World War II: The Empire of Vietnam, a short-lived Japanese puppet state, is established with Bảo Đại as its ruler.
The Empire of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Đế-quốc Việt-Nam; Literary Chinese and Contemporary Japanese: 越南帝國; Modern Japanese: ベトナム帝国, Betonamu Teikoku) was a short-lived puppet state of Imperial Japan governing the former French protectorates of Annam and Tonkin between March 11 and August 25, 1945. At the end of its rule, the empire also successfully reclaimed Cochinchina as part of Vietnam.