Ba Ria – Vung Tau

Ba Rịa-Vung Tau is a province of Vietnam. It is located on the coast of the country’s Southeast region. It also includes the Con Dao islands, located some distance off Vietnam’s southeastern coast. From 1954 to 1975, this province belonged to South Vietnam with the name Phuoc Tuy. Vung Tau was originally referred to as Tam Thang (“Three Boats”) in memory of the first three villages in this area: Thang Nhat, Thang Nhị, Thang Tam, within the province of Bien Hoa under the Nguyen Dynasty. Under the reign of king Gia Long (1761–1820), when Malay pirates built a base here and subsequently became a danger to traders in Gia Dịnh city, the king sent his army to crack down on the pirates. The pirates were ousted and the troops were given the land as a reward. 10 February 1859 marked the first use of cannons by Nguyen’s army, when they fired at French battleships from the fortress of Phuoc Thang, located 100m from Vung Tau’s Front Beach. This marked an important period in Vietnam’s war against French invaders in South Vietnam (then called Cochinchina).