Laos
Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. Located on the Indochinese Peninsula, it is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and southwest. Having a population of approximately 8 million, its capital and most populous city is Vientiane.
The country traces its historic and cultural identity to Lan Xang, a kingdom which existed from the 13th to 18th centuries. Through its location, the kingdom was a hub for overland trade. In 1707, Lan Xang split into three kingdoms: Luang Prabang, Vientiane, and Champasak. In 1893, these kingdoms were unified under French protection as part of French Indochina. Laos was under Japanese administration during World War II, gaining independence in 1945 before returning to French administration until achieving autonomy in 1949. The country regained full independence in 1953 as the Kingdom of Laos, with a constitutional monarchy under Sisavang Vong. A Civil War from 1959 to 1975 saw the communist Pathet Lao, supported by North Vietnam, China and the Soviet Union, oppose the Royal Lao Armed Forces, backed by the United States. The war ended with the establishment of the Lao People's Democratic Republic in 1975 that aligned with the Soviet Union until the latter's dissolution in 1991.
Laos is home to several UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the historic town of Luang Prabang, the ancient temple complex of Vat Phou, and the Plain of Jars. As one of the five active communist states as of 2025, and the only one that self-designates as a people's democratic state, Laos has been governed by the Lao People's Revolutionary Party since 1975. It has used market-oriented reforms. Laos's development strategy emphasises regional connectivity through infrastructure development. The 2021 completion of the Laos–China Railway, connecting Vientiane to Kunming, has increased trade and tourism accessibility. The country participates in the Greater Mekong Subregion economic cooperation programme, focusing on cross-border infrastructure and energy projects. The World Bank has recognised Laos as one of Southeast Asia and Pacific's fastest growing economies, with annual GDP growth averaging 7.4% since 2009, driven by expanding tourism, energy exports, and foreign investment. While classified as a least developed country by the United Nations, Laos is a member of ASEAN, the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement, East Asia Summit, La Francophonie, and the World Trade Organization.
History
Prehistory
In 2009, an anatomically modern human skull was recovered from the Tam Pa Ling Cave in the Annamite Mountains in northern Laos; the skull is at least 46,000 years old, making it the oldest modern human fossil found to date in Southeast Asia. Stone artefacts including Hoabinhian types have been found at sites dating to the Pleistocene in northern Laos.Archaeological evidence suggests an agriculturist society developed during the 4th millennium BCE, a society in which bronze objects appeared around 1500 BCE, and iron tools were known from 700 BCE. The proto-historic period is characterised by contact with Chinese and Indian civilisations. According to linguistic and other historical evidence, Tai-speaking tribes migrated southwestward to the territories of Laos and Thailand from Guangxi sometime between the 8th and 10th centuries.
Lan Xang
Laos traces its history to the kingdom of Lan Xang, which was founded in the 13th century by a Lao prince, Fa Ngum, whose father had his family exiled from the Khmer Empire. Fa Ngum, with 10,000 Khmer troops, conquered some Lao principalities in the Mekong river basin, culminating in the capture of Vientiane. Ngum was descended from a line of Lao kings that traced back to Khoun Boulom. He made Theravada Buddhism the state religion. His ministers, unable to tolerate his ruthlessness, forced him into exile to what is later the Thai province of Nan in 1373, where he died. Fa Ngum's eldest son, Oun Heuan, ascended to the throne under the name Samsenethai and reigned for 43 years. Lan Xang became a trade centre during Samsenthai's reign, and after his death in 1421 it collapsed into warring factions for nearly a century.In 1520, Photisarath came to the throne and moved the capital from Luang Prabang to Vientiane to avoid a Burmese invasion. Setthathirath became king in 1548, after his father was killed, and ordered the construction of That Luang. Settathirath disappeared in the mountains on his way back from a military expedition into Cambodia, and Lan Xang fell into more than 70 years of "instability", involving Burmese invasion and civil war.
In 1637, when Sourigna Vongsa ascended the throne, Lan Xang further expanded its frontiers. When he died without an heir, the kingdom split into three principalities. Between 1763 and 1769, Burmese armies overran northern Laos and annexed Luang Prabang, while Champasak eventually came under Siamese suzerainty.
Chao Anouvong was installed as a vassal king of Vientiane by the Siamese. He encouraged a renaissance of Lao fine arts and literature and improved relations with Luang Phrabang. Under Vietnamese pressure, he rebelled against the Siamese in 1826. The rebellion failed, and Vientiane was ransacked. Anouvong was taken to Bangkok as a prisoner, where he died.
In a time period where the acquisition of humans was a priority over the ownership of land, the warfare of pre-modern Southeast Asia revolved around the seizing of people and resources from its enemies. A Siamese military campaign in Laos in 1876 was described by a British observer as having been "transformed into slave-hunting raids on a large scale".
French Laos (1893–1953)
In the 19th century, Luang Prabang was ransacked by the Chinese Black Flag Army. France rescued King Oun Kham and added Luang Phrabang to the protectorate of French Indochina. The Kingdom of Champasak and the territory of Vientiane were added to the protectorate. King Sisavangvong of Luang Phrabang became ruler of a unified Laos, and Vientiane once again became the capital.Laos produced tin, rubber, and coffee; the country never accounted for more than 1% of French Indochina's exports. By 1940, around 600 French citizens lived in Laos. Under French rule, the Vietnamese were encouraged to migrate to Laos; this was seen by the French colonists as a rational solution to a labour shortage within the confines of an Indochina-wide colonial space. By 1943, the Vietnamese population stood at nearly 40,000, forming the majority in some cities of Laos and having the right to elect its own leaders. As a result, 53% of the population of Vientiane, 85% of Thakhek, and 62% of Pakse were Vietnamese; the exception was Luang Prabang, where the population was predominantly Lao. As late as 1945, the French drew up a plan to move a number of Vietnamese to three areas, which was derailed by the Japanese invasion of Indochina. Otherwise, according to Martin Stuart-Fox, the Lao might well have lost control over their own country.
During World War II in Laos, Vichy France, Thailand, Imperial Japan and Free France occupied Laos. On 9 March 1945, a nationalist group declared Laos once more independent, with Luang Prabang as its capital; on 7 April 1945, two battalions of Japanese troops occupied the city. The Japanese attempted to force Sisavang Vong to declare Laotian independence, and on 8 April he instead declared an end to Laos's status as a French protectorate. The king then secretly sent Prince Kindavong to represent Laos to the Allied forces and Prince Sisavang as representative to the Japanese. When Japan surrendered, some Lao nationalists declared Laotian independence, and by 1946, French troops had reoccupied the country and conferred autonomy on Laos.
During the First Indochina War, the Indochinese Communist Party formed the Pathet Lao independence organisation. The Pathet Lao began a war against the French colonial forces with the aid of the Vietnamese independence organisation, the Viet Minh. In 1950, the French were forced to give Laos semi-autonomy as an "associated state" within the French Union. France remained in de facto control until 22 October 1953, when Laos gained full independence as a constitutional monarchy.
Independence and communist rule (1953–)
The First Indochina War took place across French Indochina and eventually led to French defeat and the signing of a peace accord for Laos at the Geneva Conference of 1954. In 1960, amidst a series of rebellions in the Kingdom of Laos, fighting broke out between the Royal Lao Army and the communist North Vietnamese and Soviet Union-backed Pathet Lao guerillas. A second Provisional Government of National Unity formed by Prince Souvanna Phouma in 1962 was unsuccessful, and the situation turned into civil war between the Royal Laotian government and the Pathet Lao. The Pathet Lao were backed militarily by the People's Army of Vietnam and the Viet Cong.File:Muang Khoun - Laos - 01.JPG|thumb|right|Ruins of Muang Khoun, former capital of Xiangkhouang province, destroyed by the American bombing of Laos in the 1960s
Laos was a part of the Vietnam War since parts of Laos were invaded and occupied by North Vietnam since 1958 for use as a supply route for its war against South Vietnam. In response, the United States initiated a bombing campaign against the PAVN positions, supported regular and irregular anti-communist forces in Laos, and supported incursions into Laos by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam.
Aerial bombardments against the PAVN/Pathet Lao forces were carried out by the United States to prevent the collapse of the Kingdom of Laos central government, and to deny the use of the Ho Chi Minh Trail to attack US forces in South Vietnam. Between 1964 and 1973, the US dropped 2 million tons of bombs on Laos, nearly equal to the 2.1 million tons of bombs the US dropped on Europe and Asia during all of World War II. This made Laos the most heavily bombed country in history relative to the size of its population; The New York Times notes this was "nearly a ton for every person in Laos".
Some 80 million bombs failed to explode and remain scattered throughout the country. Unexploded ordnance, including cluster munitions and mines, kill or maim approximately 50 Laotians every year. Due to the impact of cluster bombs during this war, Laos was an advocate of the Convention on Cluster Munitions to ban the weapons and was host to the First Meeting of States Parties to the convention in November 2010.
File:Vientianne1973.jpg|thumb|Pathet Lao soldiers in Vientiane, 1973
In 1975, the Pathet Lao overthrew the royalist government, forcing King Savang Vatthana to abdicate on 2 December 1975. He later died in a re-education camp. Between 20,000 and 62,000 Laotians died during the civil war.
On 2 December 1975, after taking control of the country, the Pathet Lao government under Kaysone Phomvihane renamed the country as the Lao People's Democratic Republic; the government also signed agreements giving Vietnam the right to station armed forces and to appoint advisers to assist in overseeing the country. The ties between Laos and Vietnam were formalised via a treaty signed in 1977, which has since provided direction for Lao foreign policy, and provides the basis for Vietnamese involvement at levels of Lao political and economic life. In 1979, Laos was requested by Vietnam to end relations with the People's Republic of China; this led to isolation in trade by China, the United States, and other countries. In 1979, there were 50,000 PAVN troops stationed in Laos and as many as 6,000 civilian Vietnamese officials including 1,000 directly attached to the ministries in Vientiane.