History of Laos

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History of Laos
Muang city-states era
Muang Sua 698–1353
Lan Xang era
Lan Xang 1353–1707
Regional kingdoms era
Kingdom of Vientiane 1707–1828 Kingdom of Luang Phrabang 1707–1893 Muang Phuan 1707–1899 Kingdom of Champasak 1713–1904
Colonial era
Lao rebellion 1826–1828 Haw wars 1865–1890 Franco-Siamese crisis 1893 French Protectorate of Laos 1893–1953 Franco-Thai War 1940–1941 Japanese puppet state 1945 Free Lao Movement (Lao Issara) 1945–1949
Independent era
Kingdom of Laos 1946–1975 Laotian Civil War 1953–1975 North Vietnamese invasion of Laos 1958–1959 Anti-Communist Insurgency 1975–2007 Lao People's Democratic Republic 1975–1991 Laos after Soviet dominance 1991–
See also
History of Laos History of Isan
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Evidence of modern human presence in the northern and central highlands of Indochina, which constitute the territories of what later is Laos, dates back to the Lower Paleolithic.^[1] These earliest human migrants are Australo-Melanesians—associated with the Hoabinhian culture—and have populated the highlands and the interior, less accessible regions of Laos and all of Southeast Asia. The subsequent Austroasiatic and Austronesian marine migration waves affected landlocked Laos, and direct Chinese and Indian cultural contact had a greater impact on the country.^[2][3]

Laos exists in truncated form from the thirteenth-century Lao kingdom of Lan Xang, which existed as a unified kingdom from 1357 to 1707, divided into the 3 rival kingdoms of Luang Prabang, Vientiane, and Champasak, from 1707 to 1779. It fell to Siamese suzerainty from 1779 to 1893 and was reunified under the French Protectorate of Laos in 1893. The borders of Laos were established by the French colonial government in the 19th and 20th centuries.^[4][5][6]