Gia Long
founder and 1st emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty of Vietnam (r. 1802-04)
Gia Long (Chữ Hán: 嘉隆) (Vietnamese: [zaː lawŋ] (North), [jaː lawŋ] (South); 8 February 1762 – 3 February 1820), born Nguyễn Phúc Ánh (阮福暎) or Nguyễn Ánh (阮暎), was the founding emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty, the last dynasty of Vietnam, which would rule the unified territories that constitute modern-day Vietnam until 1945.
A nephew of the last Nguyễn lord who ruled over south Vietnam, Nguyễn Phúc Ánh was forced into hiding in 1777 as a 15-year-old when his family was slain in the Tây Sơn revolt. After several changes of fortune in which his loyalists regained and again lost Saigon, he befriended the French Catholic Bishop Pierre Pigneau de Behaine. Pigneau championed Nguyễn Phúc Ánh's cause to regain the throne to the French government and managed to recruit volunteers however, that soon encountered difficulties. From 1789, Nguyễn Phúc Ánh was once again in the ascendancy and began his northward march to defeat the Tây Sơn, reaching the border with the Qing dynasty by 1802, which had previously been under the control of the Trịnh lords. Following their defeat, he succeeded in reuniting Vietnam after centuries of internecine feudal warfare, with a greater landmass than ever before, stretching from the Qing's borders down to the Gulf of Siam.
Gia Long's rule was noted for its Confucian orthodoxy. He defeated the Tây Sơn rebellion and reinstated the classical Confucian education and civil service system. He moved the capital from Hanoi south to Huế as the country's populace had also shifted south over the preceding centuries, and built up several fortresses and a palace in his new capital. Using French expertise, he modernized Vietnam's defensive capabilities.
“Gia Long” enters the record as founder and 1st emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty of Vietnam (r. 1802-04). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Long, founder and emperor can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q210417. VIAF identifies the subject as 162630835. The Library of Congress control number is n97073081. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1762, 1820, 1945 and 1777.
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This entry incorporates text from “Gia Long” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.