular books about life in the Mekong Delta such as: • Ngọn đèn không tắt (The Inextinguishable Light, 2000) • Ông ngoại (Grandpa, 2001) • Biển người mênh mông (The Ocean of People, 2003) • Giao thừa (New Year's Eve, 2003) • Nước chảy mây trôi (Flowing Waters, Flying Clouds, 2004) • Cánh đồng bất tận (The Endless Field, 2005) The 2004 film The Buffalo Boy is set in Cà Mau province. Some Vietnamese films on the topic of life in the Mekong Delta attract the attention of a large audience: Tình Mẫu Tử (Mother and child love, 2019), Phận làm dâu (Bride's fate, 2018), etc. ==See also==