The Border Security Framework and Logics of Conflict Resolution on a 19th-Century Vietnamese Frontier

Andrew Hardy (1, 2)

1 EFEO - École française d'Extrême-Orient
2 CASE - Centre Asie du Sud-Est

Since 1819, a long wall has stretched from north to south across the province of Quảng Ngãi in central Vietnam. Before its abandonment in 1903, soldiers of a Mountain Defence force (Sơn Phòng) manned the dozens of forts dotted along its length. The wall, locals say, was built to divide the stateless Hrê people of the western valleys from the Vietnamese kingdom in the plains. Indeed, vestiges of this 127-km line still demarcate the zones inhabited by these two ethnic groups: even today, few Hrê live to its east, and the Viet population of the western districts is low.

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société

Andrew Hardy. The Border Security Framework and Logics of Conflict Resolution on a 19th-Century Vietnamese Frontier. SEATIDE: Integration in Southeast Asia: Trajectories of Inclusion, Dynamics of Exclusion, 2016. ⟨hal-03744650⟩