Economy of Vietnam
Until the French colonization in the mid-19th century, Vietnam's economy had been mostly agrarian, subsistence-based and village-oriented. French colonizers, however, deliberately developed the regions differently as the French needed raw materials and a market for French manufactured goods, designating the South for agricultural production as it was better suited for agriculture, and the North for manufacturing as it was naturally wealthy in mineral resources. Though the plan exaggerated regional divisions, the development of exports—coal from the North, rice from the South—and the importation of French manufactured goods stimulated domestic commerce.
National Museum of Vietnamese History
The museum building used to be the archaeological research institution of the French School of the Far East under French colonial rule (Louis Finot "École française d'Extrême-Orient" EFEO), which opened in 1910. This was extensively refurbished in 1920, and redesigned between 1926 and 1932 by the architect Ernest Hébrard. It is considered a blend of French colonial and traditional Vietnamese architecture, also called Indochina architecture. The museum was acquired by the Government of Vietnam in 1958 and then the artifact collections were expanded to cover eastern arts and national history. It was formally opened for public viewing on 3 September 1958. The museum's exhibits highlight Vietnam's prehistory (about 300,000–400,000 years ago) up to the August 1945 Revolution.