Experiencing the ups and downs of the rules of geological tectonics, the land called Tra Vang, precursor of Tra Vinh province was formed long time ago. At that time, Tra Vinh was still the desolate land, forest trees covered the land, marshes and rivers interlaced, the population was sparse.
In the seventeenth century, feudal states such as Vietnam, China, Cambodia, ... in the general context of the world have inevitably crunched and weakened. In Vietnam, the Trinh - Nguyen war (1627-1673) divided the country into two groups (the river Gianh as the boundary). This has resulted in the ten of thousands of farmers who have fallen into disasters and had to go to the South to find the living land.
By the end of the seventeenth century, the Nguyen Lord was active in organizing Vietnamese immigrants into the South, implementing the policies of recruiting and sending troops into the South. the Nguyen Lord settled on this Southern land, including Tra Vinh area.
Thus, the land of Tra Vinh, the offspring of the South China Sea and the Mekong River, a land containing a diverse ecosystem together with many different economic potentials, in the 17th century was the owner of a multi-ethnic communities (Viet, Khmer, Hoa ...) The formation of a multi-ethnic community on this land is one of the historical events of great significance for the formation and development of Tra Vinh province later.
The formation and development of Tra Vinh can be divided into two stages:
Stage 1: From 1732 to 1900.
The land with the name "Tra Vang", the predecessor of Tra Vinh province was named before the Nguyen Lord set up Chau Dinh Vien, built Long Ho palace in 1732. So then Tra Vinh land was in Chau Dinh Vien.
In 1802, after the reign of Emperor, the King Gia Long, immediately embarked on the reorganization and demarcation of administrative units throughout the country. From there, Gia Dinh was changed to Gia Dinh Tran. Gia Dinh Tran was divided into four palaces and one town, Tra Vinh was occupied Vinh Tran palace at that time.
In 1803, the King Gia Long set up the relics of Gia Dinh Tran and changed the Vinh Tran palace to Hoang Tran palace. The land of Tra Vinh was in Hoang Tran palace at that time.
In 1808, Gia Long changed Gia Dinh Tran to Gia Dinh Thanh, Vinh Tran palace was changed to Tran Vinh Thanh. At that time, the land of Tra Vinh in Tran Thanh Thanh.
In 1825, Tra Vinh was established by the King Minh Mang to Phu Lac Hoa belonging to Gia Dinh Thanh district, including Tra Vinh and Tuan My districts.
In 1832, Tran Vinh Thanh was renamed Tran Vinh Long. Later, King Minh Mang changed the towns into province. The South is divided into six provinces, Bien Hoa, Gia Dinh, Dinh Tuong, Vinh Long, An Giang and Ha Tien. At this time, Tra Vinh was a district of Phu Lac Hoa in Vinh Long province.
In 1876, the governor of the South decided to divide the whole of the South into four large administrative areas. Based on that division, the large administrative area of Vinh Long includes 4 sub-zones: Vinh Long, Tra Vinh, Ben Tre and Sa Dec. Tra Vinh sub-one is a precursor of Tra Vinh province.
On December 20, 1899, Governor General of Indochina Doumer signed a decree to change the name of the sub-zone into a province. From here, the old southern provinces were divided into 10 new provinces. The old Vinh Long province was divided into three new provinces: Vinh Long, Ben Tre and Tra Vinh. This decree was formally implemented from January 1, 1900. From here, the name of Tra Vinh province is officially used in French documents as Tra Vinh Province.
Stage 2: from 1900 to 1992.
From January 1, 1900, the name of Tra Vinh was officially used until May 1951, under the direction of the Central Bureau, the Southern Administrative Resistance Committee issued Decree No. 174/ NB-51 dated on June 26, 1951 on merging 20 southern provinces into 11 provinces. Accordingly, Vinh Long and Tra Vinh provinces were merged into Vinh Tra province.
From 1954 to 1960, My-Diem redistributed administrative boundaries of the southern provinces. In Tra Vinh province, the two districts of Cau Ke and Tieu Can were separated and merged with Tra On and Tam Binh districts of Vinh Long to establish a new province, Tam Can (according to Decree No. 16-NV dated January 9, 1956) and separating a part of Cau Ngang district to establish a new district of Long Toan (under Decree 143-NV dated October 22, 1956). In early 1957, Ngo Dinh Diem renamed Tra Vinh province into Vinh Binh province. Tam Can district was established for nearly a year and was dissolved, three districts of Tam Can and Vung Liem district of Vinh Long province were merged into Vinh Binh province (Decree No. 3-ND/HC/ND of March 1, 1957).
In furtherance of the Politburo's Resolution No. 245-NQ/TW of September 20, 1975 on the abandonment of the provincial area and Resolution No. 19/NQ dated December 20, 1975 of the Politburo on the consolidation of a number of provinces in the South of Vietnam; In February 1976, the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam issued a decree on the dissolution of the area, the consolidation of the province in the South of Vietnam. According to this Decree, there were 21 administrative units directly under the central government, Vinh Long and Tra Vinh provinces merged into Cuu Long province.
At the 10th session, the 8th National Assembly decided to split Cuu Long province into 2 provinces of Vinh Long and Tra Vinh. On May 5, 1992, Tra Vinh province officially came into operation and developed to today.
Currently, Tra Vinh is one of the 13 provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta, located downstream between the Tien and Hau rivers, bordering the East Sea. In general, Tra Vinh has the shape of a quadrilateral with a natural land area of 2.390,8 km2 with a population of 1.019.258 people (data of Tra Vinh Statistical Office 2022).
The administrative boundaries of Tra Vinh are divided into 9 units including Tra Vinh city, Duyen Hai town and 8 districts (Cang Long, Cau Ke, Tieu Can, Tra Cu, Cau Ngang, Duyen Hai and Chau Thanh). Tra Vinh is a community of three main ethnic groups are Kinh, Khmer, Hoa and a few other ethnic groups. Kinh people have the highest percentage of population in the province with 684,119 people, accounting for 67.5% of the province's population. In addition, Tra Vinh province is home to the second largest Khmer in the Mekong Delta as well as the country after Soc Trang province. The Khmer minority in Tra Vinh province has 320,292 people (accounting for 31.63%). Besides there are Chinese and some other compatriots such as Cham, Dao ... a total of 8,237 people make up 0.81% of the population of the province.
We know that in the past, Tra Vinh has formed a tradition of solidarity. It is the result of a growing community of people, developing the intimacy and unity of the Vietnamese, Khmer and Hoa in land reclamation. At the same time, land development was the formation and growth of class conflict, as well as the changes in Vietnamese society under the Nguyen dynasty in the 40-50s of the nineteenth century. It was a time when the social situation was very complex and many of the peasant uprisings were extinguished by the imperial court, prompting increasingly violent social conflicts.
However, from the end of the fifth decade of the nineteenth century, before the foreign invasion and all Tra Vinh ethnic groups temporarily shelved the conflict with feudal authorities to focus against France. From here, the history of Tra Vinh stepped into the new page, opening the anti - French colonial era.
As soon as the French colonialists invaded the land of Tra Vinh, they immediately encountered the drastic resistance of Tra Vinh people under the banner of Truong Dinh, Thu Khoa Huan, Vo Duy Duong, De Zhao, ... Although the insurrections have failed and lost much in terms of people and goods, but like the country, many people of Tra Vinh indomitable not afraid to sacrifice, not frustrated, but patiently learn how to do other activities to fight aggression. Patriotic activities against the French colonialists and henchmen in Tra Vinh during the first three decades of the twentieth century took place in two directions:
One direction is the movement of the peasant and petty bourgeois, typical as the assassination of two French colonial master made by Thong Chanh; Duy Tan movement; Dong Du movement, Dong Du movement, Thien Dia Hoi movement ...
Another is the communist movement, affecting Tra Vinh before 1920 with the victory of the Russian October Revolution. At this time, in Binh Dong (district 8, Ho Chi Minh City today), Ton Duc Thang and 17 comrades, including one comrade of Tra Vinh, Duong Quang Dong, and he established Cong Hoi Do.
With the love of the country and the revolutionary talents of youth, Duong Quang Dong coming Tra Vinh promoted the establishment of "Red Youth". This organization was born in Cau Ngang and Cang Long districts, which were also the foundations of the first Communist Party of Vietnam in Tra Vinh province in 1930. In the spring of 1930 , Tra Vinh Provincial Party Committee was born, and in 1945, under the direct guidance of Provincial Party Committee and Party committee of districts, Tra Vinh people took up the area to carry out General victory won on August 25, 194
The victory of the August Revolution in 1945 marked the beginning of a great journey into the development of Tra Vinh, but this historic journey has just begun, the French colonialists and the forces of rebellion fought wildly. The war exploded and spread throughout Tra Vinh province in the late fall of 1945, but the enemy was unable to crush the indomitable will of the communists and the patriotic power of the ethnic people in Tra Vinh hundreds of years living stogether on this land.
Under the leadership of Provincial Party and the revolutionary government, Tra Vinh peole made great feats like the Battle of La Bang (December 16, 1948); operation Cau Ke (1949); Tra Vinh campaign (1950) ... contributed to the country's victory Dien Bien Phu, forcing France to sign the Geneva Agreement, to withdraw troops.
Completing the task of fighting the French, Tra Vinh people continued to carry out the task of evicting the US out of the territory of the country. In the resistance war against the Americans, Tra Vinh people overcame many challenges, a heart of the Party, contributed to the South people completely defeated the war strategy set by the United States, made resounding feats like Dong Khoi (1960); in 1968 (with that victory, Tra Vinh's military was praised by the Party and State for the first-class Chengdu Medal and the glorious flag with eight golden words: "the people revolt, the unity formed ").
After the signing of the Paris Agreement (January 27, 1973), the United States withdrew its troops, Tra Vinh people and the people of the country under the leadership of the Party continued to overthrow the government of Nguy for independence. With the general uprising and spring uprising in 1975, culminating in the historic Ho Chi Minh Campaign, April 30, 1975, the South was completely liberated. On April 30th, the Vietnamese people in general and the people of Tra Vinh in particular became a glorious landmark on a unified day of national unification and nationwide socialism.
After the unification of peace, Tra Vinh along with the whole country has built up socialism implemented the renewal initiated by the Party. In execution of the Decision of the 8th National Assembly in May 1992, Tra Vinh province was
reestablished together with 12 provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta to build and develop economy. Ethnic communities in Tra Vinh always promote the tradition of national unity, heroic traditions in the resistance war, working hard to build a new life and the country in accordance with the objectives of the rich people, democratic, fair, civilized.
During the two resistance wars against France and America, Tra Vinh had 18,374 martyrs; 987 heroic Vietnamese mothers and 61 units, the locality was honored the title of Hero of Armed Forces.
Being a poor province with a mainly agricultural economy, with low starting point, Tra Vinh's Party and People's Army have made continuous efforts to bring the province to sustainable development in the fields of economy, culture and society, security and defense, .... In the past, in the battle Tra Vinh people did not spare their blood and bones, he fell in exchange for peace for the country with typical examples such as Nguyen Thi Ut (Ut Tich), Kien Thi Nhan, Ho Thi Nham, comrade Pham Thai Buong, Ho Duc Thang ... And today, in production labor, Tra Vinh people are hardworking, creative and hard at work. Overcoming the poverty challenge, they have devoted themselves to the cause of building and defending the achievements our father has won. Typical couple as war veterans "two halves of a hero title" Le Van Luc and Cam Thi Cuc; or "King Mangosteen" Luu Van Nhieu; the "ground patent" by Tran Van Dung; "rice king" Duong Van Chau ....
During the war, the people of Tra Vinh and the country have won over enemy aggressors. In peace, the people of Tra Vinh has once again won the poor. Tra Vinh have brought into the tradition of solidarity, diligence and creativity. The whole country has built up socialism, the way that our Party has chosen wisely.