Early French Exploration
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The French interest in gaining colonial possessions in mainland South East Asia began in the mid-nineteenth century as they competed against the British for trading opportunities. After 1842 the British had a strong foothold into the massive Chinese market via Hong Kong at the mouth of the Pearl River. The French sought alternative routes into China via the Red and Black rivers, leading them into conflict with the Vietnamese, and via the Mekong River which bought them into modern day Laos. In 1861 Henri Mouhot, a French naturalist who had been exploring Siam, Cambodia and Laos for two years, reached Luang Prabang. He unfortunately died of malaria just outside of the town but his journals that were published posthumously excited the French public as to the riches of the exotic far-east with its vivid descriptions of the region and especially the great temples of Angor Wat.
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Henri Mouhot's tomb by the Nam Khan river just outside of Luang Prabang
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In 1866 the French colonial authorities in the young colony of Cochinchina (Now southern Vietnam) established the Mekong Exploration Commission to conduct the first scientific exploration of the Mekong River to assess it suitability as an artery for trade. This group of seven explorers with a support team of about twenty men spent two years travelling up the Mekong River into Yunnan province of China before travelling via the Yangtze River to Shanghai. They stopped at Luang Prabang for four weeks in April/May 1867, impressed at the first significant town they had encountered on their journey. The team's artist and archaeologist Louis Delaporte made some drawings of the town which now constitute some of the earliest records of the town's architecture and appearance. They also found Henri Mouhot's dog Tine-Tine alive and well, being cared for by a Lao family !
Luang Prabang as seen in 1867 from the Nam Khan River
Despite the two years of exploration by the Mekong Exploration Commission, it had in fact been clear to the team after just three months that the many rapids in the lower Mekong River made it totally unsuitable as a regular route for commerce. But the colonialists in Saigon and Paris were not to be dissuaded. In 1879 an officer in the Postal & Telegraph Service, Auguste Pavie, came to the attention of the French Governor of Cochinchina. Pavie had been posted to Cochinchina briefly in 1869 as an infantry man. He returned in 1871 and was put in charge of the remote telegraph station in Kompot, Cambodia. He attracted criticism from his country-men for "going native", immersing himself in the local culture and becoming fluent in the language, but his ability to organise construction and operation of the telegraph line in such a difficult environment could not be overlooked. The Cochinchina Governor recruited Pavie to lead a five year expedition exploring Siam and Cambodia. This developed into a series of four "missions" between 1879 and 1895 in which Pavie explored the entire Mekong region. He was also put in charge of building the telegraph line from Phnom Penh to Bangkok which he executed so well that he was transferred to the diplomatic service, becoming the Vice-Consul of Luang Prabang in 1886 before quickly being promoted to full Consul there.
Luang Prabang as a French Protectorate
In June 1887 Luang Prabang was destroyed by invading Chinese Haw bandits and the king, Chao Oun Kham, had been evacuated to Bangkok by Pavie. Whilst in Bangkok Pavie maintained friendly relations with Chao Oun Kham, apparently persuading the king that France would be a more reliable protector of his kingdom than Siam. Chao Oun Kham returned to Luang Prabang the following year but later abdicated in favour of his son who was crowned as Chao Sakkalin (r.1894-1904). But by then Luang Prabang was officially a French Protectorate, after the French had ended Siam's claims to Lao territory in 1893 through some gunboat diplomacy in Bangkok. It's status as a Protectorate set Luang Prabang apart from the rest of Laos which was administered directly as a colony reporting to the Governor-General of Indochina in Saigon. Nevertheless, for the first time since the collapse of Lan Xang in 1707 the core territories of that former kingdom had been reunited under the French in a territory they named "Laos".
In Luang Prabang the king and the indigenous power structures remained in place with Auguste Pavie himself being appointed the first Commissioner General (Although in reality Pavie continued to spend almost all his time on missions of exploration in the region). The arrangement suited the French as they had no capability to replace the indigenous authorities, the number of French citizens in the French colony of Laos never being greater than a few hundred.
In Luang Prabang the king and the indigenous power structures remained in place with Auguste Pavie himself being appointed the first Commissioner General (Although in reality Pavie continued to spend almost all his time on missions of exploration in the region). The arrangement suited the French as they had no capability to replace the indigenous authorities, the number of French citizens in the French colony of Laos never being greater than a few hundred.
Auguste Pavie (Standing 3rd right ) pictured here in 1893, was the first Governor of the French Protectorate of Luang Prabang
Chao Sakkalin died in 1904 and was succeeded by his son Chao Sisavangvong (r.1904-1959) who would reign for over a half a century and oversee immense change. As the early years of the twentieth century progressed, the previous intense and sometimes violent competition between France, Britain and Siam for territory was replaced by negotiated border agreements and some stability, not withstanding several rebellions against this new regional order by indigenous communities . The French authorities in Paris and Saigon viewed Laos merely as the hinterland of their colonial possessions in Vietnam. Relatively little investment was made in Laos and the dreams of riches that the early explorers held never materialised.
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For Luang Prabang however these years were years of some prosperity as the population recovered from the disaster of 1887 and trade increased. Chinese merchants built impressive mansions on the peninsula which was at that time the commercial centre. A notable example is Le Calao restaurant, originally built in 1904 by Phui Sudaros, a merchant from Hainan Island.
Between 1904 and 1909 the French authorities also financed the building of an impressive new palace for King Sisavangvong, now preserved as the National Museum. |
Calao, 1904, is a fine example of early Chinese merchant architecture in Luang Prabang
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By the 1930's a veritable building boom by the French was underway. A few government buildings designed by the Indochinese authorities in Saigon were erected, notably the Provincial Government offices on Photisarath Road. But also a great many private houses and shop-houses were constructed transforming this ancient town that had previously consisted entirely of wooden or bamboo structures. It is this legacy that forms a key part of the UNESCO Heritage of Luang Prabang today.
Before and After. During the 1930's the French transformed the appearance of Luang Prabang
The French also gradually transformed the elite society of Luang Prabang. The sons of the royal and noble families who had in earlier times been educated in Bangkok were now sent for education in Saigon, where they learnt the French language and French nationalist history whilst being trained in subjects thought suitable for future government administrators. Some were sent to Paris to study at the École Coloniale or other institutions. One of the most notable examples was Prince Phetsarath Ratanavongsa (1890-1959) who was the son of Chao Boun Khoung, the Vice-King or Oupalat. At the age of 14 he was sent to school in Saigon for two years before spending a further eight years studying in Paris. When he returned he entered the colonial administration in Vientiane as a clerk writer at the Treasury. But he was quickly promoted and after just five years he was appointed as Director of the Office of Indigenous Affairs as well as sitting on the Government Council of Indochina advising the French Governor-General. By the late 1920's Phetsarath was the most important Lao person in the French administration, even deputising for King Sisavanvong (Who was also educated in Paris) when the latter was sick. He would go on to feature prominently in the movement for Lao independence.
A French map of Indochina c.1933
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Whilst the tiny Lao elite learnt new languages and manners, little changed for the vast majority of Lao. Most lived in remote villages surviving on subsistence agriculture. For the villagers the most significant change under the French was perhaps higher taxation. Back home the French frequently promoted the abundance of natural resources that could be exploited in Laos but in fact little investment was forthcoming. Plantation agriculture was only introduced in a limited way for coffee in the northern highlands and the southern Boloven region. About 15,000 teak trees were felled in northern Laos but this trade never approached the scale of the British dominated teak industry in Siam. Trade in other more profitable forest products such as sticklac and benzoin remained in the hands of Chinese and British merchants. Tin mining in the south did attract significant investment, only to go through a rapid boom and bust at the time of the 1929 Wall Street crash. The most valuable trade was in opium which Hmong growers in the north sold directly to Chinese merchants with the encouragement of the French authorities who relied on their own larger opium trade with India and Burma to finance its entire Indochinese colony. Opium would remain the backbone of the local economy until 1975.
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The colony of Laos was always dependant upon financial inflows from the Indochinese administration in Saigon and as a consequence infrastructure development was very slow. Planned rail links to Vietnam which were seen as the key to developing Laos never eventuated. A road network was slowly built in an attempt to interconnect the main towns of Laos with the coastal cities of Vietnam but it remained sparse and much of it impassable during the rainy season. In any case, in 1945 there were only nineteen registered vehicles in the entire country. Travel was invariably faster by crossing the Mekong and utilising the rapidly developing road and rail network in neighbouring Siam. Public facilities such as schools and hospitals remained exceedingly scarce outside of the major urban centres.
The End of the French Protectorate
The quiet, often dull life, of the under-worked French colons in Laos came to an abrupt end on 9th March 1945 when the Japanese deposed the French Governor General in Saigon, ending three years of uneasy co-operation between the French administrators and the occupying Japanese military. One month later on 8th April 1945, King Sisavangvong declared that “our Kingdom of Laos, formerly a colony of France, is now an independent nation” whilst adding “I hereby declare that our Kingdom has agreed to cooperate in all things with Japan”. A Japanese Supreme Counsellor, Ishibashi, replaced the French Resident Superior.
But just a few months later in August 1945 the Japanese were devastatingly defeated by the Allies bringing World War II to an end. In Luang Prabang King Sisavangvong rather unexpectedly found himself ruling over a united and independent Lao nation. The Japanese that he had sworn fealty to just four months earlier were defeated and for a several weeks there was great uncertainty over what would happen next. Chinese Nationalist troops moved into northern Laos to accept the surrender of the Japanese troops and it was only due to French pressure that they eventually left. In Vientiane the French Resident Superior was released from prison and announced that he would resume his former duties. Prince Phetsarath, since 1941 the Upahat or viceroy and also the Prime Minister of the country, rejected this announcement, firmly believing that the king's earlier declaration of independence should stand. The king himself however, apparently unsure of the ability of the Lao to make their own way in the world, made an agreement with the French to restore their former status as colonial protectors. A split emerged between the king in Luang Prabang and the Prime Minister in Vientiane.
On 15th September Phetsarath announced the formation of a "Free Lao" national coalition government in Vientiane to govern a united and independent Lao nation. The king responded by dismissing Phetsarath from his positions of Upahat and Prime Minister. The Free Lao government responded by announcing that the king was deposed and on 10th November Free Lao forces quickly overcame almost non-existent security at the palace in Luang Prabang and arrested the king. But in the south the French were leading troops loyal to the king northwards to re-occupy their former colony. In March 1946 the French retook Thakhek in fierce fighting that very nearly took the life of the Free Lao Commander in Chief, Prince Souphanouvong, a half-brother of Prince Phetsarath, who would go on to become a major figure during the Second Indochinese War. In a desperate effort to revive its legitimacy King Sisavanvong was restored to the throne as a constitutional monarch of the Free Lao government. But the government was hopelessly short of funds and arms to defend itself and Vientiane fell to the French in April. Luang Prabang fell one month later. Prince Phetsarath together with most of the Free Lao government leaders fled to exile in Thailand.
On 15th September Phetsarath announced the formation of a "Free Lao" national coalition government in Vientiane to govern a united and independent Lao nation. The king responded by dismissing Phetsarath from his positions of Upahat and Prime Minister. The Free Lao government responded by announcing that the king was deposed and on 10th November Free Lao forces quickly overcame almost non-existent security at the palace in Luang Prabang and arrested the king. But in the south the French were leading troops loyal to the king northwards to re-occupy their former colony. In March 1946 the French retook Thakhek in fierce fighting that very nearly took the life of the Free Lao Commander in Chief, Prince Souphanouvong, a half-brother of Prince Phetsarath, who would go on to become a major figure during the Second Indochinese War. In a desperate effort to revive its legitimacy King Sisavanvong was restored to the throne as a constitutional monarch of the Free Lao government. But the government was hopelessly short of funds and arms to defend itself and Vientiane fell to the French in April. Luang Prabang fell one month later. Prince Phetsarath together with most of the Free Lao government leaders fled to exile in Thailand.
The Free Lao leaders who formed the first independent Lao government in 1945. Prince Phetsarath is seated in the front with a white shirt and tie.
Under the French King Sisavanvong became a constitutional monarch within the French Union. On 19th July 1949 the French granted Laos greater autonomy with a new constitution, allowing it to join the United Nations, whilst the French still retained control of foreign policy and defence. Many of the Free Lao exiles returned home and following national elections in 1951 Prince Souvanna Phouma, a younger brother of Prince Phetsarath, became Prime Minister of the Royal Lao Government (RLG). Over the subsequent two years he negotiated full independence from the French which was granted on 22nd October 1953. Laos finally emerged as an independent nation, but internally divided and sitting upon a geopolitical fault-line decades of devastating war would soon scar this small country.