Laos first emerged in the region as Lan Xang, or the 'Kingdom of a Million Elephants', in the 14th century. Despite some bursts of independence, the kingdom generally found itself paying tribute to more powerful neighbours, including the Siamese and Vietnamese. Geography ensured Laos was sucked into the Vietnam War and a lengthy civil war culminated in a communist takeover in 1975. After many years of isolation, Laos began to experiment with economic reforms in the 1990s but political reform remains a distant dream for most.
Martin Stuart-Fox is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Queensland, Australia. He has written multiple books and dozens of articles and book chapters on the politics and history of Laos.
The first modern humans (Homo sapiens) arrived in Southeast Asia around 50,000 years ago. Their stone-age technology remained little changed until a Neolithic culture evolved about 10,000 years ago. These hunter-gatherers spread throughout much of Southeast Asia, including Laos. Their descendants produced the first pottery in the region, and later bronze metallurgy. In time they adopted rice cultivation, introduced down the Mekong River valley from southern China. These people were the ancestors of the present-day upland minorities, collectively known as the Lao Thoeng (Upland Lao), the largest group of which are the Khamu of northern Laos.
The earliest kingdom in southern Laos was identified in Chinese texts as Chenla, dating from the 5th century. One of its capitals was close to Champasak, near the later Khmer temple of Wat Phu. A little later Mon people (speaking another Austro-Asiatic language) established kingdoms on the middle Mekong – Sri Gotapura (Sikhottabong in Lao) with its capital near Tha Khaek, and Chanthaburi in the vicinity of Viang Chan (Vientiane).
Tai peoples probably began migrating out of southern China in about the 8th century. They included the Tai-Lao of Laos, the Tai-Syam and Tai-Yuan of central and northern Thailand, and the Tai-Shan of northeast Burma. They are called Tai to distinguish them from the citizens (Thai) of modern Thailand, although the word is the same. All spoke closely related Tai languages, practised wet-rice cultivation along river valleys, and organised themselves into small principalities, known as meuang, each presided over by a hereditary ruler, or jow meuang (lord of the meuang). The Tai-Lao, or Lao for short, moved slowly down the rivers of northern Laos, like the Nam Ou and the Nam Khan, running roughly from northeast to southwest, until they arrived at the Mekong, the Great River.
The first extended Lao kingdom dates from the mid-14th century. It was established in the context of a century of unprecedented political and social change in mainland Southeast Asia. At the beginning of the 13th century, the great Khmer king Jayavarman VII, who had re-established Cambodian power and built the city of Angkor Thom, sent his armies north to extend the Khmer empire to include all of the middle Mekong region and north-central Thailand. But the empire was overstretched, and by the mid-13th century the Khmer were in retreat. At the same time, the Mongol Yuan dynasty in China abandoned plans for further conquest in Southeast Asia.
This left a political vacuum in central Thailand, into which stepped Ramkhamhaeng, founder of the Tai-Syam kingdom of Sukhothai. To his north, his ally Mangray founded the Tai-Yuan kingdom of Lanna (meaning 'A Million Rice Fields'), with his capital at Chiang Mai. Other smaller Tai kingdoms were established at Phayao and Xiang Dong Xiang Thong (Luang Prabang). In southern Laos and eastern Thailand, however, the Khmer still held on to power.
The Cambodian court looked around for an ally, and found one in the form of a young Lao prince, Fa Ngum, who was being educated at Angkor. Fa Ngum's princely father had been forced to flee Xiang Dong Xiang Thong after he seduced one of his own father's concubines. So Fa Ngum was in direct line for the throne.
The Khmer gave Fa Ngum a Khmer princess and an army, and sent him north to wrest the middle Mekong from the control of Sukhothai, and so divert and weaken the Tai-Syam kingdom. He was successful and Fa Ngum was pronounced king in Xiang Dong Xiang Thong, before forcibly bringing Viang Chan into his growing empire. He named his new kingdom Lan Xang Hom Khao, which means 'A Million Elephants and the White Parasol'. Fa Ngum built a fine capital at Xiang Dong Xiang Thong and set about organising his court and kingdom.
Fa Ngum performed sacrifices to the pĕe (traditional spirits) of the kingdom. But he also acquiesced to his wife's request to introduce Khmer Theravada Buddhism to Lan Xang. Fa Ngum began to seduce the wives and daughters of his court nobles, who decided to replace him, and he was sent into exile in Nan (now in Thailand), where he died within five years. His legacy, however, stood the test of time. The kingdom of Lan Xang remained a power in mainland Southeast Asia until early in the 18th century, able to match the power of Siam, Vietnam and Burma.
Fa Ngum was succeeded by his son Un Heuan, who married princesses from the principal Tai kingdoms (Lanna and Ayutthaya, which had replaced Sukhothai), consolidated the kingdom and developed trade. With his wealth he built temples and beautified his capital.
Following Un Heuan's (throne name Samsenthai) long and stable reign of 42 years, Lan Xang was shaken by succession disputes, a problem faced by all Southeast Asian mandala (circles of power). The throne eventually passed to Samsenthai's youngest son, who took the throne name Xainya Chakkaphat (Universal Ruler). It was an arrogant claim, but he ruled wisely and well.
Tragedy struck at the end of his reign, when Lan Xang suffered its first major invasion. After a bitter battle, the Vietnamese captured and sacked Xiang Dong Xiang Thong. Xainya Chakkaphat fled and the Lao mounted a guerrilla campaign. Eventually the Vietnamese were forced to withdraw, their forces decimated by malaria and starvation. So great were their losses that the Vietnamese vowed never to invade Lan Xang again.
The early Lao text known as the Nithan (story of) Khun Borom recounts the myth of creation of the Lao peoples, their interaction and the establishment of the first Lao kingdom in the vicinity of Luang Prabang. The creation myth tells how two great gourds grew at Meuang Thaeng (Dien Bien Phu, now in Vietnam) from inside which sounds could be heard. Divine rulers, known as khun, pierced one of the gourds with a hot poker, and out of the charred hole poured the dark-skinned Lao Thoeng. The khun used a knife to cut a hole in the other gourd, through which escaped the lighter-skinned Tai-Lao (or Lao Loum, Lowland Lao). The gods then sent Khun Borom to rule over both Lao Loum and Lao Thoeng. He had seven sons, whom he sent out to found seven new kingdoms in the regions where Tai peoples settled (in the Tai highlands of Vietnam, the Xishuangbanna of southern China, Shan state in Burma, and in Thailand and Laos). While the youngest son founded the kingdom of Xieng Khuang on the Plain of Jars, the oldest son, Khun Lo, descended the Nam Ou (Ou River), seized the principality of Meuang Sua from its Lao Thoeng ruler, and named it Xiang Dong Xiang Thong (later renamed Luang Prabang).
The Lao kingdom recovered under one of its greatest rulers, who came to the throne in 1501. This was King Visoun, who had previously been governor of Viang Chan. There he had been an ardent worshipper of the Pha Bang Buddha image, which he brought with him to Xiang Dong Xiang Thong to become the palladium of the kingdom. For it he built the magnificent temple known as Wat Wisunarat (Wat Visoun), which, though damaged and repaired over the years, still stands in Luang Prabang.
A new power had arisen in mainland Southeast Asia, the kingdom of Burma. It was the threat of Burma that convinced King Setthathirat in 1560 to move his capital to Viang Chan. Before he did so, he built the most beautiful Buddhist temple surviving in Laos, Wat Xieng Thong. He also left behind the Pha Bang, and changed the name of Xiang Dong Xiang Thong to Luang Prabang in its honour. With him he took what he believed to be an even more powerful Buddha image, the Pha Kaew (Emerald Buddha) now in Bangkok.
Setthathirat was the greatest builder in Lao history. Not only did he construct or refurbish several monasteries in Luang Prabang, besides Wat Xieng Thong, but he also did the same in Viang Chan. His most important building projects, apart from a new palace on the banks of the Mekong, were the great That Luang stupa, a temple for the Emerald Buddha (Wat Pha Kaeo) and endowment of a number of royal temples in the vicinity of the palace.
It was more than 60 years before another great Lao king came to the throne, a period of division, succession disputes and intermittent Burmese domination. In 1638 Suriya Vongsa was crowned king. He would rule for 57 years, the longest reign in Lao history and a 'golden age' for the kingdom of Lan Xang. During this time, Lan Xang was a powerful kingdom and Viang Chan was a great centre of Buddhist learning, attracting monks from all over mainland Southeast Asia.
King Suriya Vongsa must have been stern and unbending in his old age, because he refused to intervene when his son and heir was found guilty of adultery and condemned to death. As a result, when he died in 1695 another succession dispute wracked the kingdom. This time the result was the division of Lan Xang. First the ruler of Luang Prabang declared independence from Viang Chan, followed a few years later by Champasak in the south.
The once-great kingdom of Lan Xang was thus fatally weakened. In its place were three (four with Xieng Khuang) weak regional kingdoms, none of which was able to withstand the growing power of the Tai-Syam kingdom of Ayutthaya. The Siamese were distracted, however, over the next half century by renewed threats from Burma. In the end Ayutthaya was sacked by a Burmese army. Chiang Mai was already a tributary to Burma, and Luang Prabang also paid tribute.
However, it did not take the Siamese long to recover. The inspiring leadership of a young military commander called Taksin, son of a Chinese father and a Siamese mother, rallied the Siamese and drove the Burmese out. After organising his kingdom and building a new capital, Taksin sought new fields of conquest. The Lao kingdoms were obvious targets. By 1779 all three had surrendered to Siamese armies and accepted the suzerainty of Siam. The Emerald Buddha was carried off by the Siamese and all Lao kings had to present regular tribute to Bangkok.
When Chao Anou succeeded his two older brothers on the throne of Viang Chan, he was determined to assert Lao independence. First he made merit by endowing Buddhist monasteries and building his own temple (Wat Si Saket). Then in 1826 he made his move, sending three armies down the Mekong and across the Khorat plateau. The Siamese were taken by surprise, but quickly rallied. Siamese armies drove the Lao back and seized Viang Chan. Chao Anou fled, but was captured when he tried to retake the city a year later. This time the Siamese were ruthless. Viang Chan was thoroughly sacked and its population resettled east of the Mekong. Only Wat Si Saket was spared. Chao Anou died a caged prisoner in Bangkok.
For the next 60 years the Lao meuang, from Champasak to Luang Prabang, were tributary to Siam. At first these two remaining small kingdoms retained a degree of independence, but increasingly they were brought under closer Siamese supervision. One reason for this was that Siam itself was threatened by a new power in the region and felt it had to consolidate its empire. The new power was France, which had declared a protectorate over most of Cambodia in 1863.
Four years later a French expedition sent to explore and map the Mekong River arrived in Luang Prabang, then the largest settlement upstream from Phnom Penh. In the 1880s the town became caught up in a struggle that pitted Siamese, French and roving bands of Chinese brigands (known as Haw) against each other. In 1887 Luang Prabang was looted and burned by a mixed force of Upland Tai and Haw. Only Wat Xieng Thong was spared. The king escaped downstream. With him was a French explorer named Auguste Pavie, who offered him the protection of France.
The first European to have left an account of the Lao kingdom arrived in Viang Chan (Vientiane) in 1641. He was a merchant by the name of Gerrit van Wuysthoff, an employee of the Dutch East India Company, who wanted to open a trade route down the Mekong. He and his small party were royally accommodated and entertained during their eight-week stay in the Lao capital. Van Wuysthoff had more to say about the prices of trade goods than about Lao culture or religion, but he was followed a year later by a visitor who can offer us more insight into 17th-century Viang Chan. This was the Jesuit missionary Giovanni-Maria Leria, who stayed in Viang Chan for five years. During that time he had singularly little success in converting anyone to Christianity and eventually gave up in disgust. But he liked the Lao people (if not the monks) and has left a wonderful description of the royal palace and the houses of the nobility.
In the end French rule was imposed through gunboat diplomacy. In 1893 a French warship forced its way up the Chao Phraya River to Bangkok and trained its guns on the palace. Under duress, the Siamese agreed to transfer all territory east of the Mekong to France. So Laos became a French colony, with the kingdom of Luang Prabang as a protectorate and the rest of the country directly administered.
In 1900 Viang Chan (Vientiane) was re-established as the administrative capital of Laos, although real power was exercised from Hanoi, the capital of French Indochina. In 1907 a further treaty was signed with Siam adding two territories west of the Mekong to Laos (Sainyabuli Province and part of Champasak). Siem Reap and Battambang provinces were regained by Cambodia as part of the deal.
Over the next few years the French put into place the apparatus of colonial control, but Laos remained a backwater. Despite French plans for economic exploitation, Laos was always a drain on the budget of Indochina. Corvée labour was introduced, particularly to build roads, and taxes were heavy, but the colony never paid its own way. Some timber was floated down the Mekong, and tin was discovered in central Laos, but returns were meagre. Coffee was grown in southern Laos, and opium in the north, most of it smuggled into China.
In the interwar years the French cast around for ways to make Laos economically productive. One plan was to connect the Lao Mekong towns to coastal Vietnam by constructing a railway across the mountains separating the two colonies. The idea was to encourage the migration of industrious Vietnamese peasants into Laos to replace what the French saw as the indolent and easy-going Lao. Eventually Vietnamese would outnumber Lao and produce an economic surplus. The railway was surveyed and construction begun from the Vietnamese side, but the Great Depression intervened, money dried up and the Vietnamisation of Laos never happened.
The independence movement was slow to develop in Laos. The French justified their colonial rule as protection of the Lao from aggressive neighbours, particularly the Siamese. Most of the small Lao elite, aware of their own weakness, found this interpretation convincing, even though they resented the presence of so many Vietnamese. The Indochinese Communist Party (ICP), founded by Ho Chi Minh in 1930, did not espouse separate independence for Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. It only managed to recruit its first two Lao members in 1935.
It took the outbreak of war in Europe to weaken the French position in Indochina. A new aggressively nationalist government in Bangkok took advantage of this French weakness to try to regain territory 'lost' 50 years before. It renamed Siam Thailand, and opened hostilities. A Japanese-brokered peace agreement deprived Laos of its territories west of the Mekong, much to Lao anger.
To counter pan-Tai propaganda from Bangkok, the French encouraged Lao nationalism. Under an agreement between Japan and the Vichy French administration in Indochina, French rule continued, although Japanese forces had freedom of movement. The Japanese were in place, therefore, when in early 1945 they began to suspect the French of shifting their allegiance to the allies. On 9 March the Japanese struck in a lightning coup de force throughout Indochina, interning all French military and civilian personnel. Only in Laos did a few French soldiers manage to slip into the jungle to maintain some resistance, along with their Lao Allies.
The Japanese ruled Laos for just six months before the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought WWII to an end. During this time they forced King Sisavang Vong to declare Lao independence, and a nationalist resistance movement took shape, known as the Lao Issara (Free Lao). When the Japanese surrendered on 15 August, the Lao Issara formed an interim government, under the direction of Prince Phetsarat, a cousin of the king. For the first time since the early 18th century, the country was unified. The king, however, thereupon repudiated his declaration of independence in the belief that Laos still needed French protection. The king dismissed Phetsarat as prime minister, so the provisional National Assembly of 45 prominent nationalists passed a motion deposing the king.
Behind these tensions were the French, who were determined to regain their Indochinese empire. In March 1946, while a truce was held in Vietnam between the Viet Minh and the French, French forces struck north to seize control of Laos. The Lao Issara government was forced to flee to exile in Bangkok, leaving the French to sign a modus vivendi with the king reaffirming the unity of Laos and extending the king's rule from Luang Prabang to all of Laos. West Bank territories seized by Thailand in 1940 were returned to Laos.
By 1949 something of a stalemate had developed between the French and the Viet Minh in the main theatre of war in Vietnam. In order to shore up their position in Laos, the French granted the Lao a greater measure of independence. A promise of amnesty for Issara leaders attracted most back to take part in the political process in Laos. Among the returnees was Souvanna Phouma, a younger brother of Phetsarat, who remained in Thailand. Meanwhile, Souphanouvong, a half-brother of the two princes, led his followers to join the Viet Minh and keep up the anticolonial struggle.
The decisions of the three princes to go their separate ways divided the Lao Issara. Those members who returned to Laos continued to work for complete Lao independence from France, but within the legal framework. Those who joined the Viet Minh did so in pursuit of an altogether different political goal – expulsion of the French and formation of a Marxist regime. Their movement became known as the Pathet Lao (Land of the Lao), after the title of the Resistance Government of Pathet Lao, set up with Viet Minh support in August 1950.
The architect of the Lao Issara–Viet Minh alliance was Prince Souphanouvong. In August 1950 Souphanouvong became the public face of the Resistance Government and president of the Free Laos Front (Naeo Lao Issara), successor to the disbanded Lao Issara. Real power lay, however, with two other men, both of whom were members (as Souphanouvong then was not) of the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP). They were Kaysone Phomvihane, in charge of defence, and Nouhak Phoumsavan, with the portfolio of economy and finance.
By this time the whole complexion of the First Indochina War had changed with the 1949 victory of communism in China. As Chinese weapons flowed to the Viet Minh, the war widened and the French were forced onto the defensive. The siege of Dien Bien Phu, close to the Lao border in Northern Vietnam, emerged as the decisive battle of the First Indochina War. The isolated French garrison was surrounded by Viet Minh forces, which pounded the base with artillery hidden in the hills. Supplied only from the air, the French held out for over two months before surrendering on 7 May. The following day a conference opened in Geneva that eventually brought the curtain down on the French colonial period in Indochina.
After Laos gained independence in 1953, the US trained and supplied the Royal Lao Army as part of its strategy to combat communism in Southeast Asia. In 1961, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents made contact with the Hmong minority living on and around the Plain of Jars. They spread a simple message – 'Beware of the Vietnamese; they will take your land' – handed out weapons and gave basic training. There were also some vague promises of Hmong autonomy. To protect more vulnerable communities, several thousand Hmong decided to relocate to mountain bases to the south of the plain. Their leader was a young Hmong army officer named Vang Pao.
In October 1961 President John F Kennedy gave the order to recruit a force of 11,000 Hmong under the command of Vang Pao. They were trained by several hundred US and Thai Special Forces advisors and parachuted arms and food supplies by Air America, all under the supervision of the CIA.
With the neutralisation of Laos and formation of the second coalition government in 1962, US military personnel were officially withdrawn. Even as it signed the 1962 Geneva Agreements, however, the US continued its covert operations, in particular the supply and training of the 'secret army' for guerrilla warfare. The CIA's secret headquarters was at Long Cheng, but the largest Hmong settlement, with a population of several thousand, was at Sam Thong.
Over the next 12 years the Hmong 'secret army' fought a continuous guerrilla campaign against heavily armed North Vietnamese regular army troops occupying the Plain of Jars. They were supported throughout by the US, an operation kept secret from the American public until 1970. So, while American forces fought in Vietnam, a 'Secret War' was also being fought in Laos. The Hmong fought because of their distrust of the communists, and in the hope that the US would support Hmong autonomy.
As the war dragged on, so many Hmong were killed that it became difficult to find recruits. Boys as young as 12 were sent to war. The 'secret army' was bolstered by recruits from other minority groups, including Yao (Mien) and Khamu, and by whole battalions of Thai volunteers. By the early 1970s it had grown to more than 30,000 men, about a third of them Thai.
When a ceasefire was signed in 1973, prior to formation of the third coalition government, the 'secret army' was officially disbanded. Thai volunteers returned home and Hmong units were absorbed into the Royal Lao Army. Hmong casualty figures have been put at 12,000 dead and 30,000 more wounded, but may well have been higher.
Years of warfare had bred deep distrust, however, and as many as 120,000 Hmong out of a population of some 300,000 fled Laos after 1975, rather than live under the Lao communist regime. Most were resettled in the US. Among the Hmong who sided with the Pathet Lao, several now hold senior positions in the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) and in government.
At the Geneva Conference it was agreed to temporarily divide Vietnam into north and south, Cambodia was left undivided, and in Laos two northeastern provinces (Hua Phan and Phongsali) were set aside as regroupment areas for Pathet Lao forces. There the Pathet Lao consolidated their political and military organisation, while negotiating with the Royal Lao Government (RLG) to reintegrate the two provinces into a unified Lao state.
The first thing Pathet Lao leaders did was to establish the Marxist-leaning Lao People's Party (LPP) in 1955 (later renamed the Lao People's Revolutionary Party; LPRP). Today, it remains the ruling party of the Lao PDR (Lao People's Democratic Republic). The LPP established a broad political front, called the Lao Patriotic Front (LPF), with Souphanouvong as its president and Kaysone secretary-general. Together with other members of the 'team' they led the Lao revolution throughout its '30-year struggle' (1945 to 1975) for power.
The first priority for the Royal Lao Government was to reunify the country with a political solution palatable to the Pathet Lao. In its remote base areas, the Pathet Lao was entirely dependent for weapons and most other kinds of assistance on the North Vietnamese, whose own agenda was the reunification of Vietnam under communist rule. Meanwhile, the Royal Lao Government became increasingly dependent on the US, which soon took over from France as its principal aid donor. Thus Laos became the cockpit for Cold War enmity.
The Lao politician with the task of finding a way through both ideological differences and foreign interference was Souvanna Phouma. As prime minister of the RLG, he negotiated a deal with his half-brother Souphanouvong which saw two Pathet Lao ministers and two deputy ministers included in a coalition government. The Pathet Lao provinces were returned to the royal administration. Elections were held, in which the LPF did surprisingly well. And the US was furious.
Between 1955 and 1958, the US gave Laos US$120 million, or four times what France had provided over the previous eight years. Laos was almost entirely dependent, therefore, on American largesse to survive. When that aid was withheld, as it was in August 1958 in response to the inclusion of Pathet Lao ministers in the government, Laos was plunged into a financial and political crisis. As a result, the first coalition government collapsed after just eight months.
As guerrilla warfare resumed over large areas, moral objections were raised against Lao killing Lao. On 9 August 1960, the diminutive commanding officer of the elite Second Paratroop Batallion of the Royal Lao Army seized power in Vientiane while almost the entire Lao government was in Luang Prabang making arrangements for the funeral of King Sisavang Vong. Captain Kong Le announced to the world that Laos was returning to a policy of neutrality, and demanded that Souvanna Phouma be reinstated as prime minister. King Sisavang Vatthana acquiesced, but General Phoumi refused to take part, and flew to central Laos where he instigated opposition to the new government.
In this, he had the support of the Thai government and the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which supplied him with cash and weapons. The neutralist government still claimed to be the legitimate government of Laos, and as such received arms, via Vietnam, from the Soviet Union. Most of these found their way to the Pathet Lao, however. Throughout the country large areas fell under the control of communist forces. The US sent troops to Thailand, in case communist forces should attempt to cross the Mekong, and it looked for a while as if the major commitment of US troops in Southeast Asia would be to Laos rather than Vietnam.
At this point the new US administration of President John F Kennedy had second thoughts about fighting a war in Laos. In an about-face it decided instead to back Lao neutrality. In May 1961 a new conference on Laos was convened in Geneva.
Delegates of the 14 participating countries reassembled in Geneva in July 1962 to sign the international agreement guaranteeing Lao neutrality and forbidding the presence of all foreign military personnel. In Laos the new coalition government took office buoyed by popular goodwill and hope.
Within months, however, cracks began to appear in the facade of the coalition. The problem was the war in Vietnam. Both the North Vietnamese and the Americans were jockeying for strategic advantage, and neither was going to let Lao neutrality get in the way. Despite the terms of the Geneva Agreements, both continued to provide their respective clients with arms and supplies. But no outside power did the same for the neutralists, who found themselves increasingly squeezed between left and right.
By the end of 1963, as each side denounced the other for violating the Geneva Agreements, the second coalition government had irrevocably broken down. It was in the interests of all powers, however, to preserve the facade of Lao neutrality, and international diplomatic support was brought to bear for Souvanna Phouma to prevent rightist generals from seizing power in coups mounted in 1964 and 1965.
In 1964 the US began its air war over Laos, with strafing and bombing of communist positions on the Plain of Jars. As North Vietnamese infiltration picked up along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, bombing was extended across all of Laos. According to official figures, the US dropped 2,093,100 tons of bombs on 580,944 sorties. The total cost was US$7.2 billion, or US$2 million a day for nine years. No one knows how many people died, but one-third of the population of 2.1 million became internal refugees.
During the 1960s both the North Vietnamese and the US presence increased exponentially. By 1968 an estimated 40,000 North Vietnamese regular army troops were based in Laos to keep the Ho Chi Minh Trail open and support some 35,000 Pathet Lao forces. The Royal Lao Army then numbered 60,000 (entirely paid for and equipped by the US), Vang Pao's forces were half that number (still under the direction of the CIA) and Kong Le's neutralists numbered 10,000. Lao forces on both sides were entirely funded by their foreign backers. For five more years this proxy war dragged on, until the ceasefire of 1973.
The turning point for the war in Vietnam was the 1968 Tet Offensive, which brought home to the American people the realisation that the war was unwinnable by military means, and convinced them of the need for a political solution. The effect in Laos, however, was to intensify both the air war and fighting on the Plain of Jars. When bombing was suspended over North Vietnam, the US Air Force concentrated all its efforts on Laos. The Pathet Lao leadership was forced underground, into the caves of Vieng Xai.
By mid-1972, when serious peace moves were underway, some four-fifths of the country was under communist control. In peace as in war, what happened in Laos depended on what happened in Vietnam. Not until a ceasefire came into effect in Vietnam in January 1973 could the fighting end in Laos. Then the political wrangling began. Not until September was an agreement reached on the composition of the third coalition government and how it would operate.
In April 1975, first Phnom Penh and then Saigon fell to communist forces. Immediately the Pathet Lao brought political pressure to bear on the right in Laos. Escalating street demonstrations forced leading rightist politicians and generals to flee the country. Throughout the country, town after town was peacefully 'liberated' by Pathet Lao forces, culminating with Vientiane in August.
Souvanna Phouma, who could see the writing on the wall, cooperated with the Pathet Lao in order to prevent further bloodshed. Hundreds of senior military officers and civil servants voluntarily flew off to remote camps for 'political re-education', in the belief that they would be there only months at most, but hundreds of these inmates remained in re-education camps for several years.
In November an extraordinary meeting of what was left of the third coalition government bowed to the inevitable and demanded formation of a 'popular democratic regime'. Under pressure, the king agreed to abdicate, and on 2 December a National Congress of People's Representatives assembled by the party proclaimed the end of the 650-year-old Lao monarchy and the establishment of the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR). Kaysone Phomvihane, who in addition to leading the LPRP became prime minister in the new Marxist–Leninist government. Souphanouvong was named state president.
The new regime was organised in accordance with Soviet and North Vietnamese models. The government and bureaucracy were under the strict direction of the Party and its seven-member politburo. Immediately the Party moved to restrict liberal freedoms of speech and assembly, and to nationalise the economy. As inflation soared, price controls were introduced. In response, around 10% of the population, including virtually all the educated class, fled across the Mekong to Thailand as refugees, setting Lao development back at least a generation.
The Hmong insurgency dragged on for another 30 years. In 1977, fearing the king might escape his virtual house arrest to lead resistance, the authorities arrested him and his family and sent them to Vieng Xai, the old Pathet Lao wartime headquarters. There they were forced to labour in the fields. The king, queen and crown prince all eventually died, probably of malaria and malnutrition, although no official explanation of their deaths has ever been offered.
By 1979 it was clear that policies had to change. Kaysone announced that people could leave cooperatives and farm their own land, and that private enterprise would be permitted. Reforms were insufficient to improve the Lao economy. Over the next few years a struggle took place within the Party about what to do. By the advent of Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985, the Soviet Union was getting tired of propping up the Lao regime, and was embarking on its own momentous reforms. Meanwhile, Vietnam had Cambodia to worry about. Eventually Kaysone convinced the Party to follow the Chinese example and open the economy up to market forces while retaining a tight monopoly on political power. The economic reforms were known as the 'new economic mechanism', and were enacted in November 1986.
Economic improvement was slow in coming, partly because relations with Thailand remained strained. In August 1987 the two countries fought a brief border war over disputed territory, which left 1000 people dead. The following year, relations with both Thailand and China were patched up. The first elections for a national assembly were held, and a constitution at last promulgated. Slowly a legal framework was put into place, and by the early 1990s, foreign direct investment was picking up and the economy was on the mend.
Re-education camps were all in remote areas. Inmates laboured on road construction, helped local villagers and grew their own vegetables. Food was nevertheless scarce, work hard and medical attention inadequate or nonexistent. Except for a couple of high-security camps for top officials and army officers, inmates were allowed some freedom of contact with local villagers. Some even took local women as partners. Escape was all but impossible, however, because of the remoteness of the camps. Only those showing a contrite attitude to past 'crimes' were released, some to work for the regime, but most to leave the country to join families overseas.
In 1992 Kaysone Phomvihane died. He had been the leading figure in Lao communism for more than a quarter of a century. The LPRP managed the transition to a new leadership with smooth efficiency, much to the disappointment of expatriate Lao communities abroad. General Khamtay Siphandone became both president of the LPRP and prime minister. Later he relinquished the latter to become state president. His rise signalled control of the Party by the revolutionary generation of military leaders. When Khamtay stepped down in 2006, he was succeeded by his close comrade, General Chummaly Sayasone.
The economic prosperity of the mid-1990s rested on increased investment and foreign aid, on which Laos remained very dependent. The Lao PDR enjoyed friendly relations with all its neighbours. Relations with Vietnam remained particularly close, but were balanced by much-improved relations with China. Relations with Bangkok were bumpy at times, but Thailand was a principal source of foreign direct investment. In 1997 Laos joined the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The good times came to an end with the Asian economic crisis of the late 1990s. The collapse of the Thai baht led to inflation of the Lao kip, to which it was largely tied through trading relations. The Lao regime took two lessons from this crisis: one was about the dangers of market capitalism; the other was that its real friends were China and Vietnam, both of which came to its aid with loans and advice.
The economic crisis sparked some political unrest. A small student demonstration calling for an end to the monopoly of political power by the LPRP was ruthlessly crushed and its leaders given long prison sentences.
In 2003 Western journalists for the first time made contact with Hmong insurgents. Their reports revealed an insurgency on the point of collapse. Renewed military pressure forced some Hmong to surrender, while others made their way to refuge in Thailand. However, the Thai classified the Hmong as illegal immigrants; negotiations for resettlement in third countries stalled, and in December 2009, despite widespread international condemnation, some 4000 Hmong were forcibly repatriated to Laos.
In the decade to 2010, China greatly increased investment in Laos to equal that of Thailand. Japan remained the largest aid donor. However, Chinese companies invested in major projects in mining, hydropower and plantation agriculture and timber. Meanwhile, cross-border trade grew apace. Increased economic power brought political influence at the expense of Vietnam, though Lao–Vietnamese relations remained close and warm. Senior Lao Party cadres still take courses in Marxism–Leninism in Vietnam, although their economic inspiration is more likely from the mighty northern neighbour, China.
In April 2016 former Vice President Bounnhang Vorachith became president of the Lao PDR, establishing himself as a force against corruption. Calling for a halt on logging, making a pledge to reforest 70% of Laos by 2020 and (allegedly) sacking many of his minsters and replacing them with people he could trust, he set the stage for the August gathering of ASEAN, held in Laos and attended by US President Barack Obama. This followed high-profile visits from Hillary Clinton in 2010 and John Kerry in 2015. America seemed keen to signal to China it intended to take an interest in Laos’ future as the Asian superpower pushed on with funding dams and high-speed rail lines through Laos, placing the diminutive country ever more in its debt, as a key conduit to Southeast Asia in its 'new Silk Road' trade strategy.
500
The early Mon-Khmer Chenla capital of Shrestapura is a thriving city based around the ancient temple of Wat Phu Champasak.
1181
King Jayavarman VII vanquishes the Chams from Angkor and becomes the most powerful ruler of the Khmer empire, extending its boundaries to include most of modern-day Laos.
1256
Kublai Khan sacks the Tai state of Nan Chao, part of the Xishuangbanna region of modern-day Yunnan in China. This sparks a southern exodus of the Tai people.
1353
Fa Ngum establishes the Lao kingdom of Lan Xang and builds a capital at Xiang Dong Xiang Thong.
1421
King Fa Ngum's son and successor Samsenthai dies and Lan Xang implodes into warring factions for the next century.
1479
The Vietnamese emperor Le Thanh Tong invades Lan Xang, sending a large force including many war elephants.
1501
King Visoun comes to the throne and rebuilds the Lao kingdom, marking a cultural renaissance for Lan Xang. He installs the Pha Bang Buddha image in Luang Prabang.
1560
King Setthathirat, grandson of King Visoun, moves the capital to Viang Chan because of the threat from Burma, a rising power in the region.
1638
The great Lao king Suriya Vongsa begins a 57-year reign known as the 'Golden Age' of the kingdom of Lan Xang.
1641–42
The first Europeans to write accounts of Lan Xang arrive in Viang Chan providing information about trade and culture, descriptions of King Setthathirat's royal palace and details of the king's power.
1694
King Suriya Vongsa dies and Lan Xang once again fractures into competing kingdoms.
1707–13
Lan Xang is divided into three smaller and weaker kingdoms: Viang Chan, Luang Prabang and Champasak.
1769
Burmese armies overrun northern Laos and annex the kingdom of Luang Prabang.
1778
Thai forces invade southern Laos and conquer the kingdom of Champasak.
1826–28
Chao Anou succeeds his two older brothers on the throne of Viang Chan and wages war against Siam for Lao independence. He is captured and Viang Chan is sacked by the Siamese armies.
1867
Members of the French Mekong expedition reach Luang Prabang. Over the next 20 years the town is caught up in a struggle which sees the king offered protection by France.
1885
Following centuries of successive invasions by neighbouring powers, the former Lan Xang is broken up into a series of states under Siamese control.
1893
A French warship reaches Bangkok, guns trained on the palace. This forces the Siamese to give France sovereignty over all Lao territories east of the Mekong.
1904
King Sisavang Vong founds the modern royal family.
1907
The present borders of Laos are established by international treaty. Vientiane (the French spelling of Viang Chan) becomes the administrative capital.
1935
The first two Lao members join the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP), founded by Ho Chi Minh in 1930.
1942
As WWII spills over into Asia, the Japanese invade and occupy Laos with the cooperation of pro-Vichy French colonial authorities.
1945
The Japanese occupy Laos then force the king to declare independence; a nationalist resistance movement, the Lao Issara, takes shape and forms an interim government.
1946
The French reoccupy Laos, sending the Lao Issara government into exile.
1949
France grants Laos partial independence within the Indochinese Federation and some of the Lao Issara leaders return to work for complete Lao independence from France.
1950
Lao communists (the Pathet Lao) form a 'Resistance Government'. Souphanouvong becomes the public face of the Resistance Government and president of the Free Laos Front.
1953
The Franco–Lao Treaty of Amity and Association grants full independence to Laos and a Lao delegation attends a conference in Geneva where a regroupment area is set aside for Pathet Lao Forces.
1955
Pathet Lao leaders form the Lao People's Party (later the Lao People's Revolutionary Party) with a broad political front called the Lao Patriotic Front (LPF).
1957
The First Coalition Government of National Union is formed and collapses after a financial and political crisis.
1958
The government falls and comes under the control of the right-wing, US-backed Committee for the Defence of National Interests (CDNI).
1960
Guerrilla warfare covers large areas. A neutralist coup d'état is followed by the battle for Vientiane.
1961
Orders given to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to form a 'secret army' in northern Laos with links to the American war in Vietnam.
1962
The Geneva Agreement on Laos establishes the second coalition government that balances Pathet Lao and rightist representation with neutralist voting powers.
1964
The US begins air war against ground targets in Laos, mostly against communist positions on the Plain of Jars.
1964–73
The Second Indochina War spills over into Laos. Both the North Vietnamese and US presence increases dramatically and bombing extends along the length of Laos.
1968
The Tet Offensive by the Viet Cong in neighbouring Vietnam turns public opinion in the US against the Second Indochina War.
1974
Finally a 1973 ceasefire in Vietnam means an end to fighting in Laos and the formation of the third coalition government.
1975
Communists seize power and declare the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR). This ends 650 years of the Lao monarchy.
1979
Agricultural cooperatives are abandoned and first economic reforms introduced.
1986
The 'New Economic Mechanism' opens the way for a market economy and foreign investment.
1987
A three-month border war breaks out between Laos and Thailand, ending in a truce in February 1988.
1991
The constitution of the Lao PDR is proclaimed. General Khamtay Siphandone becomes state president.
1995
Luang Prabang is World Heritage–listed. Wat Phu, the ancient Khmer temple near Champasak, is listed shortly after.
1997
Laos joins the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
1998–2000
The Asian economic crisis seriously impacts on the Lao economy. China and Vietnam come to the country's aid with loans and advice.
2000
The economic crisis sparks some political unrest. Anti-government Lao rebels attack a customs post on the Thai border. Five are killed.
2001
A series of small bomb explosions worries the regime, which responds by increasing security.
2004
Security is still tight when Laos hosts the 10th ASEAN summit in Vientiane, the largest gathering of world leaders ever assembled in Laos.
2005
Ten-yearly census is conducted, putting population of Laos at 5,621,982.
2006
The Eighth Congress of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and National Assembly elections endorse a new political leadership.
2009
Laos hosts the 25th Southeast Asia Games. Four thousand Hmong refugees are forcibly repatriated from Thailand.
2010
The Nam Theun II hydropower dam, the largest in mainland Southeast Asia, begins production.
2011
Laos wins gold medals in the pétanque events at the Southeast Asian games, but it's not yet slated to be included as an Olympic sport.
2012
Internationally acclaimed community-development worker Sombath Somphone disappears. The Lao Government deny responsibility for his disappearance.
2012
Laos plays host to the 9th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Vientiane in November.
2013
Work begins on the Xayaboury Dam, the first dam to be built on the Mekong River in Laos. Cambodia and Vietnam raise objections.
2016
Vice President of Laos Bounnhang Vorachith becomes Laos' new supreme leader.
2016
US President Barack Obama becomes the first sitting president to visit Laos, pledging US$90m over the next three years for UXO clean-up.