![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Laos-on-the-Globe-300x300.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Present Laos traces its historic and cultural identity to Lan Xang<\/a>, which existed from the 14th century to the 18th century as one of the largest kingdoms in Southeast Asia. Due to its central geographical location in Southeast Asia, the kingdom became a hub for overland trade, and became wealthy economically and culturally. After a period of internal conflict, Lan Xang broke into three separate kingdoms\u2014Luang Phrabang<\/a>, Vientiane<\/a>, and Champasak<\/a>. In 1893, the three territories came under a French protectorate and were united to form what is now known as Laos. It briefly gained independence in 1945 after Japanese occupation<\/a>, but was recolonized by France until it won autonomy in 1949. Laos became independent in 1953, with a constitutional monarchy under Sisavang Vong<\/a>. A post-independence civil war<\/a> began, which saw the communist resistance<\/a>, supported by the Soviet Union<\/a>, fight against the monarchy that later came under influence of military regimes supported by the United States. After the Vietnam War<\/a> ended in 1975, the communist Pathet Lao<\/a> came to power, ending the civil war. Laos was then dependent on military and economic aid from the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991.<\/p>\n In 2018, the country had the eighth highest GDP (PPP) per capita in Southeast Asia. Laos is a member of the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement<\/a>, the ASEAN<\/a>, East Asia Summit<\/a>, and La Francophonie<\/a>. Laos applied for membership of the World Trade Organization<\/a> in 1997; on 2 February 2013, it was granted full membership. It is a one-party socialist republic, espousing Marxism\u2013Leninism<\/a> governed by the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, under which non-governmental organizations have routinely characterized the country’s human rights record as poor, citing repeated abuses such as torture, restrictions on civil liberties, and persecution of minorities.<\/p>\n Laos opened in 1986 to the “new economic mechanisms”. The Investment Code was promulgated in 1988. It opens the economy to foreign participation and promotes the notions of profit, profitability and productivity. Since then, private enterprise has been considered as the center of the “new economic management system”. A first Structural Adjustment Program was adopted in 1989 with the support of the IMF<\/a> and the World Bank<\/a>. Since 2009, the United States has recognized Laos as a country respectful of the market economy. Thanks to this recognition, American companies investing in the country can receive public aid.<\/p>\n In Laos, the politically and culturally dominant Lao people<\/a> make up 53.2% of the population, mostly in the lowlands. Mon-Khmer groups<\/a>, the Hmong<\/a>, and other indigenous hill tribes live in the foothills and mountains. Laos’s strategies for development are based on generating electricity from rivers and selling the power to its neighbours, namely Thailand, China, and Vietnam, as well as its initiative to become a “land-linked” nation, as evidenced by the construction of four new railways connecting Laos and neighbours. Laos has been referred to as one of Southeast Asia and Pacific’s Fastest Growing Economies by the World Bank with annual GDP growth averaging 7.7% since 2009.<\/p>\n An ancient human skull was recovered in 2009 from the Tam Pa Ling Cave<\/a> in the Annamite Mountains<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n Stone artifacts including Hoabinhian<\/a> types have been found at sites dating to the Late Pleistocene<\/a> in northern Laos. Archaeological evidence suggests an agriculturist society developed during the 4th millennium BC. Burial jars and other kinds of sepulchers suggest a complex society in which bronze objects appeared around 1500 BC, and iron tools were known from 700 BC. The proto-historic period is characterized by contact with Chinese and Indian civilizations. According to linguistic and other historical evidence, Tai-speaking tribes<\/a> migrated southwestward to the modern territories of Laos and Thailand from Guangxi<\/a> sometime between the 8th\u201310th centuries.<\/p>\n Laos traces its history to the kingdom of Lan Xang (‘million elephants’), which was founded in the 14th century by a Lao prince, Fa Ngum<\/a>, whose father had his family exiled from the Khmer Empire<\/a>.<\/p>\n Fa Ngum, with 10,000 Khmer<\/a> troops, conquered many Lao principalities in the Mekong River Basin<\/a>, culminating in the capture of Vientiane<\/a>. Ngum was descended from a long line of Lao kings that traced back to Khoun Boulom. He made Theravada Buddhism<\/a> the state religion and Lan Xang prospered. Within 20 years of its formation, the kingdom expanded eastward to Champa and along the Annamite mountains in Vietnam. His ministers, unable to tolerate his ruthlessness, forced him into exile to the present-day Thai province of Nan<\/a> in 1373, where he died. Fa Ngum’s eldest son, Oun Heuan, ascended to the throne under the name Samsenthai<\/a> and reigned for 43 years. Lan Xang became an important trade center during Samsenthai’s reign, but after his death in 1421 it collapsed into warring factions for nearly a century.<\/p>\n In 1520, Photisarath<\/a> came to the throne and moved the capital from Luang Prabang<\/a> to Vientiane to avoid a Burmese invasion. Settathirath became king in 1548, after his father was killed, and ordered the construction of what became the symbol of Laos, That Luang<\/a>.<\/p>\n Settathirath disappeared in the mountains on his way back from a military expedition into Cambodia and Lan Xang fell into more than seventy years of instability, involving both Burmese invasion and civil war.<\/p>\n It was not until 1637, when Sourigna Vongsa<\/a> ascended the throne, that Lan Xang further expanded its frontiers. His reign is often regarded as Laos’s golden age. When he died without an heir, the kingdom split into three principalities. Between 1763 and 1769, Burmese armies overran northern Laos and annexed Luang Phrabang, while Champasak eventually came under Siamese suzerainty.<\/p>\n Chao Anouvong<\/a> was installed as a vassal king of Vientiane by the Siamese.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>. The rebellion failed and Vientiane was ransacked. Anouvong was taken to Bangkok<\/a> as a prisoner, where he died.<\/p>\n 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”.<\/p>\n In the late-19th century, Luang Prabang was ransacked by the Chinese Black Flag Army<\/a>. France rescued King Oun Kham<\/a> and added Luang Phrabang to the Protectorate of French Indochina<\/a>. Shortly after, the Kingdom of Champasak and the territory of Vientiane were added to the protectorate. King Sisavang Vong<\/a> of Luang Phrabang became ruler of a unified Laos and Vientiane once again became the capital.<\/p>\n Laos never held any importance for France other than as a buffer state between Thailand and the more economically important Annam<\/a> and Tonkin<\/a>.<\/p>\n During their rule, the French introduced the corv\u00e9e<\/a>, a system that forced every male Lao to contribute 10 days of manual labour per year to the colonial government. Laos produced tin, rubber, and coffee, but never accounted for more than one percent 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, which 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 the largest cities of Laos and enjoying the right to elect its own leaders. As a result, 53% of the population of Vientiane, 85% of Thakhek<\/a>, and 62% of Pakse were Vietnamese, with only the exception of Luang Prabang where the population was predominantly Lao. As late as 1945, the French drew up an ambitious plan to move massive Vietnamese population to three key areas, i.e., the Vientiane Plain, Savannakhet<\/a> region, and the Bolaven Plateau<\/a>, which was only derailed by the Japanese invasion of Indochina.<\/p>\n During World War II in Laos, Vichy France<\/a>, Thailand<\/a>, Imperial Japan<\/a> and Free France<\/a> occupied Laos. On 9 March 1945, a nationalist group declared Laos once more independent, with Luang Prabang as its capital but on 7 April 1945 two battalions of Japanese troops occupied the city. The Japanese attempted to force Sisavang Vong (the King of Luang Phrabang) to declare Laotian independence but on 8 April he instead simply declared an end to Laos’s status as a French protectorate. The King then secretly sent Prince Kindavong<\/a> to represent Laos to the Allied forces and Prince Sisavang as representative to the Japanese. When Japan surrendered, some Lao nationalists (including Prince Phetsarath<\/a>) declared Laotian independence, but by early-1946, French troops had reoccupied the country and conferred limited autonomy on Laos.<\/p>\n During the First Indochina War<\/a>, the Indochinese Communist Party<\/a> formed the Pathet Lao independence organization. The Pathet Lao began a war against the French colonial forces with the aid of the Vietnamese independence organization, the Viet Minh<\/a>. In 1950 the French were forced to give Laos semi-autonomy as an “associated state” within the French Union<\/a>. France remained in de facto control until 22 October 1953, when Laos gained full independence as a constitutional monarchy.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>. In 1955, the US Department of Defense created a special Programs Evaluation Office<\/a> to replace French support of the Royal Lao Army (RLA)<\/a> against the communist Pathet Lao<\/a> as part of the US containment policy.<\/p>\n In 1960, amidst a series of rebellions in the Kingdom of Laos, fighting broke out between the RLA and the communist North Vietnamese and Soviet Union-backed Pathet Lao guerillas. A second Provisional Government of National Unity formed by Prince Souvanna Phouma<\/a> in 1962 was unsuccessful, and the situation steadily deteriorated into large scale civil war between the Royal Laotian government and the Pathet Lao. The Pathet Lao were backed militarily by the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN)<\/a> and Vietcong<\/a>.<\/p>\n Laos was a key part of the Vietnam War<\/a> since parts of Laos were invaded and occupied by North Vietnam for use as a supply route for its war against South Vietnam<\/a>. In response, the United States initiated a bombing campaign against the PAVN positions, supported regular and irregular anticommunist forces in Laos and supported Army of the Republic of Vietnam<\/a> incursions into Laos.<\/p>\n In 1968 the PAVN launched a multi-division attack to help the Pathet Lao to fight the RLA. The attack resulted in the RLA largely demobilizing, leaving the conflict to irregular ethnic Hmong forces of the “Secret Army” backed by the United States and Thailand, and led by General Vang Pao<\/a>.<\/p>\n Massive aerial bombardment 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<\/a> to attack US forces in South Vietnam. Between 1964 and 1973, the U.S. dropped two million tons of bombs on Laos, nearly equal to the 2.1 million tons of bombs the U.S. dropped on Europe and Asia during all of World War II, making Laos the most heavily bombed country in history relative to the size of its population; The New York Times noted this was “nearly a ton for every person in Laos”.<\/p>\n Some 80 million bombs failed to explode and remain scattered throughout the country, rendering vast swathes of land impossible to cultivate and killing or maiming approximately 50 Laotians every year. Due to the particularly heavy impact of cluster bombs<\/a> during this war, Laos was a strong advocate of the Convention on Cluster Munitions<\/a> to ban the weapons, and was host to the First Meeting of States Parties to the convention in November 2010.<\/p>\n In 1975 the Pathet Lao overthrew the royalist government, forcing King Savang Vatthana to abdicate on 2 December 1975. He later died under suspicious circumstances in a re-education camp. Between 20,000 and 62,000 Laotians died during the Civil War.<\/p>\n On 2 December 1975, after taking control of the country, the Pathet Lao government under Kaysone Phomvihane<\/a> renamed the country as the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and signed agreements giving Vietnam the right to station armed forces and to appoint advisers to assist in overseeing the country. The close ties between Laos and Vietnam were formalized via a treaty signed in 1977, which has since provided not only directions for Lao foreign policy, but also the basis for Vietnamese involvement at all levels of Lao political and economic life. Laos was requested in 1979 by Vietnam to end relations with the People’s Republic of China, leading 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.<\/p>\n The conflict between Hmong rebels and the LPDR continued in key areas of Laos, including in Saysaboune Closed Military Zone, Xaisamboune Closed Military Zone near Vientiane Province and Xieng Khouang Province<\/a>. From 1975 to 1996, the United States resettled some 250,000 Lao refugees from Thailand, including 130,000 Hmong<\/p>\n On 2 December 2015, Laos celebrated the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the republic.<\/p>\n Laos is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. Its thickly forested landscape consists mostly of rugged mountains, the highest of which is Phou Bia<\/a> at 2,818 metres (9,245 ft), with some plains and plateaus. The Mekong River forms a large part of the western boundary with Thailand, where the mountains of the Annamite Range<\/a> form most of the eastern border with Vietnam and the Luang Prabang Range<\/a> the northwestern border with the Thai highlands<\/a>. There are two plateau, the Xiangkhoang<\/a> in the north and the Bolaven Plateau<\/a> at the southern end. The climate is tropical and influenced by the monsoon<\/a> pattern.<\/p>\n There is a distinct rainy season from May to November, followed by a dry season from December to April. Local tradition holds that there are three seasons (rainy, cold and hot) as the latter two months of the climatologically defined dry season are noticeably hotter than the earlier four months. The capital and largest city of Laos is Vientiane<\/a> and other major cities include Luang Prabang<\/a>, Savannakhet<\/a>, and Pakse<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 1993 the Laos government set aside 21 percent of the nation’s land area for habitat conservation preservation. The country is one of four in the opium poppy growing region known as the “Golden Triangle<\/a>“. According to the October 2007 UNODC fact book Opium Poppy Cultivation in South East Asia, the poppy cultivation area was 15 square kilometres (5.8 sq mi), down from 18 square kilometres (6.9 sq mi) in 2006.<\/p>\n Laos can be considered to consist of three geographical areas: north, central, and south.<\/p>\n The Lao economy depends heavily on investment and trade with its neighbors, Thailand, Vietnam, and, especially in the north, China. Pakxe<\/a> has also experienced growth based on cross-border trade with Thailand and Vietnam. In 2009, despite the fact that the government is still officially communist, the Obama administration in the US declared Laos was no longer a Marxist\u2013Leninist state and lifted bans on Laotian companies receiving financing from the US Export-Import Bank<\/a>. In 2011, the Lao Securities Exchange<\/a> began trading. In 2012, the government initiated the creation of the Laos Trade Portal, a website incorporating all information traders need to import and export goods into the country.<\/p>\n In 2016, China was the biggest foreign investor in Laos’s economy, having invested in US$5.395 billion since 1989, according to Laos Ministry of Planning and Investment 1989\u20132014 report. Thailand (invested US$4.489 billion) and Vietnam (invested US$3.108 billion) are the second and third largest investors respectively.<\/p>\n Subsistence agriculture still accounts for half of the GDP and provides 80 percent of employment. Only 4.01 percent of the country is arable land, and a mere 0.34 percent used as permanent crop land, the lowest percentage in the Greater Mekong Subregion<\/a>. The irrigated areas under cultivation account for only 28% of the total area under cultivation which, in turn, represents only 12% of all of the agricultural land in 2012. Rice dominates agriculture, with about 80 percent of the arable land area used for growing rice. Approximately 77 percent of Lao farm households are self-sufficient in rice.<\/p>\n Through the development, release and widespread adoption of improved rice varieties, and through economic reforms, production has increased by an annual rate of five percent between 1990 and 2005, and Lao PDR achieved a net balance of rice imports and exports for the first time in 1999. Lao PDR may have the greatest number of rice varieties in the Greater Mekong Subregion. Since 1995 the Lao government has been working with the International Rice Research Institute<\/a> of the Philippines to collect seed samples of each of the thousands of rice varieties found in Laos.<\/p>\n The economy receives development aid from the IMF<\/a>, ADB<\/a>, and other international sources; and also foreign direct investment for development of the society, industry, hydropower and mining (most notably of copper and gold). Tourism is the fastest-growing industry in the country. Economic development in Laos has been hampered by brain drain, with a skilled emigration rate of 37.4 percent in 2000.<\/p>\n Laos is rich in mineral resources and imports petroleum and gas. Metallurgy is an important industry, and the government hopes to attract foreign investment to develop the substantial deposits of coal, gold, bauxite<\/a>, tin, copper, and other valuable metals. In addition, the country’s plentiful water resources and mountainous terrain enable it to produce and export large quantities of hydroelectric energy. Of the potential capacity of approximately 18,000 megawatts, around 8,000 megawatts have been committed for exporting to Thailand and Vietnam.<\/p>\n The country’s most widely recognized product may well be Beerlao<\/a>, which in 2017 was exported to more than 20 countries worldwide. It is produced by the Lao Brewery Company<\/a>.<\/p>\n The mining industry of Laos<\/a> has received prominent attention with foreign direct investments. This sector, since 2003\u201304, has made significant contributions to the economic condition of Laos. More than 540 mineral deposits of gold, copper, zinc, lead and other minerals have been identified, explored and mined.<\/p>\n The main international airports are Vientiane’s Wattay International Airport<\/a> and Luang Prabang International Airport<\/a> with Pakse International Airport<\/a> also having a few international flights. The national carrier is Lao Airlines<\/a>. Other carriers serving the country include Bangkok Airways<\/a>, Vietnam Airlines<\/a>, AirAsia<\/a>, Thai Airways International<\/a>, China Eastern Airlines<\/a> and Silk Air<\/a>.<\/p>\n Much of Laos lacks adequate infrastructure. Laos has no railways, except a short link to connect Vientiane with Thailand over the Thai\u2013Lao Friendship Bridge<\/a>.<\/p>\n The major roads connecting the major urban centers, in particular Route 13<\/a>, have been significantly upgraded in recent years, but villages far from major roads can be reached only through unpaved roads that may not be accessible year-round.<\/p>\n The flag of Laos consists of three horizontal stripes, with the middle stripe in blue being twice the height of the top and bottom red stripes. In the middle is a white disc, the diameter of the disc is \u200b4\u20445 the height of the blue stripe. The national flag of Laos was first adopted in 1945 under the short-lived Lao Issara<\/a> government of 1945\u201346, then by the Pathet Lao<\/a>. It is one of the two flags of a currently communist country (the other being Cuba<\/a>) that does not use any communist symbolism and the only current communist country that does not use a five-pointed star in its flag as an emblem. The current flag was adopted on December 2, 1975 when it became a socialist state.<\/p>\n This current flag replaced the red flag, with a triple-headed white elephant on a pedestal beneath a parasol, which had been the flag of the 19th century Kingdom of Luang Phrabang<\/a>.<\/p>\n The flag had continued to be used when this kingdom became a French protectorate, and following its unification with the other provinces of Laos into the Kingdom of Laos<\/a>, which became independent in 1953.<\/p>\n The flag expressed the ancient name of the country, “Land of a Million Elephants”. From 1953 onward the royal government waged war with the Pathet Lao, whose flag was blue with a white disk and red borders at the top and bottom.<\/p>\n From 1973 to 1975, the Pathet Lao formed part of the government coalition, before assuming power directly and prompting the abdication of the king. Their flag was adopted as the national flag. According to the original creator of the current Lao flag, Maha Sila Viravong, the white disk in the center symbolizes the unity of the Lao people (and the future reunification of the two Laotian regions of Laos and Northeastern Thailand that are divided by the Mekong River<\/a>) under one nation. It is also said to represent a full moon against the Mekong River. The red stripes stand for the blood shed by the Lao people on both banks of the Mekong River (the multi-ethnic people of Laos and the Isan<\/a> people of Northeastern Thailand) in their struggle for freedom and independence from the French, and the blue symbolizes the Mekong River itself, a symbol of the nation’s prosperity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The flag of Laos consists of three horizontal stripes, with the middle stripe in blue being twice the height of the top and bottom red stripes. In the middle is a white disc, the diameter of the disc is \u200b4\u20445 the height of the blue stripe. The national flag of Laos was first adopted in 1945 under the short-lived Lao Issara government of 1945\u201346, then by the Pathet Lao. It is one of the two flags of a currently communist country (the other being Cuba) that does not use any communist symbolism and the only current communist country that does not use a five-pointed star in its flag as an emblem. The current flag was adopted on December 2, 1975 when it became a socialist state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[36,59,5,6,7,76,60],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6641"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Cities-and-Main-Roads-of-Laos-300x244.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>History:<\/h2>\n
Early History:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Tam-Pa-Ling-Cave-Laos-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Lan Xang:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Fa-Ngum-211x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/That-Luang-300x195.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Chao-Anouvong-200x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>French Laos (1893\u20131953):<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Sisavang-Vong.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Local-Lao-Soldiers-in-the-French-Colonial-Guard-c.\u20091900-300x172.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Sisavang-Vatthana-232x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Independence and Communist Rule (1953\u2013present):<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/French-General-Salan-and-Prince-Sisavang-Vatthana-in-Luang-Prabang-4-May-1953-300x269.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Ruins-of-Muang-Khoun-former-capital-of-Xiangkhouang-province-destroyed-by-the-American-bombing-of-Laos-in-the-late-1960s-1-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Pathet-Lao-Soldiers-in-Vientiane-1972-300x242.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Geography:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Mekong-River-in-Luang-Prabang-300x137.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Topographic-Map-of-Laos-258x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Economy:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Laos-Export-Map-300x234.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Rice-Paddy-in-Laos-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Mining-in-Laos-300x117.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Transportation:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Wattay-International-Airport-300x200.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Route-3-South-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Flag of Laos:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Flag-of-Laos-300x200.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Flag-of-the-Kingdom-of-Luang-Prabang-early-1800s\u20131893-300x200.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Flag-of-the-Kingdom-of-Laos-1947-1975-300x200.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>