Nationalism in Indo-China was shaped by the experience of colonialism similar to that of India.

Indo- China, comprising modern countries of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, is historically linked to China.

Vietnam came under the colonial domination of the French. Resistance against colonialism emerged from schools, city streets, villages and religious centres. The Vietnamese nationalists from different walks of life had to strengthen Vietnamese traditions to resist domination of the West.

Geographically located at the borders of China, the Chinese Communist Movement took strong roots in Vietnam.

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In 1940, Japan occupied Vietnam. In the course of the Second World War, the United States of America, worried about the Communists gaining power, stepped on Vietnamese soil. The nationalist movement had to resist the Chinese as much as the colonial powers, the French, the Japanese and the Americans.

The different sections of society and social groups like the school children, women, peasants, elite and others responded to the challenges in a variety of ways.