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Podcast Transcript
Landlocked and often overlooked, Laos sits at the crossroads of Southeast Asia, shaped by empires, rivers, and war.
From the rise of the Lan Xang (Lan Sang) kingdom to centuries of domination by neighboring powers, from French colonial rule to its role as a front in the Cold War, its history is anything but quiet.
And while it seldom grabs headlines, Laos’s story is one of change, shaped by geography, politics, and external influences.
Learn more about the history of Laos on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
To understand Laos and its history, you first have to understand its unique geography.
Unlike every other country in Southeast Asia, Laos is landlocked. Because it lacks access to the sea, the country faces significant disadvantages and challenges.
The country sits between China and Burma to the North, Thailand to the West, Vietnam to the East, and Cambodia to the South.
Much of Laos is a forested, mountainous landscape. The highest mountain in Laos is Phou Bia, which reaches 2,818 meters or 9,245 feet. Despite most of the country being mountainous, plains and plateaus can also be found.
Perhaps the most important geographical feature of Laos is the Mekong River. The 12th-largest river in the world, the Mekong serves as the “lifeblood” of Laos, providing food security, transportation, and power to millions of people.
The Mekong River spans multiple countries. Historically, this was important for the spread of culture, people, and goods. Today, the river is still used for internal and international trade as it flows into Cambodia and then Vietnam before reaching the sea.
The Mekong River itself is home to the largest inland fishery in the world. This is especially important for Laos, which is landlocked. The Mekong serves as a substitute for the nation’s sea. The freshwater fish caught in the river accounts for roughly 90% of the protein that lowland Laotians eat.
I fondly recall eating dinner at a makeshift restaurant under a tent along the banks of the Mekong in Vientiane. It was just a guy selling grilled fish and beer out of a cooler. It was one of the best and cheapest meals I had in Laso.
In addition, the river provides another abundant food: rice.
Rice is a staple in Laotian meals, and the country has one of the highest per capita rice consumption rates in the world. The river provides irrigation for rice fields within the country, especially in the Southern region.
Between fish and rice, the Mekong is critical to Laos’s survival.
The Laotian climate is tropical. It has a massive monsoon season between May and October. The rest of the year is considered to be the “dry season.” Most Laotians refer to three different seasons: rainy, cool, and hot.
The “Hot” season is a span of two months during the dry period that are considerably hotter than the other months during the same span.
The country can be split into four different ecological regions: the Mekong River, the Indochina Dry Forests, the Annamite Range Moist Forests, and the Northern Indochina Subtropical Moist Forest.
Because of its diverse ecosystems, Laos is among the most biodiverse places in the world. A large part of this can be attributed to the Mekong River, which is home to some of the world’s most critically endangered species, such as the Irrawaddy Dolphin and the Siamese crocodile.
The country is home to 8,000 to 11,000 plant species, nearly 100 bat species, roughly 170 reptile species, 700 bird species, 500 fish species, and 100 mammal species, with new species still being discovered.
The forested habitat and water supply are home to many species that are extinct or endangered in other countries. This includes the Indochinese tiger, Asian elephant, and clouded leopard
Humans have inhabited Laos for millennia, with the oldest recorded human remains dating back 46,000 years. These were recovered from the Tam Pa Ling cave in the Annamite Mountain Range, in the Northern part of the country. These remains are currently the oldest in Southeast Asia.
Archaeological evidence indicates that several cultures formed in the region. The earliest of these is thought to have been agriculturally based and can be dated back to the 4th Millennium BC.
There was also a society thought to have formed around 1500 BC, based on the discovery of bronze and later iron tools in the area. It is believed that the early societies primarily interacted with early Chinese and Indian civilizations.
The most notable early Laotian society was the kingdom of Lan Xang. Translated to “million elephants,” the kingdom was founded in the 13th century by a prince named Fa Ngum.
Fa Ngum’s family had been exiled from the Khmer Empire because his father had seduced one of the emperor’s concubines.
Upon being exiled, Fa Ngum’s father raised an army of roughly 10,000 Cambodians. While conquering more and more Laotian territory, Fa Ngum’s father died, leading him to finish what his father started.
While in Cambodia, Fa Ngum received military training, married a Khmer princess, and adopted Theravada Buddhism. In 1353, with Khmer support, he returned north and conquered a series of Lao principalities along the Mekong River, unifying them into the kingdom of Lan Xang.
Fa Ngum helped establish Buddhism as the state religion and introduced many Khmer administrative and cultural influences into Laos. Despite creating the kingdom, his rule eventually became unpopular, and he was deposed around 1373. He died shortly afterward, but he is still remembered as the founding figure of the Lao nation.
Following his exile and death, Fa Ngum’s son took power and reigned for roughly 40 years, during which it became a major trade hub. However, after his death in 1421, the region collapsed into centuries of warfare.
From the mid-15th century until the late 19th century, Laos endured a period of extreme instability marked by rebellions, Burmese invasions, and the splintering and reunifying of various kingdoms.
During this era, regional leadership focused more on the acquisition of power, resources, and human capital than on effective governance. Consequently, the population lived with virtually no security and faced the constant threat of invasion.
France was broadening its colonial influence across Southeast Asia during the 1860s. Following the acquisition of Cambodia, French interests began to advance along the Mekong River, leading to the establishment of trade ties throughout the region, specifically in areas encompassing modern-day Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos.
France began dispatching expeditions into the area, leveraging ties with local Laotian leaders, to incorporate the territory into French Indochina. Central to this effort was the cultivation of a strategic alliance with the Kingdom of Luang Prabang, a major regional power at the time.
Luang Prabang was technically a vassal kingdom of the larger kingdom of Siam, which is essentially modern-day Thailand. This distinction became a major issue just a few years later.
France provided military assistance to Laos from 1888 to 1893, a period during which their ties grew significantly. The 1888 raid on Luang Prabang by the “Black Flag Army,” a Chinese mercenary group, proved to be a defining moment. French troops stepped in to repel the mercenaries, ensuring the safe evacuation of King Oun Kham and his family.
Following his return to the city, Oun Kham sought long-term security by asking the French to establish a protectorate over his kingdom.
Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Siam was experiencing its own crisis in 1893, largely caused by the French. It arose when French warships sailed into Bangkok despite having promised Britain they wouldn’t do so.
Due to the chaos, Siam was forced to recognize French control of the eastern bank of the Mekong. As a result, France was able to further incorporate Laotian territory, renaming the region Laos. Laos is named after the country’s largest ethnic group, the Lao.
With Siam ceding the Eastern bank of the Mekong, Laos effectively became a French State. The region became known as the “Protectorate of Laos,” and its capital was moved from Luang Prabang to Vientiane.
As a French Colony, Laos became a producer of rubber, tin, and coffee. It played a minor role in French Indochina, accounting for less than 1% of France’s exports from the region.
Compared with its other colonial holdings, France invested very little in the region’s development due to its small population and limited economic contributions. However, French influence was still very prevalent. One of the easiest ways to see this is in the migration patterns.
As the French also controlled Vietnam, they encouraged the Vietnamese to move to Laos. The goal was to bring in a larger labor force because Laos faced a major labor shortage.
Overall, an estimated 40,000 Vietnamese moved into Laos. This caused tension because, in some areas, the Vietnamese outnumbered the Laotians, preventing them from selecting Lao leaders.
During World War II, a 1940 agreement between Vichy France and Imperial Japan permitted the Japanese to establish military bases in French Indochina while leaving the French in administrative control of the territory.
Vichy France and Lao nationalist groups seeking to reunite territory along the Mekong came into conflict, and Japan was forced to mediate. The result was that a small part of Thailand was given to the Laotians. At the same time, a separate independence movement in Laos called for the end of French rule.
Eventually, the Japanese grew tired of the fighting and broke the promise they had made to Vichy France that they would not invade Indochina. On March 9, 1945, the Japanese detained the Indochina French forces within Laos and took over the territory.
For all intents and purposes, Laos didn’t do much during World War II under Japanese control, aside from serving as a location for prisons and a buffer zone.
After World War II, there were again calls for Laoitian independence, but by 1946 the French quickly moved to reestablish control over the region.
However, French control had weakened. Indochina entered a period of instability, during which several French colonies were embroiled in conflict. While the Vietnamese Communist Party led the primary resistance, they were supported by allies such as the Pathet Lao, the communist movement dedicated to Laotian independence.
With the aid of the Vietnamese Communist movement, Laos achieved semi-autonomy in 1950, becoming an “associated state” with the French Union. By 1953, Laos had gained full independence from France and had instituted a Constitutional Monarchy.
After the French left Laos, the Pathet Lao began efforts to establish itself as the primary party in two of the Northern Provinces. This created conflict with the monarchists, leading to a civil war starting in 1959.
Heavy sponsorship from North Vietnam drew the Pathet Lao into the periphery of the Vietnam War. As the Viet Cong began utilizing Eastern Laos as a vital transit corridor, the Vietnamese Communists actively strengthened the Pathet Lao party to safeguard and maintain this essential supply route.
This led to the country becoming split by 1964, with a communist force in the North and East who was backed by the Viet Cong, and a Monarchist faction in the South and West who were backed by the United States.
During the Vietnam War, the United States dropped over 2 million tons of bombs on Laos between 1964 and 1973, in an attempt to target the Viet Cong, who were using camps across the border. That translates to more than 270 million individual cluster submunitions, making Laos the most heavily bombed country per capita in history.
Following the conclusion of the Civil War, the communists emerged victorious and declared Laos a “Socialist Republic.” This political transformation led to a significant exodus, with approximately 10% of the nation’s population fleeing the country.
Today, the founding Communist party, the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party or the LPRP, is still in power, and Laos remains a one-party state.
The country is controlled by a group of 11 people that makes all major decisions for the nation. There is a National Assembly, but elections occur only once every five years and are neither free nor fair.
Despite being a one-party state, Laos is actually really easy to visit. I spent time in Luang Prabang and Vientiane, and it is one of the last places in Southeast Asia that hasn’t been overrun by tourists yet, though that is changing.
Laos doesn’t make headlines, and few people ever think about it. Yet it has a history just as old and as interesting as any of its neighbors.
