This was the time of indomitable national struggles and appearance of some events that decided our nation's fate. That was the establishment of the Vietnam Communist Party on February 3rd 1930. Ha Nam was a small province but it was one of 5 provinces, which had most farmers in the North, and it also lied in the centre of Northern Delta. People mainly lived on growing rice. Some plantations were set up in Kim Bang and Thanh Liem at the end of XIX century, mainly growing industrial plants and raising cattle. Besides, stone exploitation also developed. Others such as cigarette production, paper-fan making and eggs hatching... started developing, and there were many shops in Phu Ly. Traffic system included roadway and waterway. Around 1.3 % of the population in the province went to school in this time. On October 20th 1890, Governor - general of Indochina made a Decree to establish Ha Nam province, based on the expansion of Ly Nhan district. At this time, Ha Nam province included the whole old Ly Nhan district, 2 cantons of Moc Hoan and Chuyen Nguyep in Phu Xuyen district, Thuong Tin district (Hanoi) integrated into Duy Tien district, 17 communes in Vu Ban district, Nghia Hung district, Thuong Nguyen district and Xuan Truong district (Nam Dinh) integrated into Ly Nhan district. Thus, when establishing, Ha Nam province was Phu Ly district expanded towards Ha Noi and Nam Dinh. At that time, Ha Nam had 5 districts namely Kim Bang, Thanh Liem, Ly Nhan, Binh Luc and Duy Tien.
On October 24th 1908, Lac Thuy mountain district (Hoa Binh province) was merged into Ha Nam. In May 1953, The Central decided to cut Nam Dinh province's northern districts including Y Yen, Vu Ban, My Loc and 7 northern communes in Nghia Hung district to integrate into Ha Nam province and move Lac Thuy mountain district to Hoa Binh province. In April 1956, after tax reduction and land reform, 3 districts of Y Yen, Vu Ban, My Loc and 7 communes in Nghia Hung district were merged again into Nam Dinh province. In 1965, Ha Nam and Nam Dinh were integrated into Nam Ha province. At the beginning of 1976, Nam Ha and Ninh Binh were integrated into Ha Nam Ninh province. In 1992, Ha Nam Ninh was divided into Nam Ha and Ninh Binh and in 1997, Nam Ha continued being divided into Nam Dinh and Ha Nam. At that time, Ha Nam included 5 districts like Kim Bang, Duy Tien, Thanh Liem, Ly Nhan, Binh Luc and Phu Ly town. The province consisted of 114 communes and towns.
French-resistance movement in Ha Nam was raised by Dinh Cong Trang, the soul of the Ba Dinh fighting in Thanh Hoa, but it finally failed.
In this period, worker class appeared in Ha Nam. In 1930, the number of workers in Ha Nam were 1,400 mainly in plantations, stone works and Phu Ly station.
In 1927, Tran Tu Yen, a student of Indochina Commerce College, a member of Vietnam Youth Revolution went to Lung Xuyen (Duy Tien) to teach. He and Nguyen Huu Tien, Vu Hung Uyen set up Vietnam Youth Revolutionary Cell in Lung Xuyen communal house. In October 1929, Comrade Le Cong Thanh was appointed to build Party cells in Ha Nam. In October 1930, the Provisional Provincial Committee was established. Under the leading of the Provisional Provincial Committee, Ha Nam revolutionary movement had new progresses. In the 1930-1939 period, there were Bo De farmers' rising in Binh Luc and the movement of receiving newspapers. Nguyen Thuong Cat translated Kark Mark book "Capital" into 3 parts. Farmers upraised against despotic landowners.
The 1939-1945 period was the top leading to the struggle to gain authority in the nation and in Ha Nam. In Hanoi, August 20-24th 1945, uprisings took place in all districts and reached glorious victories.
As soon as the struggle for defending and reinforcing revolutionary authority of people nationwide and in Ha Nam to eliminate poverty, illiteracy, French army returned to invade our country. People nationwide and in Ha Nam built fighting villages, consolidated the rear and struggled uncompromisingly against the enemy. In the French-resistance war, Ha Nam army and people organized more than 100 small and big matches and killed over 40,000 enemies.
Ha Nam people actively produced and built the self-supporting economy to feed fighting soldiers, contributing to Dien Bien Phu Victory with people nationwide. In 9 years of struggling against French, Ha Nam army and people made glorious victories, contributing to the common victory of the nation and bringing our country to step into a new period: the period of building socialism in the North and struggling for Southern liberation and national unity.
On July 3rd 1954, Ha Nam was thoroughly liberated. On July 13th 1954, Standing Provincial Party Committee decided some first tasks and solutions to stabilize the situation. Ha Nam people started building socialism. Its economy was recovered and people's life was gradually stable after hard years of war. Its defense and security were reinforced and intensified and social orders were maintained.
Ten years of building and developing the economy (1954-1964) created a complete renewable society. But on August 5th 1964, US army carried out the war to destroy the North. Phu Ly town was destroyed by US bombs. Ha Nam people with the spirit of producing and struggling determined to hold their land and gained the glorious victory. Gaining many successes in the battlefields as well as in the field of agricultural and industrial production, Ha Nam people actively supported human resources and materials for Southern battlefields.
Then US army continued conducting the second destroying war in the North which was much more severe than the first one. Phu Ly town shouldered many bombs of American Empire. From April to October 1972, as many as 633 times of releasing bombs happened in Ha Nam with over 1,300 airplanes of all kinds. In the 2 US destroying wars, Ha Nam people carried out more than 50 struggles and shot down 13 US planes. Together with defeating US destroying war by airforce, Ha Nam supported 60,000 soldiers, 3,000 volunteers and thousands tons of food and foodstuff for the great battlefield. On April 30th 1975, the country was liberated, Ha Nam people united to overcome difficulties to build socialism with people nationwide.
