History of Laos

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The area of today's Laos on the Southeast Asian mainland was discovered as early as the 6th millennium BC according to archaeological finds in the plain of the clay jugs . Settled. After these finds in the north, a highly developed culture at the beginning of the Christian era was assumed. The country was first settled by various tribes of Indochina along the Mekong. It was first used by the Funan in the 1st century AD, later by the Chenla from the 6th century AD, from which the Khmer Empire emerged. Probably from the 8th century AD, the Laotians who belong to the Thai peoples immigrated from their homeland in southwest China to the area of today's Laos. For several centuries the residents were under the rule of the powerful Khmer Empire of Angkor. The Sukhothai empire of the Thai drove out the Khmer and temporarily ruled over today's Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. The Sukhothal empire split into small states, Müang, in the 14th century, before being reunited as the Ayutthaya empire.

In 1353 the Laotians were able to break away from the great empire under the leadership of their ruler Fa Ngum and founded the kingdom of Lan Chang (land of millions of elephants). Lan Chang split up into the rival kingdoms of Vientiane and Luang Prabang in 1707 and a third empire, Champassak, was established in the south of the country in 1713.

In the second half of the 18th century, all small empires came under the rule of the Empire of Siam. In 1888–93, France waged war against Siam for Laos after it had brought Vietnam and Cambodia under its rule in 1887. The three kingdoms of Vientiane, Luang Prabang and Champassak became a French protectorate in 1893 under the name of Laos and annexed to French Indochina. During the Second World War, after the occupation of France by Germany in May / June 1940/1941, Japanese troops occupied Laos and left the French colonial administration in place. In March 1945 the last French troops were arrested. After the Japanese defeat in August 1945, Laos was proclaimed independence. But after the Japanese defeat, the French colonial troops landed in Indochina at the end of 1945 and also penetrated Laos, and in 1946 overthrew the Laotian government. In 1947 a new constitution declared Laos a constitutional monarchy. In 1949 Laos became an independent kingdom within the French Union. During the French Indochina War 1946-1954, the Communist underground movement Pathet Lao was able to take about half of Laos. In the 1954 Geneva Indochina Agreement, Laos was given final independence from France. Laos became a kingdom. A truce was agreed.

Civil war broke out again and again. The country was drawn into the Vietnam War in the late 1960s , which expanded into the Indochina War. In 1975 the communists took power in Laos and the Laos People's Democratic Republic was proclaimed. First, the planned economy was introduced. In 1991, in the new constitution, socialism was abandoned as a national goal and freedom of religion was introduced, but the leadership of the ruling Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LRVP) was retained. The economy was also liberalized with the introduction of market economy principles.

Laos in ancient times

Archaeological finds prove that the area of today's Laos was settled as early as the 6th millennium BC. Since approx. 4000 BC In BC, sedentary farmers practiced agriculture. With the use of iron tools around 700 BC The Iron Age began. Trade links with cultures in India and China were discovered. The finds on the Tran-Ninh-Plateau (Plain of the Clay Jars) in the north of the country suggest a highly developed culture at the beginning of the Christian era. Stone monuments were built on the level of the clay jars. The area came under the sovereignty of the Funan Empire , which was founded in the Mekong Delta in the 1st century AD and extended along the Mekong. It was culturally influenced by India. In the 6th century AD, the Chenla Empire replaced the Funan Empire in the lower Mekong region. From this the empire of the Khmer , the Cambodians developed. Under the rulers of Angkor, the Khmer empire reached in the 12th – 13th centuries. Century its climax. It ruled over areas in what is now Laos.

The Laotians

The Laotians belonged to the Thai tribes and settled in southwest China. 649–902 there was the temporarily powerful Nanzhao Empire in southwest China and Southeast Asia . The Laotians probably immigrated to what is now Laos from the 8th century. Buddhism and Hinduism spread. Rice, coffee and tea were grown. On the territory of the Nanzhao Empire, the area retained its independence as Dali under Chinese influence. The Mongols ended their independence from Dali in 1253/54. The Thai empire of Sukhothai (kingdom) invaded northern Laos under Rama Khamheng (1279–1298) and destroyed the great Khmer empire. At times it ruled over areas of what is now Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. Müang , independent principalities and city-states that paid tribute to the Thai king , arose under the sovereignty . It disintegrated into smaller individual empires in the 14th century before it was united as the Thai empire of Ayutthaya in 1350.

Lan Xang

In 1353, under the leadership of Fa Ngum, the Laotians were able to break away from the great Thai empire of Ayutthaya and found the Laotian empire Lan Xang (land of millions of elephants). The capital was Muong Swang.

Buddhism became the state religion. The state was a loose association of loose principalities, so-called Müang . There was no nation-state in the European sense. An army was raised. Many elephants lived there and it came under Chinese influence. In 1563 the capital was moved to Vientiane. In the 15th and 16th centuries several wars broke out against the neighboring states of Vietnam and Burma. Under the rule of King Sulinyavongsas 1638–1694, the Lan Xang kingdom reached a climax. In 1707 the Lan Xang empire split up into the two rival kingdoms Vientiane and Luang Prabang, and in 1713 the third empire Champassak was established in the south.

The partial

The partial kingdoms of Vientiane, Luang Prabang since 1707 and Champassak were independent kingdoms. The unity of the ancient Lan Xang empire was no longer established. They have been exposed to repeated invasions from the neighboring kingdoms of Burma, Siam and Vietnam. These raised a claim to sovereignty. The rulers of the Laotian sub-empires approached one or the other neighboring state. The claims of Siam and Vietnam overlapped. The Laotian states formed a buffer between the states of Siam and Vietnam. The rulers of the Laotian states sometimes paid the one neighboring empire and sometimes the other, and also paid more and more tributes at the same time.

Under Siamese rule

In the second half of the 18th century, all small empires came under the rule of the Empire of Siam (Thailand). However, the partial kingdom of Luang Prabang succeeded through cooperation with Siam against the insurgent Vientiane, which rose against Siam in 1827. to maintain a certain independence. The Siamese and Luang Prabang put down the uprising. The areas belonged with some parts of Siam and Burma to the golden triangle in which opium was grown.

French colonial rule

In 1893 France waged a war against Siam over the Laos area. After the victory of the French, the three areas of Vientiane, Luang Prabang and Champassak were annexed to French Indochina as the protectorate of Laos . Siam recognized Laos as a protectorate and remained independent. The Mekong, which until then had been the most important connecting artery of the Lao area, now became the border river between a Siamese and a French-controlled part. The areas west of the Mekong that remained near Siam (now Thailand) have since been referred to as Isan (northeast Thailand).

For France, Laos was primarily of strategic importance to delimit the British colonial empire from the colony of British India with the area of Burma. Laos was of little economic importance to the French colonial power. 70 peoples lived in the area, the largest were the Laotians, the Mon, who were related to the Khmer. The Hmong lived in Laos and Vietnam. After the First World War 1914–1918, France consolidated its rule in Indochina. Railway lines were built. In the first half of the 20th century, several resistance movements against French rule emerged.

After Germany's victory in the western campaign from May 10 to June 22, 1940 in World War II against France, Indochina was controlled by the Vichy government. On September 22, 1940, Japan demanded the release of bases in northern Indochina. The French government bowed to the pressure and gave the Japanese troops unopposed bases in northern Vietnam. On July 2, 1941, Japanese troops also occupied Laos, South Vietnam and Cambodia. The Vichy associations offered no resistance. Instead, the Japanese left the French colonial administration in office. Laotian resistance fighters from various political directions rose against the Japanese occupation. In 1944 the communist resistance movement was founded. In March 1945 the Japanese army interned the French colonial troops of the Vichy government, which had since been moved to Sigmaringen. The Japanese occupation now supports resistance movements in Indochina. After the Japanese surrender on August 10 and the Allies' affirmative response on August 11, Indochina was held by Japanese troops. On September 2, 1945, the surrender of Japan to the Allies was signed on the battleship Missouri.

In September 1945 French troops landed in Laos with British support. On October 10, 1945, a popular assembly of resistance movements was constituted in Vientiane, which on October 12 formed a provisional government of Free Laos and proclaimed independence. But the French colonial administration deposed the provisional government of Free Laos in 1946 and took over again sovereignty in Laos. The country was granted limited internal self-government. In 1947 a new constitution declared Laos a constitutional monarchy with King Sisavang Vong on the throne under French colonial administration. In 1949 France granted Laos independence within the French Union.

Prince Souphanouvong founded the Pathet Laos in 1950 from the communist underground movement, which allied itself with the Vietnamese communist Việt Minh under Ho Chi Minh. The First Indochina War spread to Laos. The Pathet Lao fought against the French army and Laotian auxiliaries and received arms supplies from the USSR and PR China. On October 22, 1953, the neutralist Prince Souvanna Phouma formed the new Laotian government. Prince Susanna Vong established a revolutionary government with the support of the North Vietnamese Viet Minh. But they were repulsed. By 1954, the Pathet Lao occupied about half of Laos. At the Geneva Indochina Conference from April 26 to July 21, 1954 with the participation of the four great powers, the PRC and representatives of Vietnam, Viet Minh, Laos and Cambodia, the Geneva Indochina Agreement was concluded on July 21, 1954: Laos received the full independence, the French colonial troops were withdrawn, an armistice between government troops and the partisans of Pathet Lao was agreed and Laos committed itself to neutrality.

Kingdom of Laos

The Kingdom of Laos received full independence on July 21, 1954 and was a member of the Union française . The French army withdrew. Laos received reconstruction and development aid from Western European countries and the USA. The women's suffrage was introduced 1956th In 1956/57 the Communist Pathet Lao placed their troops under the government. In December 1956, Laos left the Union Française, which dissolved. A right-wing government under the de facto leadership of General Phoumi Nosavan came to the government in Laos, which was drawing closer to the United States. In 1959 an open civil war broke out between the Phoumis government forces and the Pathet Lao. The US supported the government troops and the Soviet Union supported the Pathet Lao. Prince Boun Oum , who renounced his rights to the throne in 1946, became Prime Minister in 1960 and continued the pro-Western course. In May 1961, at a Geneva Laos conference, the Boun Oum government, the neutralists under Prince Souvanna Phouma and the Pathet Lao under Prince Souphanouvong agreed a ceasefire agreement and the formation of a government of national unity with the acceptance of the neutralists and Pathet Lao. Instead, Boun Oum gave up his post, but continued to work in the background. On July 23, 1962, the participants in the Geneva Laos Conference agreed on the neutralization of Laos, the withdrawal of all foreign troops and non-interference in Laos internal affairs, as well as the final end of the civil war.

During the 1960s, the civil war broke out again between King Savang Vatthana (since 1959), the pro-Western group under Boun Oum and the neutralists on the one hand, and the communist Pathet Lao under Prince Souphanouvong on the other. The Pathet Lao left the government of national unity, which fell apart. The US was able to win Souvanna Phouma on their side. The neutralists split. North Vietnamese troops occupied areas in Laos on the border with North and South Vietnam in the late 1960s and built the Ho Chi Minh Trail to provide supplies for their troops and the allied Viet Cong rebels in South Vietnam. The supply of supplies for the Viet Cong was thus secured unhindered by the US bombing raids in Vietnam. The Pathet Lao jointly controlled these areas in eastern Laos with the North Vietnamese. The US bombed these areas in eastern Laos to limit the supply of weapons to the Viet Cong. So Laos was drawn into the Vietnam War , which expanded into the Second Indochina War. The US Air Force used weapons to defoliate in the bombing raids in Laos. In 1970 the North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao occupied the strategically important level of the clay jugs. The Hmong supported the government troops and the US associations. After the armistice in Vietnam at the Paris peace negotiations on January 27, 1973, the warring parties concluded an armistice on February 21, 1973 in Laos. The US Air Force stopped bombing Laos, and government forces, the North Vietnamese Army and the Pathet Lao also stopped fighting. The Laotian government and the Pathet Lao started negotiations to end the civil war. The withdrawal of the US associations was completed in June 1974 and Boun Oum fled to Thailand. In 1974 a new government of national unity was formed under the leadership of Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma with Pathet Lao politicians.

After the communist takeover of power in Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge on April 17, 1975 and the occupation of South Vietnam by the North Vietnamese and the FLN on April 30, 1975, the Pathet Lao also succeeded in taking power in Laos on August 24, 1975. They proclaimed the People's Democratic Republic of Laos and Souphanouvong became the first president.

Laos People's Democratic Republic

On December 2, 1975, a national assembly decided to abolish the monarchy. King Savang Vatthana abdicated and Head of State Suvanna Vong proclaimed the People's Democratic Republic of Laos . He was elected the first president. The Pathet Lao became the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, which became the Unity Party. Kaysone Phomvihane became Prime Minister of the Lao People's Democratic Republic. The other parties were banned.

Numerous Laotians fled to the USA, Australia, Thailand and France, and the Hmong were persecuted. Laos was closely allied with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Soviet Union. There was hardly any industry and a planned economy was first introduced. Especially communist states of the Eastern Bloc provided reconstruction and development aid. The communist government arrested opposition activists and detained them in re-education camps. Many intellectual opposition and spiritual dignitaries of Buddhism fled abroad. In 1978 the collectivization of agriculture was completed. The anti-communist Meo people, the Hmong, were resettled.

After district and provincial elections, parliamentary elections took place on March 26, 1989 for the first time since 1975, in which only candidates approved by the LRVP were allowed to run. The planned economy led to a deterioration in the country's economic situation. It was the poorest country in Southeast Asia, which was already weakened by the civil war.

Economic liberalization has been introduced since 1986. On August 14, 1991, the People's Assembly passed the first constitution after the Communists came to power. The LRVP's claim to leadership was enshrined, but socialism was no longer mentioned as a state goal and the right to freely practice one's religion was introduced. Market economy principles were introduced. In 1994 the Saysomboun special zone was created in order to better control the resident population.

In 1996 the EU signed a cooperation agreement with Laos. In 1997 Laos was accepted into the Southeast Asian association of states ASEAN. During the economic and currency crisis in Asia at the end of the 1990s, the Laotian economy suffered heavy losses. Protests against the communist government increased. The Saysomboun special zone was dissolved again at the beginning of 2006. According to reports from international human rights organizations, serious human rights violations by the military against the Hmong resident there have occurred. In December 2009 around 4500 members of the Hmong ethnic group were expelled from Thailand to Laos. They were settled in the settlement area of Xaisomboun. In 2013 the province of Saysomboun was created.

literature

Grant Evans: A Short History of Laos: The Land in Between , Allen & Unwin, 2002, ISBN 978-1864489972 .
Michael Schulze: The history of Laos: from the beginning to the beginning of the nineties , Institute for Asian Studies, Hamburg 1994,

ISBN 978-3889101365 .

Martin Stuart-Fox: A History of Laos , Cambridge University Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0521597463 .
The great Ploetz, Herder GmbH & Co. KG, Freiburg i. Breisgau 2008, licensed edition for Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen 35th edition 2008 ISBN 978-3-525-32008-2 .

Web links

Commons : History of Laos - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

http://www.laender-lexikon.de/Laos_Geschichte

Individual evidence

↑ Der Volks-Ploetz, IV. Middle Story, 2. South and East Asia, b) South East Asia, p. 298.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Laos history, country lexicon
↑ The great Ploetz, Southeast Asia, p. 689 f.
↑ Der Volks-Ploetz, IV. Middle Story, 2. South and East Asia c) China, p. 300.
↑ ^a ^b Der Volks-Ploetz, V. Modern History, 3. South Asia, B) South East Asia, p. 445.
↑ The great Ploetz, Southeast Asia p. 1223 f.
↑ The great Ploetz, Vietnam, Cambodscha, Laos, p. 1225 f.
↑ Volker Grabowsky : The Isan up to its Integration into the Siamese State. In: Regions and National Integration in Thailand. Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 1995, p. 124.
↑ Der Volks-Ploetz, C. Allgemeine Geschichte 1939–1945, 3. The War in East Asia and the Pacific (1939–1945), a) Prehistory, p. 543.
↑ Der Volks-Ploetz, C. General History, The Second World War, The War in East Asia, C. From the turn of the war to the capitulation of Japan, p. 545.
↑ Der Volks-Ploetz, Recent History, 2nd International Conferences and Agreements, p. 571.
^ The great Ploetz, Vietnam, Cambodscha, Laos, p. 1226.
^ Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 438
↑ Der Volks-Ploetz, Recent History, International Conferences and Agreements, p. 572.
↑ Der Volks-Ploetz, Recent History, I. Asia, 3. South Asia, i) Indochina, Laos.
↑ The great Ploetz, Laos since 1945, p. 1754 ff.

[1] Der Volks-Ploetz, IV. Middle Story, 2. South and East Asia, b) South East Asia, p. 298.

[LG-2] Laos history, country lexicon

[3] The great Ploetz, Southeast Asia, p. 689 f.

[4] Der Volks-Ploetz, IV. Middle Story, 2. South and East Asia c) China, p. 300.

[VP445-5] Der Volks-Ploetz, V. Modern History, 3. South Asia, B) South East Asia, p. 445.

[6] The great Ploetz, Southeast Asia p. 1223 f.

[7] The great Ploetz, Vietnam, Cambodscha, Laos, p. 1225 f.

[8] Volker Grabowsky : The Isan up to its Integration into the Siamese State. In: Regions and National Integration in Thailand. Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 1995, p. 124.

[9] Der Volks-Ploetz, C. Allgemeine Geschichte 1939–1945, 3. The War in East Asia and the Pacific (1939–1945), a) Prehistory, p. 543.

[10] Der Volks-Ploetz, C. General History, The Second World War, The War in East Asia, C. From the turn of the war to the capitulation of Japan, p. 545.

[11] Der Volks-Ploetz, Recent History, 2nd International Conferences and Agreements, p. 571.

[12] The great Ploetz, Vietnam, Cambodscha, Laos, p. 1226.

[13] Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 438

[14] Der Volks-Ploetz, Recent History, International Conferences and Agreements, p. 572.

[15] Der Volks-Ploetz, Recent History, I. Asia, 3. South Asia, i) Indochina, Laos.

[16] The great Ploetz, Laos since 1945, p. 1754 ff.