Paracel islands of Vietnam

Starting in the 16th century, several Western maps featured the Indies or East Indies (or East India), which include the lands of South and Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, as having Hoang Sa in the East Vietnam Sea, and marking the coastline to the west of Hoang Sa (the central Vietnamese coast) as Costa de Paracels (Coast of Paracels).

Paracel islands

During the 17th and especially 18th centuries, more maps clearly indicated the position, geographical features, and relationship of Hoang Sa to “Dang Trong” (Inner Half – an area of Vietnamese southward expansion in the past).

However, most of these maps still included Hoang Sa in the Indies or East Indies.

Not until the early 19th century—when the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945), Vietnam’s last monarchy, was formed and fully asserted Vietnamese sovereignty—did Western maps officially recognize Hoang Sa as belonging to Vietnam. 

Spratly islands of Vietnam

Spratly islands

The Spratly Islands are located in the southeastern Vietnam, including a group of more than 100 islands, reefs and atolls scattered from the west to the east about nearly 350 sea miles wide, and from the north to the south about over 360 sea miles. The nearest island is the Truong Sa Island, which is about 250 sea miles from the Cam Ranh Port of Khanh Hoa Province. 

In the Truong Sa archipelago, there are many such islands which are inhabited. For example, Đá Nam, Đá Lớn, Thuyền Chài, Cô Lin, Len Đao, Tiên Nữ, Núy Le, Tốc Tan, Đá Dông, Đá Tây, Đá Lát and Đá Thị. On each of them stand a few little houses, small but solid and resistant to strong winds with a living room, a kitchen, a meeting room, a gym and a few bedrooms. These islands are connected by bridges whose names are taken from bridges in the soldiers’ native villages