Editing Paracel Islands (section)

===== 15th–17th centuries =====
[[File: Partie de la Cochichine atlas.jpg|thumb|Atlas produced by Belgian geographer Philippe Vandermaelen (1795–1869), published in 1827 in Belgium, showing Paracel Islands is a part of Vietnam]]
* 1460–1497, under the reign of Emperor [[Lê Thánh Tông]] of the [[Lê dynasty]] (1428–1789), the Vietnamese began conducting commercial activities on and around Hoàng Sa, including harvesting abundant sea-products and conducting salvage operations on shipwrecks.<ref name="TSSĐ"/>
* In 1634, during year fifth of [[Lê Thần Tông|Emperor Đức Long]] of Vietnam (1629–1635), the ship Grootebroek of the [[Dutch East India Company]] sank in the vicinity of the Paracel archipelago. Using a small boat, captain Huijch Jansen and 12 sailors managed to reach [[Cochinchina|Đàng Trong]], territory of Lord [[Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên]] (1613–1635), to seek rescue for other castaways still on the islands.<ref>W.J.M. Buch, [http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/befeo_0336-1519_1936_num_36_1_3662?_Prescripts_Search_isPortletOuvrage=false La Compagnie des Indes Néerlandaises et l'Indochine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120117171422/http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/befeo_0336-1519_1936_num_36_1_3662?_Prescripts_Search_isPortletOuvrage=false |date=January 17, 2012 }}, pp.134–135, 1936, Persee. Retrieved May 4, 2009. (in French)</ref>
* 1680–1705, Lord [[Trịnh Căn]] of [[Tonkin]] instructed [[Đỗ Bá Công Đạo]] to publish ''Thiên Nam tứ chí lộ đồ'' (天南四至路圖), an encyclopedia consisting of four series of maps that detail routes from Thăng Long{{clarify|reason=initial mention -- means nothing without clarification inline or by hyperlink|date=July 2022}}, capital of Đại Việt{{clarify|reason=initial mention -- means nothing without clarification inline or by hyperlink|date=July 2022}}, to other countries in [[Southeast Asia]]. Part of this work was based on the [[Hồng Đức]] Atlas ([[Hồng Đức Bản Đồ]]) developed during the time of Emperor [[Lê Thánh Tông]] (1460–1497). This encyclopedia was considered one of the oldest and rarely preserved Vietnamese documents regarding the islands. The volume "Đường từ phủ Phụng Thiên đến Chiêm Thành" (The Route to [[Champa]] from Phụng Thiên Province), remarkably described the archipelago with maps. For instance, a statement found in the volume read "In the middle of the sea, there is a long sandbank called Bãi Cát Vàng, which is approximately 400-league long and 20-league wide rising up above the sea." Bãi Cát Vàng means Hoàng Sa, Golden Sandbank.<ref name="TSSĐ"/><ref>Đỗ Bá Công Đạo, ''Toàn Tập Thiên Nam Tứ Chí Lộ Đồ Thư'', Translated into modern Vietnamese from Chinese by Buu Cam, Hồng Đức Bản Đồ, Saigon, 1962.</ref>
* In the 18th century, under instructions of the [[Nguyễn lords]], the salvage operations officially started with the formation of Hoàng Sa and Bắc Hải Companies. Their responsibility was to carry out the mission at Hoàng Sa (Golden Sandbank) and Vạn Lý Trường Sa (Ten-thousand-league Long Sandbank) respectively. This effort was continued thereafter with successive establishments of other naval task units in accordance with strategic policies toward the two archipelagos under the Nguyễn dynasty. Noticeably, a number of naval battles between the Dutch fleet and the Nguyễn Royal Navy occurred in 1643 and 1644. The Hoàng Sa naval task unit consisted of 70 men recruited from An Vĩnh and An Hải villages of [[Quảng Ngãi]], while the majority of members of the Bắc Hải Company came from [[Bình Thuận Province|Bình Thuận province]].<ref name="TSSĐ"/><ref name="PHC"/><ref name="PBTL">Lê Quý Đôn, The Encyclopedia of [[Thuận Hóa]] and [[Quảng Nam]] ''Phủ Biên Tập Lục'', 1776. Translated into modern Vietnamese from Chinese by Le Xuan Giao, Saigon, 1972.</ref><ref name="MCG">Monique Chemillier-Gendreau, ''Sovereignty Over the Paracel and Spratly Islands'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=58q1SMZbVG0C&dq=Samuels+%2B+hai+luc&pg=PA74 p36] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101102529/https://books.google.com/books?id=58q1SMZbVG0C&pg=PA74&dq=Samuels+%2B+hai+luc#PPA36,M1 |date=January 1, 2016 }}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=58q1SMZbVG0C&dq=Samuels+%2B+hai+luc&pg=PA74 p37], [https://books.google.com/books?id=58q1SMZbVG0C&dq=Samuels+%2B+hai+luc&pg=PA74 p68], [https://books.google.com/books?id=58q1SMZbVG0C&dq=Samuels+%2B+hai+luc&pg=PA74 p69], [https://books.google.com/books?id=58q1SMZbVG0C&dq=Samuels+%2B+hai+luc&pg=PA74 p71], [https://books.google.com/books?id=58q1SMZbVG0C&dq=Samuels+%2B+hai+luc&pg=PA74 p72], [https://books.google.com/books?id=58q1SMZbVG0C&dq=Samuels+%2B+hai+luc&pg=PA74 p74], [http://www.free-ebooks.net/ebook/Sovereignty-over-the-Paracel-and-Spratly-Islands/html/114 p129] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714170731/http://www.free-ebooks.net/ebook/Sovereignty-over-the-Paracel-and-Spratly-Islands/html/114 |date=July 14, 2014 }}, Kluwer Law International, {{ISBN|90-411-1381-9}}. Retrieved August 4, 2009</ref>