The history of Laos is punctuated by many occupations and colonizations by other nations. Indeed, the country was long occupied by the Thais (Shans, Siamese and Lao) and the hill tribes of Hmong / Mien. The first principalities of Laos were consolidated in the 13th century following the invasion of China by hordes of Kublai Khan Mongol.

 

In the mid-14th century, a Khmer warrior, Fa Ngum, combined a number of principalities scattered around Luang Prabang to form his own kingdom, Lan Xang ("million elephants"). This kingdom had for capital Luang Prabang. Prabang is derived from the name of a golden Buddha who was offered to King Fa Ngum by the Khmer court when he married a princess from Angkor. The kingdom prospered rapidly, but the divisions and internal pressure of the neighbors caused its splitting in the 17th century into three enemy kingdoms, centered on Luang Prabang, Wieng Chan (Vientiane) and Champasak.

 

By the end of the 18th century, most of Laos was under Siamese (Thai) sovereignty, but the territory was also coveted by Vietnam. Incapable or unwilling to serve two masters, the country went to war with Siam around 1820. This disastrous stratagem led the three kingdoms to fall under Thai control.

By the end of the 19th century, France had established French Indochina in the Vietnamese provinces of Tonkin and Annam. The Thais subsequently gave all the territory to the French. Lang Xan then became Laos. The rugged terrain provides little opportunity for tea or coffee plantations or little potential for mining, the country was of little commercial interest to the French, compared to its neighbors Vietnam and the United States. Cambodia. Thus, Laos was relegated to the role of "buffer zone" between the other Indochinese colonies and Siam.

 

In 1945, the Japanese occupied Laos, but this occupation lasted only one year. After the departure of the Japanese, a Lao resistance group, the Lao Issara, was formed, and took advantage of the administrative vacuum left by the Japanese to be heard and prevent the return of the French. Independence was achieved in 1953, but the conflict persisted between royalists, neutralists and communist factions such as the Pathet Lao.

 

After the defeat of France in Vietnam in 1954 during the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the Americans began to take a closer look at Laos and then supported the Royal Government of Laos. The latter tried unsuccessfully to join the Pathet Lao party. In 1962, the Pathet Lao was supported by the Communist Party of North Vietnam, while the official government of Laos received help from the United States and Thailand. This situation inevitably led to the involvement of Laos in the Vietnam conflict, and this resulted in splitting the country into 4: The Chinese in the North, the Vietnamese in the East on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the Thais in the West, supported by the Americans and the Khmer Rouge in the South.

In 1964, the United States began bombarding Vietnamese troops from the north on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in eastern Laos, escalating the conflict between the Vientiane royalist government and the communist Lao Pathet who fought alongside Vietnamese in the north. Before a ceasefire was negotiated in 1973, Laos had the unfortunate distinction of being the most bombed country in the history of war. A coalition government was formed, but when Saigon fell in 1975, most royalists left the country for France. The Pathet Lao peacefully took control of the country and the Democratic Republic of Laos was born in December 1975.

 

Laos remained closely allied with Vietnamese communists throughout the 1980s. Although many private companies were closed after 1975, there has been a relaxation of the rules since 1989, and the move towards a market economy has led to to a weak, but alive, economic recovery. Laos cemented new ties with its neighbors when it was hosted in ASEAN in July 1997.