Cường Để

Cường Để
Vietnamese name
Quốc ngữ	Cường Để
Chữ nôm	彊柢

Prince Cường Để (Chữ nôm: ; born Nguyễn Phúc Đan (阮福單), 1882-1951) was an early 20th century Vietnamese revolutionary who, along with Phan Bội Châu, unsuccessfully tried to liberate Vietnam from French colonial occupation.

He was a royal relative of the Nguyen Dynasty, and, according to the old rule of primogeniture, was the heir of the dynasty, directly issued from the line of first-born descendants of Emperor Gia Long and his son Prince Canh. ["A Vietnamese Royal Exile in Japan" By My-Van Tran, Tran My-Van My Duong p.22 [http://books.google.com/books?id=XTW6ZlhLUQYC&pg=PA22&dq=%22My+Duong%22&sig=ACfU3U1Z5eardGPD8QBoQtQK9rvFLfY90A] ] He was officially an "external marquis" ("Ky Ngoai Hau"), who used his royal lineage to gain the support of wealthy patriots, particularly in the south of Vietnam, to finance his independence movement.

He was involved in the 1905 Đông Du (Go East) movement, which sent Vietnamese students to study in Japan, and for being the nominal leader of the 1904 "Reformation Society" (Duy Tân Hội) and the 1911 "Vietnam Restoration Organisation" (Việt Nam Quang Phục Hội).

However he is a controversial figure due to his later support of the Japanese occupation of Vietnam during World War II, who he hoped would liberate Vietnam from the French.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.yale.edu/seas/phan%20boi%20chau.pdf Phan Bội Châu and the Dông-Du Movement] edited by Vinh Sinh of Yale University (PDF).
* [http://print.google.com/print?hl=en&id=Y84Q9VcJ0BkC Overturned Chariot: Phan Bội Châu's Autobiography]