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A City of Two Names: Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City
Affectionately dubbed the “Pearl of the far East” by the French, the city known by two
names – Ho Chi Minh City and/or Saigon, is the biggest city in the country of Vietnam. The city
is currently home to 8.6 million people as of 2020, according to macrotrends.net. The city was
once the capital of Vietnam but has since lost that designation and is now recognized as not
only Vietnam’s biggest city, but its financial and commercial hub as well. With a storied history,
the city has undergone a tremendous amount of change from its early days as empty
marshlands to the bustling metropolis we see today. I will take you through the city’s rich past,
examine the city’s present-day affairs and discuss its future aspirations.
The area that was to become Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon had very humble beginnings as
uninhabited marshlands within the kingdom of Cambodia (Britannica). Originally called Prey
Nokor, the area was first occupied by the Khmer Krom people from the 11th-century Ankor
State (Word-Guides). Vietnamese immigrants settled in the area during the 17th century to
escape an ongoing civil war between the Trinh dynasty and the Nguyen dynasty
(Vietnamtravelguide). Eventually the Vietnamese displaced the Khmer Krom people as the
ethnic majority, and the city was renamed Saigon. A Nguyen nobility named Nguyen Huu Canh
first came to Saigon in 1698 and officially declared it as Vietnamese territory; thus, ushering a
new age of expansion for the once small fishing village.
In the 18th century, Vietnam and France first began to establish relations as French
traders and missionaries began arriving and settling in the area (Britannica). This would begin
what would be a complicated, if not controversial, bond between these two countries, as we’ll
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discuss a little later on. But the French took Saigon in 1859 and in 1862 the Vietnamese
emperor Tu Duc officially ceded the town to the new conquerors. Under French control, Saigon
saw great growth as it became a major port city and we begin to see the city be redesigned as it
quickly expanded. French architecture was introduced to the city and implemented on the
design of new villas and public buildings, tree-lined boulevards created, and rail-lines were
constructed connecting the northern and southern parts of the city. As the capital of French
colonized Cochinchina, Saigon was a favorite of the French as it represented the strength of the
French empire and the splendor of French urban planning (themetropole).
Although Vietnamese culture acquired many great characteristics of French influence;
the relationship between the two groups of people was an uneasy one. Saigon was inhabited
