Unfair Conditions In Vietnam Essay

The Vietnamese were subjected to unfair treatment and were being taken advantage of by their colonisers. Tenant farmers and sharecroppers were obliged to pay 50%-70% of their yield and present free gifts and services to their overlords. Exorbitant rents and interest rates that peasants had to pay on the debts to the landowners, with rates averaging about 10% a month, brought much difficulty to the peasants. One was often bound for life by these loans and most had to sell his possessions and even his children to pay off the debts.

The French also transformed land seized into huge plantations, with the intention of generating even more yield for export to create more economic wealth for themselves. With cheap labour, the French were able

Working hours could be as long as 15 a day, without rest or sufficient food and water. Malnutrition and malaria were widespread on plantations. It was typical to have several workers die in a day. One infamous example is of Michelin, a French tyre manufacturer. In 20 years, one Michelin-owned plantation recorded 17,000 deaths.

The workers worked for exceptionally low wages. Some were paid in rice rather than money, which meant that these labourers would have no savings or money to break out of the poverty cycle and their purchasing power would remain low. According to French colonial statistics, a fully employed worker had an average annual income of 48 piasters in the late 1920s, which was barely sufficient for a person to buy enough rice for a year. There were no legislations protecting workers and no trade union freedoms. All strikes were offences punishable by imprisonment or exile.

As a number of French journalists denounced in their reports, French colonialism was virtual slavery. Peasants were held down by the French and their freedom was severely restricted. In the process of generating economic wealth for themselves, the peasants’ quality of life and standard of living dropped noticeably and their social welfare was compromised.

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