In 1802, Gia Long ascended the throne and established the Nguyen Dynasty, with Hue as the capital. Thang Long no longer played this role and latter was renamed Hoai Duc prefecture. In 1831, a large administrative reformation was carried out to abolish the tran (equivalent to a province) and divided the country into provinces. As a result, Hanoi province has come into existence since then. The newly- established province was given this name because it lies within (noi) two rivers (ha) (the Hong and the Day rivers). It included 4 prefectures and 15 districts. The provincial town was located in the former Thang Long Citadel, which was initially called Hanoi provincial city, and then, in brief, Hanoi.

In 1883 Hanoi was occupied by the French. In 1886, the Hanoi City was founded with an area of 3 km2 which was expanded in 1939 to 12 km2, inhabited by 300,000 people.

Let's look back to the days when King Ly Thai To settled the new capital. Legend has it that, standing by the Cal River, the King saw a yellow dragon emerged from water, and then soared up into the sky. He took it for a good omen, and decided to name the new capital Thang Long (Soaring Dragon).

Possibly, this was only a trail of early morning thin clouds refracted by the colours of the rainbow. However, the story of a "Soaring Dragon" also reflects the take-off of a new city that emerged due to historical necessity to accomplish the mission of being the heart of a nation with a long standing history.

Since then Thang Long has withnessed many glorious victories. In the 13th century, the Yuan troops three times invaded Vietnam and entered the Thang Long capital. Our strategy "Empty Citadel" made them fall into an awkward situation with predicament and hunger, and subsequently suffer from ignominious defeats.

In the early 15th century, the country was invaded by the Ming troops. Thang Long became the place of decisive battles against invaders. After 10 years of resistance, Le Loi led his army to attack Thang Long in 1427, and kept the Ming aggressors trapped in it. Being overwhelmed by power and enthusiasm of Le Loi's troops, the Ming commanders, and soldiers had to swear at the Southern Gate of the Citadel to surrender and withdraw from Vietnam. During the Tay Son Peasant uprising, Thang Long was where Nguyen Hue , the Commander-in-chief of the Tay Son army, also known as an "Ao vai co dao" hero (Peasant Hero with a red flag), recorded many glorious victories. The most prominent of them is the Dong Da victory in 1789 over the Qing. By the morning of the Fifth day of the Lunar New Year, various wings of the Tay Son troops simultaneously attacked the Manchu outposts, smashed the enemy's positions and defeated more than 300,000 Manchu militarymen. Contributions to this victory were made also by the inhabitants of Thang Long.

In the early 19th century, the Nguyen Dynasty was established, and Hue was made its capital. Thang Long remained the provincial town of Hanoi province, and Hanoi stayed the most civilized land of the country. A foreigner commented: "Although no longer being the capital, Hanoi stays the leading city of the country in the arts, industrial production, wealth, trade, population, culture and refinement, etc. Generally speaking, it is eventually the heart of this nation." (De la Liraye - 1877).

Hanoi was the very city where French colonialists met with the stiffest resistance of the Vietnamese people. Hanoians, continuously launched uprisings against the French domination. The workers' movement in Hanoi experienced nunerous ups and downs. Severe repression could not weaken it. In the light of Marxism - Leninism. that penetrated deep into the heart of Hanoians with the thought of Nguyen Ai Quoc (Ho Chi Minh), the movement became more and more ebullient. As its climax, on August 19, 1945, Hanoi's people staged an uprising to seize power and to establish a local revolutionary government, thus starting the Nationwide General Uprising. Half a month later, on September 2, 1945, at the Ba Dinh Square, President Ho Chi Minh read the Declaration of Independence to found the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

But French colonialists stubbornly pursued the aim of reconquering Vietnam. On December 19, 1946 Hanoians all together stood up to take part in the 9-year Nationwide Resistance against French reconquerers which ended with the triumphal Dien Bien Phu campaign.

Five months late, on October 10, 1954, Hanoi was liberated, and the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Government retumed to Hanoi. Despite the temporary division of the country into two zones, Southern and Northem, by the USA, Hanoi never ceased to be the place to which the whole Vietnamese people turned their heart and confidence. During the anti-American Resistance, Hanoi provided South Vietnam with its whole-hearted support and assistance while accelerating the construction of socialism and fighting against American air raids as the war was expanded to the North.

In 1965, Hanoi fought resolutely the US air-war of destruction. Inspired by the national traditional heroism and indomitable spirit, Hanoians resisted and defeated the enemy's military adventure. Especially, with the 12-day-and-night battle at the end of 1972, Hanoi broke down US largest assault by air-forces, making the glorious "Dien Bien Phu victory on the air" which contributed to forcing the Americans to end the war. Up to that date, Hanoi had shot down 358 US planes including 23 B52 aircrafks, and captured many US pilots.

The historic and triumphal Ho Chi Minh campaign in 1975 put an end to the anti-US resistance war. South Vietnam was completely liberated and Vietnam was reunified. The first session of the Sixth National Assembly in July 1976, decided to make Hanoi the capital of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.