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| 3. Laos and Cambodia |
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(See 1790)| |
| 1826–27 |
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| The Anu Rebellion was suppressed by the Bangkok government, which then forced massive population resettlement. The kingdom of Luang Prabang and its few minor tributary principalities to the east and north were the only remaining independent Lao powers. | 1 |
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| 1863, Aug. 11 |
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| King Norodom of Cambodia, a Hindu state dependent on both Annam and Siam and constantly threatened by these neighbors, accepted a French protectorate. | 2 |
| From 1872 onward, bands of Chinese (called Ho) from Yunnan raided the whole northern region, even reaching Vientiane. The king of Luang Praban was forced to call upon Bangkok, acknowledging Thai suzerainty, for assistance. In the 1870s and 1880s the Siamese government repeatedly sent military expeditions, but these proved ineffectual. | 3 |
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| 1884, June 17 |
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| A new treaty with Cambodia gave the protecting power much more extensive control. | 4 |
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| 1887 |
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| Ho sacked Luang Prabang. The king, aided by the French, escaped. Siam lost prestige while the French gained ascendancy in the role of protector. | 5 |
| Cochin China, Cambodia, Annam, and Tonkin were administratively united as the Union Indo-Chinoise (See 1887, Oct). | 6 |
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| 1893 |
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| FRANCO-SIAMESE TREATY gave France control of Laos, the interior region along the Mekong that had long been in dispute between Annam and Siam. The French ruled three of the four Lao principalities without Lao princes. Until the end of World War I Laos was governed under a casual ad hoc arrangement: a French regional head (residente) in Vientiane exercised indirect French rule in the protected principality of Luang Prabang, ruled by Sisavanvon (r. 1909–59); the residente also directly administered the three other Lao principalities of Xieng Khouang, Vientiane, and Champassak. French rule depended on the cooperation of traditional Lao leaders, minimal French economic involvement, the country's isolation, and the compliance of the Lao population. The French administration operated at a deficit in Laos, but this was offset by the French operations in Cambodia and Vietnam. | 7 |
| In the pre–World War II period, the French concentrated resources on public works, primarily the extension of all-weather roads and cultural projects. The French worked through princely families and bureaucratic elites, who went unchallenged because the French-controlled educational system did not produce qualified rivals and also because of the absence of a vernacular press, elected assemblies, and voluntary associations. (See Laos and Cambodia) | 8 |
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