Vietnam (Vietnamese: Việt Nam pronounced [vîət nāːm] ( listen)), officially the Socialist

Republic of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Cộng hòa xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam), is the easternmost
country on the Southeast Asian Indochinese Peninsula. With an estimated 95.5 million
inhabitants as of 2018, it is the 15th most populous country in the world. Vietnam shares its land
borders with China to the north, and Laos and Cambodia to the west. It shares its maritime
borders with Thailand through the Gulf of Thailand, and
the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia through the South China Sea.[n 4] Its capital city is Hanoi,
while its most populous city is Ho Chi Minh City.
Archaeological excavations indicate that Vietnam was inhabited as early as the Paleolithic age.
The ancient Vietnamese nation was annexed by China in the 2nd century BC, which
subsequently made Vietnam a division of China for over a millennium. The first
independent monarchy emerged in the 10th century AD. This paved the way for successive
imperial dynasties as the nation expanded geographically southward until the Indochina
Peninsula was colonised by the French in the mid-19th century. Modern Vietnam was born upon
the Declaration of Independence from France in 1945. Following Vietnamese victory against the
French in the First Indochina War, which ended in 1954, the nation was divided into two rival
states: communist North and anti-communist South. Conflicts intensified in the Vietnam War,
which saw extensive US intervention in support of South Vietnam and ended with North
Vietnamese victory in 1975.
After North and South Vietnam were reunified under a unitary socialist government in 1976, the
country became economically and politically isolated until 1986, when the Communist
Party initiated a series of economic and political reforms that facilitated Vietnamese integration
into world politics and the global economy. As a result of the successful reforms, Vietnam has
enjoyed a high GDP growth rate, consistently ranked among the fastest-growing countries in the
world. It nevertheless faces challenges including poverty, corruption and inadequate social
welfare. By 2010, Vietnam had established diplomatic relations with 178 countries. It is a
member of such international organisations as the United Nations (UN), the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, and
the World Trade Organization (WTO).