ABSTRACT
The Nguyễn family’s rule over southern Vietnam during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was an important historical period in the history of Southeast Asia. The Nguyễn began its expansion in 1558 with a provincial military governorship in Thuận Hóa, in the then southern-most reaches of Vietnamese territory. By its end in 1776, Nguyễn rule had extended beyond Thuận Hóa by incorporating the regions of Quảng Nam, Phú Yên, the former Champa kingdom of Panduranga (Bình Thuận and Khánh Hòa), and the Mekong Delta, including Hà Tiên. In the process, the Nguyễn destroyed the remnants of the declining kingdom of Champa, and wrested most of the Mekong Delta from a much-weakened Khmer kingdom.
