Question

In paragraph 4 of this section, it says that the French “misread their colonial subjects” and that the Vietnamese “spurned slavery.” Using context clues, what do these words mean? What do these particular words help the reader understand about the relationship between the Vietnamese and the French?

Answer 1

Answer:

The 4th paragraph of the text titled The Vietnam Wars is the following:

They drafted peasants to produce rubber, alcohol, and salt in  slavelike conditions. They also ran a thriving opium business and  turned thousands of Vietnamese into addicts. When France arrived  in Vietnam, explained Paul Doumer, architect of the colonial  economy, "the Annamites were ripe for servitude."  But the French, like the Chinese before them, misread their colonial  subjects. The Vietnamese spurned slavery, and organized a  determined resistance, using their knowledge of the countryside to  outwit the French. "Rebel bands disturb the country everywhere,"  complained a French commander in Saigon. "They appear from  nowhere in large numbers, destroy everything, and then disappear  into nowhere."

Based on the given context, we can determine that the words misread their colonial  subjects mean that the French didn't correctly predict what the reaction of the Vietnamese, whom they wanted to colonize, would be like. The words spurned slavery mean that the Vietnamese violently rejected to bow down to the French. We can see that the relationship between the French and Vietnamese wasn't a peaceful one.