| Laos
has been under the dominance of its neighboring nations
at various points of time in its history. As a consequence,
Laos had to surmount many impediments before it could
establish its identity as an independent nation. Therefore
the history of Laos is bound to be full of interesting
twists, turns and power shifts.
The History of Laos can be traced back to the initial
inhabitants who had migrated from southern China. The
11 th century saw Laos come under the influence of the
Sukhothai dynasty. It was Fan Ngum, a Lao prince who
unified and carved out a new empire and named it ‘Lan
Xang'. Fa Ngum became the king in 1353. It was in mid
16 th century that King Setthathirat, declared Vientienne
the capital of ‘Lan Xang'. The intermediate period had
seen incursions by the Vietnamese and the Burmese. King
Setthathirat was venerated and looked up to as a ruler
capable of warding off foreign invasions. After his
disappearance, the kingdom started to decline rapidly.
Peace and stability was restored during the rule of
King Souligna Vongsa.
King Souligna Vongsa died heirless and the nation broke
up into three kingdoms ruled respectively by China,
Burma and Vietnam. The Thais began to extend their influence
of the major portion of Laos until it was virtually
reduced to being a Siamese satellite state. France incorporated
Laos into French Indochina following its occupation
of Vietnam. Indochina was occupied by the Japanese during
the course of the World War II. Following the surrender
of Japan, the Lao nationalists declared Laos independent.
But the road to independence was not supposed to be
that easy. The French troops reoccupied Laos and conferred
limited autonomy. Laos gained absolute independence
after the defeat of the French at the hands of the Vietnamese
communists and the subsequent Geneva peace conference
held in 1954.
World Travel 4 Indians is an international travel site
and a repository of useful information on history of
Laos and other countries around the world.
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