Mạc Cửu

Mạc Cửu was a Chinese merchant and Ming loyalist from Guangdong who settled at Peam, a Cambodian coastal town on the Gulf of Thailand, in the late 17th century. He developed it into the trading port of Hà Tiên, with gambling dens and markets that drew merchants from across the region. In 1708 he placed it under the protection of the Nguyễn lords, and his descendants ruled it as a semi-independent principality.