Policies of Southeast Asian Governments Towards Catholicism in the 16th – 18th Centuries: Case Study of Cochinchina, Vietnam

The purpose of the research paper is to analyse the policy of the Nguyen Lords’ government towards Catholicism in the context of the increasing number of Western missionaries and merchants who arrived in Southeast Asia. The scientific novelty. The article comprehensively evaluates Nguyen Lords’ policy towards a new religion introduced into his territory, which is also a testament to the behaviour of a government in the Southeast Asian region towards Western culture in the 16th – 18th centuries. The authors analysed the reasons for the religious policy of the Nguyen Lords and assessed its consequences for both the country and Christianity. Conclusions. During more than two centuries of ruling Cochinchina, the Nguyen Lords implemented a flexible and pragmatic policy towards Catholicism: flexible in measures and methods of implementation, and pragmatic in the purpose and conditions for implementing policies. This policy would pave the way for ‘rejection’ when the influences of Catholicism proved dangerous to the rule; at the same time, the Nguyen Lords would enforce a ban on religion, even prohibiting the absorption of other cultures. The consequence of an extreme policy against religion led to the rejection of all achievements of Western civilisation. In other words, the xenophobic measures of the Nguyen Lords’ government further deprived the Vietnamese people of the opportunity to absorb new, progressive values. The Nguyen Lords proactively approached Western civilisation but did not focus on receiving its achievements, which made it impossible for Dang Trong to form a Western learning movement like Japan or Thailand, and they could not resolve the contradictions and social crises in Vietnam at that time. The tragedy of Vietnam’s history gradually took shape in that context. Especially from the end of the 18th century, Catholicism was exploited by Western countries to carry out their invasion, leading to events that changed the fate of Vietnam.