Cuong De

Who was Cuong De?

Prince Cường Để was an early 20th-century Vietnamese revolutionary who, along with Phan Bội Châu, unsuccessfully tried to liberate Vietnam from French colonial occupation.

Để was a royal relative of the Nguyễn Dynasty, and, according to the old rule of primogeniture, was the heir of the dynasty, directly issued from the line of first-born descendants of Emperor Gia Long and his son Prince Cảnh. He was officially an "external marquis", who used his royal lineage to gain the support of wealthy patriots, particularly in the south of Vietnam, to finance his independence movement.

He was involved in the 1905 Đông Du movement, which sent Vietnamese students to study in Japan, and for being the nominal leader of the 1904 Reformation Society and the 1911 Vietnam Restoration Organisation. However he became controversial due to his later support of the Japanese occupation of Vietnam during World War II, which he hoped would liberate Vietnam from the French.