Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand, and formerly known as Siam until 1939, is a country located in Mainland Southeast Asia. It shares land borders with Myanmar to the west and northwest, Laos to the east and northeast, Cambodia to the southeast, and Malaysia to the south. Its maritime boundaries include the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea, as well as maritime borders with Vietnam, Indonesia, and India. Thailand has a population of nearly 66 million people and covers an area of approximately 513,115 km2 (198,115 sq mi). The country's capital and largest city is Bangkok.
Archaeological evidence indicates that humans have inhabited the area of present-day Thailand for at least 40,000 years. Indigenous ethnic groups include the Mon, Khmer, and Malay people. The Tai people are believed to have originated from the Điện Biên Phủ region since the 5th century and began migrating into the territory of modern Thailand between the 8th and 10th centuries. During the classical historical period, major kingdoms such as Sukhothai, Lan Na, and Ayutthaya were established. The Sukhothai Kingdom is regarded as the beginning of Thai history, while the Ayutthaya Kingdom, founded in 1350 CE, became a regional power replacing the Khmer Empire. European contact began in 1511 CE when Portuguese envoys arrived in Ayutthaya. The Ayutthaya Kingdom flourished until its complete destruction during the 1765–1767 Burmese–Siamese War by the Burmese forces under the Konbaung dynasty in 1767.
After the fall of Ayutthaya, King Taksin reunified the kingdom and established the Thonburi Kingdom, which lasted only 15 years before he was overthrown by Phutthayotfa Chulalok (Rama I), the founder of the Chakri dynasty. King Rama I established the Rattanakosin Kingdom and moved the capital to Bangkok in 1782. During the era of Western imperialism, Siam remained the only country in Southeast Asia to avoid colonisation by European powers, although it ceded territory, trade rights, and legal privileges through several unequal treaties. The governance system evolved into an absolute monarchy centralised under the rule of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V). Siam adapted to international relations during the imperialist era and joined World War I on the side of the Allies, a political decision aimed at revising the effects of unequal treaties and enhancing Siam's international status.
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Following the Siamese revolution of 1932 by the Khana Ratsadon (lit. 'People's Party'), Siam transitioned from an absolute monarchy to a parliamentary constitutional monarchy and was officially renamed Thailand. During World War II, the country was under the military dictatorship of Plaek Phibunsongkhram and allied with the Empire of Japan as part of the Axis powers, but Thailand did not become a defeated nation due to the underground Free Thai Movement's "Declaration of Peace", which was recognised by the Allies. During the Cold War, Thailand became a key major non-NATO ally of the United States and played a major role in countering communism in the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and other proxy wars. Thailand also joined the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). Despite brief periods of liberal democracy in the 1970s and 1990s, Thailand alternated between liberal democracy and military dictatorship.
Since the 2000s, Thailand has experienced political conflict between supporters and opponents of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra (in office 2001–2006), leading to the 2006 and 2014 coup d'états. Today, Thailand operates under the 2017 Constitution and a coalition government following the 2019 Thai general election, as well as political demonstrations demanding democracy and monarchy reform. The current constitutional structure still allows de facto political influence by the Royal Thai Armed Forces. Thailand has also faced border tensions from the 2008–2011 Cambodian–Thai border crisis extending to the 2025 Cambodia–Thailand border crisis involving territorial disputes and military clashes.
Currently, Thailand is recognised as a developing country and holds significant geopolitical importance in Southeast Asia. It is a unitary state governed under a parliamentary system with a bicameral legislature comprising the elected House of Representatives and the appointed Senate. Thailand is a member of the United Nations, a major non-NATO ally of the United States, and a founding member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as well as a regional power. The Royal Thai Armed Forces are among the largest military forces in Southeast Asia. Thailand's economy is the second-largest in the region and the 23rd globally by purchasing power parity, ranking 29th by gross domestic product. Thailand is classified as a newly industrialised country, with manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism being the main economic sectors.
Thailand was known by outsiders before 1939 as Siam. According to George Cœdès, the word Thai (ไทย) means 'free man' in the Thai language, "differentiating the Thai from the natives encompassed in Thai society as serfs". According to Chit Phumisak, Thai (ไท) simply means 'people' or 'human being'; his investigation shows that some rural areas used the word "Thai" instead of the usual Thai word khon (คน) for people. According to Michel Ferlus, the ethnonyms Thai-Tai (or Thay-Tay) would have evolved from the etymon *k(ə)ri: 'human being'.
Thais often refer to their country using the polite form prathet Thai (Thai: ประเทศไทย). They also use the more colloquial term mueang Thai (Thai: เมืองไทย) or simply Thai; the word mueang, archaically referring to a city-state, is commonly used to refer to a city or town as the centre of a region. Ratcha Anachak Thai (Thai: ราชอาณาจักรไทย) means 'kingdom of Thailand' or 'kingdom of Thai'.
Etymologically, its components are: ratcha (Sanskrit: राजन्, rājan, 'king, royal, realm'), ana- (Pali āṇā 'authority, command, power', itself from the Sanskrit आज्ञा, ājñā, of the same meaning), and -chak (from Sanskrit चक्र cakra- 'wheel', a symbol of power and rule).
The Thai National Anthem (Thai: เพลงชาติ), written by Luang Saranupraphan during the patriotic 1930s, refers to the Thai nation as prathet Thai (Thai: ประเทศไทย). The first line of the national anthem is: prathet thai ruam lueat nuea chat chuea thai (Thai: ประเทศไทยรวมเลือดเนื้อชาติเชื้อไทย), 'Thailand is founded on blood and flesh'.
The former name Siam may have originated from Sanskrit श्याम (śyāma, 'dark') or Mon ရာမည (rhmañña, 'stranger'), probably the same root as Shan and Assam. The word Śyâma is possibly not the true origin, but a pre-designed deviation from its proper, original meaning. Another theory is the name derives from the Chinese calling this region 'Xian'.
The ancient Khmers used the word Siam to refer to people settled in the west Chao Phraya River valley surrounding the ancient city of Nakhon Pathom in the present-day central Thailand; it may probably originate from the name of Lord Krishna, which also called Shyam, as in the Wat Sri Chum Inscription, dated 13th century CE, mentions Phra Maha Thera Sri Sattha came to restore Phra Pathommachedi at the city of Lord Krishna (Nakhon Pathom) in the early era of the Sukhothai Kingdom.
The signature of King Mongkut (r. 1851–1868) reads SPPM (Somdet Phra Poramenthra Maha) Mongkut Rex Siamensium (Mongkut, King of the Siamese). This usage of the name in the country's first international treaty gave the name Siam official status, until 24 June 1939 when it was changed to Thailand.
History
Prehistory and origins
There is evidence of continuous human habitation in present-day Thailand from 20,000 years ago to the present day. The earliest evidence of rice growing is dated at 2,000 BCE. Areas comprising what is now Thailand participated in the Maritime Jade Road, as ascertained by archeological research. The trading network existed for 3,000 years, between 2000 BCE to 1000 CE. Bronze appeared c. 1,250–1,000 BCE. The site of Ban Chiang in northeast Thailand currently ranks as the earliest known centre of copper and bronze production in Southeast Asia. Iron appeared around 500 BCE.
The Kingdom of Funan was the first and most powerful Southeast Asian kingdom at the time (2nd century BCE). The Mon people established the principalities of Dvaravati and Kingdom of Hariphunchai in the 6th century. The Khmer people established the Khmer empire, centred in Angkor, in the 9th century. Tambralinga, a Malay state controlling trade through the Malacca Strait, rose in the 10th century. The Indochina peninsula was heavily influenced by the culture and religions of India from the time of the Kingdom of Funan to that of the Khmer Empire.
The Thai people are of the Tai ethnic group, characterised by common linguistic roots. Chinese chronicles first mention the Tai peoples in the 6th century BCE. While there are many assumptions regarding the origin of Tai peoples, David K. Wyatt, a historian of Thailand, argued that their ancestors who at present inhabit Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, India, and China came from the Điện Biên Phủ area between the 5th and the 8th century.
Thai people began migrating into present-day Thailand gradually from the 6th to 11th century, which Mon and Khmer people occupied at the time. Thus Thai culture was influenced by Indian, Mon, and Khmer cultures. Tai people intermixed with various ethnic and cultural groups in the region, resulting in many groups of present-day Thai people. Genetic evidences suggested that ethnolinguistics could not accurately predict the origins of the Thais. Sujit Wongthes argued that Thai is not a race or ethnicity but a culture group.
According to French historian George Cœdès, "The Thai first enter history of Farther India in the eleventh century with the mention of Syam slaves or prisoners of war in Champa epigraphy", and "in the twelfth century, the bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat" where "a group of warriors" are described as Syam, though Cham accounts do not indicate the origins of Syam or what ethnic group they belonged to. The origins and ethnicity of the Syam remain unclear, with some literature suggesting that Syam refers to the Shan people, the Bru people, or the Brau people. However, Mainland Southeast Asian sources from before the fourteenth century primarily used the word Syam as an ethnonym, referring to those who belonged to a separate cultural category different from the Khmer, Cham, Bagan, or Mon. This contrasts with the Chinese sources, where Xian was used as a toponym.
Early Tai confederate cities (691 BCE – 13th century CE)
Theoretically, Tai-Kadai-speaking people formed as early as the 12th century BCE in the middle of the Yangtze basin. Some groups later migrated south to Guangxi. However, after several bloody centuries against Chinese influence in Guangxi between 333 BCE and the 11th century, hundreds of thousands of Tais were killed, thus, Tai people began to move southwestward along the rivers and over the lower passes into the mountain north of Southeast Asia and river valleys in present-day Assam of India. Some evidence indicates that the ancestors of Tai people migrated en masse southwestwards out of Yunnan only after the 1253 Mongol invasion of Dali; however, it is not generally accepted.
Tais defeated indigenous tribes and emerged as the new power in the new region. As a result, several Tai city-states were established, scattered from Điện Biên Phủ in present-day northwestern Vietnam and highland Southeast Asia to northeastern India.
According to the Simhanavati legend given in several chronicles, the first Tai city-state in northern Thailand, Singhanavati, was founded around the 7th century. However, several modern geology and archaeology studies found that its centre, Yonok Nahaphan, dates from 691 BCE–545 CE; this roughly coincides with the establishment of Shan States, another Tai's federated principalities in the present-day northeast Myanmar. as well as Muang Sua (Luang Prabang) in the east.
After Singhanavati was submerged below Chiang Saen Lake due to an earthquake in 545, the survivors then founded a new seat at Wieng–Prueksha. The kingdom lasted for another 93 years.
In addition to Singhanavati, another northern principality probably related to the Tai people, Ngoenyang, was established as the successor of Singhanavati in 638 by Lavachakkaraj, also centred in Wieng–Prueksha (present-day Mae Sai District, Chiang Rai). Its seat was moved to Chiang Mai in 1262 by King Mangrai, which considered the foundation of the Lan Na kingdom. Mangrai unified the surrounding area and also created a network of states through political alliances to the east and north of the Mekong. His dynasty would rule the kingdom continuously for the next two centuries. Lan Na expanded its territory southward and annexed the Mon Hariphunchai of Dvaravati in 1292.
In the late tenth century, Tai people began to migrate further south to the present-day upper central Thailand. Around the 1100s period, several cities in this area, such as Songkwae, Sawankhalok, and Chakangrao, were ruled by the Tai people, eventually launching several battles against the pre-existing Mon of Lavo, who had been falling under Chenla and Khmer influences since the 7th century, thus bringing the establishment of the Tai people's independent state, Sukhothai Kingdom, in the upper Chao Phraya River valley in 1238.
The earliest conflict between Tai people and the preexisting ethnics was recorded in the mid-4th century when the ruler of Singhanavati, Pangkharat, forcibly lost the seat at Yonok to King Khom from Umongasela (present-day Fang). He then fled to Vieng Si Tuang (เวียงศรีทวง; present-day Wiang Phang Kham, Mae Sai district) but had to send tributes to Yonok annually until his son, Phrom, took back Yonok and expelled King Khom from Umongasela. Phrom also marched the troops south to occupy Chakangrao from the enemy as well as founding the city of Songkwae. Some historians suggest that Lavo's capital, Lopburi, was once seized by Phrom. In contrast, Tai people instead established relationships with Mon via royal intermarriages.
Mon and Lavo Kingdoms (5th century CE – 1388 CE)
The Chao Phraya River in what is now central Thailand had once been the home of the Mon Dvaravati culture, which prevailed from the seventh century to the tenth century. Samuel Beal discovered the polity among the Chinese writings on Southeast Asia as "Duoluobodi". During the early 20th century, archaeological excavations led by George Coedès found Nakhon Pathom Province to be a centre of Dvaravati culture. The two most important sites were Nakorn Pathom and U Thong (in modern Suphan Buri Province). The inscriptions of Dvaravati were in Sanskrit and Mon using the script derived from the Pallava alphabet of the South Indian Pallava dynasty.
It is believed that the Dvaravati borrowed Theravada Buddhism through its contacts with Sri Lanka, while the ruling class participated in Hindu rites. Dvaravati art, including the Buddha sculptures and stupas, showed strong similarities to those of the Gupta Empire of India. The eastern parts of the Chao Phraya valley were subjected to a more Khmer and Hindu influence as the inscriptions are found in Khmer and Sanskrit.
Dvaravati was a network of city-states paying tribute to more powerful ones according to the mandala political model. Dvaravati culture expanded into Isan as well as south as far as the Kra Isthmus. Dvaravati culture lost its influence around the tenth century when they submitted to the more unified Lavo-Khmer polity.
Around the tenth century, the city-states of Dvaravati merged into the mandalas of: Lavo (modern Lopburi) and Suvarnabhumi (modern Suphan Buri). According to a legend in the Northern Chronicles, in 903, a king of Tambralinga invaded and took Lavo and installed a Malay prince on the Lavo throne. The Malay prince was married to a Khmer princess who had fled an Angkorian dynastic bloodbath. The son of the couple contested the Khmer throne and became Suryavarman I (1006–1050), thus bringing Lavo under Khmer domination through marital union. Suryavarman I also expanded into the Khorat Plateau (later styled "Isan"), constructing many temples.
After the Angkor lost Lavo to Suphannabhum princes in 1052, the younger prince Chandrachota claimed the throne. His son, Narai I, moved Lavo's seat to Ayodhya in the 1080s. This resulted in the throne of Lavo's Lavaburi being vacant from 1087 to 1106 (or ruled by unknown kings), Si Satchanalai king, Kesariraja who is of Mon's Chaliang and Tai's Chiang Saen lineages, took over the seat. An attempt to re-expand influence to Lavo by the Angkor occurred in 1181 when Jayavarman VII appointed his lineage Narupatidnavarman to govern Lavapura. Due to this political pressure, a Tai ruler Sri Thammasokkarat
(ศรีธรรมโศกราช), who was also from Si Satchanalai, fled to Nakhon Si Thammarat. Sri Thammasokkarat married to princess of Dhanyapura (Dong Mae Nang Mueang in the present-day Nakhon Sawan province), and their descendants ruled Tambralinga until the late 13th century. The Customs of Cambodia of Zhou Daguan, as an official delegation sent by the Yuan dynasty to Angkor from 1296 to 1297, says the Siamese people exerted significant influence over Lavo's Lavapura and appeared in huge numbers in the Angkorian capital of Yaśodharapura.
Prang Sam Yot was built during this period. However, Lavapura was probably taken back by a Tai royal from Phraek Si Racha (แพรกศรีราชา; present-day Sankhaburi) in the 13th century. During this era, Angkor's power waned due to the weak rule and feuding began in the Angkor.
All of the turmoil, as mentioned earlier, also led to the independence declaration of the Sukhothai Kingdom in 1238.
The earliest evidence mentioning the Siamese
The earliest evidence to mention the Siam people are stone inscriptions found in Angkor Borei of Funan (K.557 and K.600), dated 661 CE, the slave's name is mentioned as "Ku Sayam" meaning "Sayam female slaves" (Ku is a prefix used to refer to female slaves in the pre-Angkorian era), and the Takéo inscriptions (K.79) written in 682 during the reign of Bhavavarman II of Chenla also mention Siam Nobel: Sāraṇnoya Poña Sayam, which was transcribed into English as: the rice field that was given to the poña (noble rank) who was called Sayam (Siam).
The Song Huiyao Jigao (960–1279) indicate Siamese people settled in the west central Thailand and their state was called Xiān guó (Chinese: 暹國), while the eastern plain belonged to the Mon of Lavo (Chinese: 羅渦國), who later fell under the Chenla and Khmer hegemony around the 7th–9th centuries. Those Mon political entities, which also included Haripuñjaya in the north and several city-states in the northeast, are collectively called Dvaravati.
However, the states of Siamese and Lavo were later merged via the royal intermarriage and became Ayutthaya Kingdom in the mid-14th century, while the southwestern Isan principalities, centred in Phanom Rung and Phimai, later pledged allegiance to Siamese's Ayutthaya during the reign of Borommarachathirat II (r. 1424–1448). The remaining principal city-states in Isan region became Lan Xang around 1353 after the twin cities of Muang Sua (Luang Prabang) and Vieng Chan Vieng Kham (Vientiane) became independent following the death of the Sukhothai king Ram Khamhaeng.
According to the Wat Kud Tae inscription (K.1105), dated c. 7th century, during the period that the eastern Mon entity, Lavo, was strongly influenced by the Chenla, the Siamese in the west also established a royal intermarriage with Chenla as Sri Chakatham, prince of Sambhuka (ศามภูกะ, in the present-day Ratchaburi province), married to a princess of Isanavarman I, and two mandalas then became an ally. After Chenla sieged Funan and moved the centre to Angkor, both Siamese and the Angkorian eventually marched the troops to attack Vijaya of Champa in 1201 during the reign of Jayavarman VII, as recorded in the Cho-Dinh inscription (C.3).
Sukhothai Kingdom (1238–1438)
After the decline of the Khmer Empire and Kingdom of Pagan in the early 13th century, various states thrived in their place. The domains of Tai people existed from the northeast of present-day India to the north of present-day Laos and to the Malay Peninsula. During the 13th century, Tai people had already settled in the core land of Dvaravati and Lavo Kingdom to Nakhon Si Thammarat in the south. There are, however, no records detailing the arrival of the Tais.
Around 1240, Pho Khun Bang Klang Hao, a local Tai ruler, rallied the people to rebel against the Khmer. He later crowned himself the first king of Sukhothai Kingdom in 1238. Mainstream Thai historians count Sukhothai as the first kingdom of Thai people. Sukhothai expanded furthest during the reign of Ram Khamhaeng (r. 1279–1298). However, it was mostly a network of local lords who swore fealty to Sukhothai, not directly controlled by it. He is believed have invented Thai script and Thai ceramics were an important export in his era. Sukhothai embraced Theravada Buddhism in the reign of Maha Thammaracha I (1347–1368).
Ayutthaya Kingdom (1351–1767)
According to the most widely accepted version of its origin, the Ayutthaya Kingdom rose from the earlier, nearby Lavo Kingdom and Suvarnabhumi with Uthong as its first king. Ayutthaya was a patchwork of self-governing principalities and tributary provinces owing allegiance to the King of Ayutthaya under the mandala system. Its initial expansion was through conquest and political marriage.
Before the end of the 15th century, Ayutthaya invaded the Khmer Empire three times and sacked its capital Angkor. The steady rise of the Ayutthaya Kingdom marked a major geopolitical shift, eventually allowing Ayutthaya to eclipse the Khmer Empire and assume the mantle of regional dominance in mainland Southeast Asia. Constant interference of Sukhothai effectively made it a vassal state of Ayutthaya and it was finally incorporated into the kingdom. Borommatrailokkanat brought about bureaucratic reforms which lasted into the 20th century and created a system of social hierarchy called sakdina, where male commoners were conscripted as corvée labourers for six months a year. Ayutthaya was interested in the Malay Peninsula but failed to conquer the Malacca Sultanate, which was supported by the Chinese Ming dynasty.
European contact and trade started in the early-16th century, with the envoy of Portuguese duke Afonso de Albuquerque in 1511. Portugal became an ally and ceded some soldiers to King Rama Thibodi II. The Portuguese were followed in the 17th century by the French, Dutch, and English. Rivalry for supremacy over Chiang Mai and the Mon people pitted Ayutthaya against the Burmese Kingdom. Several wars with its ruling Taungoo dynasty starting in the 1540s in the reign of Tabinshwehti and Bayinnaung were ultimately ended with the capture of the capital in 1570. Then a brief period of vassalage to Burma until Naresuan proclaimed independence in 1584 followed.
Ayutthaya sought to improve relations with European powers for many successive reigns. The kingdom especially prospered during cosmopolitan Narai's reign (1656–1688), when some European travellers regarded Ayutthaya as an Asian great power, alongside China and India. However, growing French influence later in his reign was met with nationalist sentiment and eventually led to the Siamese revolution of 1688. Despite the revolution, overall relations remained stable, with French missionaries still actively preaching Christianity.
After a bloody period of dynastic struggle, Ayutthaya entered what has been called the Siamese "golden age", a relatively peaceful episode in the second quarter of the 18th century where art, literature, and learning flourished. There were seldom foreign wars, apart from conflict with the Nguyễn lords for control of Cambodia starting around 1715. The last fifty years of the kingdom witnessed bloody succession crises, where there were purges of court officials and able generals for many consecutive reigns. In 1765, a combined 40,000-strong force of Burmese armies invaded it from the north and west. The Burmese under the new Alaungpaya dynasty quickly rose to become a new local power by 1759. After a 14-month siege, the capital city's walls fell and the city was burned in April 1767.
Thonburi Kingdom (1767–1782)
The capital and many of its territories lay in chaos after the war. The former capital was occupied by the Burmese garrison army and five local leaders declared themselves overlords, including the lords of Sakwangburi, Phitsanulok, Pimai, Chanthaburi, and Nakhon Si Thammarat. Chao Tak, a capable military leader, proceeded to make himself a lord by right of conquest, beginning with the legendary sack of Chanthaburi. Based at Chanthaburi, Chao Tak raised troops and resources, and sent a fleet up the Chao Phraya to take the fort of Thonburi. In the same year, Chao Tak was able to retake Ayutthaya from the Burmese only seven months after the fall of the city.
Chao Tak then crowned himself as Taksin and proclaimed Thonburi as temporary capital in the same year. He also quickly subdued the other warlords. His forces engaged in wars with Burma, Laos, and Cambodia, which successfully drove the Burmese out of Lan Na in 1775, captured Vientiane in 1778 and tried to install a pro-Thai king in Cambodia in the 1770s. In his final years there was a coup, supposedly caused by his "insanity", and eventually Taksin and his sons were executed by his longtime companion General Chao Phraya Chakri (the future Rama I). He was the first king of the ruling Chakri dynasty and founder of the Rattanakosin Kingdom on 6 April 1782.
Rattanakosin Kingdom and modernisation (1782–1932)
Under Rama I (1782–1809), Rattanakosin successfully defended against Burmese attacks and put an end to Burmese incursions. He also created suzerainty over large portions of Laos and Cambodia. In 1821, Briton John Crawfurd was sent to negotiate a new trade agreement with Siam – the first sign of an issue which was to dominate 19th century Siamese politics. Bangkok signed the Burney Treaty in 1826, after the British victory in the First Anglo-Burmese War.
Anouvong of Vientiane, who mistakenly held the belief that Britain was about to launch an invasion of Bangkok, started the Lao rebellion in 1826, which was suppressed. Vientiane was destroyed and a large number of Lao people were relocated to Khorat Plateau as a result. Bangkok also waged several wars with Vietnam, where Siam successfully regained hegemony over Cambodia.
From the late 19th century, Siam tried to rule the ethnic groups in the realm as colonies. In the reign of Mongkut (1851–1868), who recognised the potential threat Western powers posed to Siam, his court contacted the British government directly to defuse tensions. A British mission led by Sir John Bowring, Governor of Hong Kong, led to the signing of the Bowring Treaty, the first of many unequal treaties with Western countries. This, however, brought trade and economic development to Siam. The unexpected death of Mongkut from malaria led to the reign of underage King Chulalongkorn, with Somdet Chaophraya Sri Suriwongse (Chuang Bunnag) acting as regent.
Chulalongkorn (r. 1868–1910) initiated centralisation, set up a privy council, and abolished slavery and the corvée system. The Front Palace crisis of 1874 stalled attempts at further reforms. In the 1870s and 1880s, he incorporated the protectorates up north into the kingdom proper, which later expanded to the protectorates in the northeast and the south. He established twelve krom in 1888, which were equivalent to present-day ministries. The crisis of 1893 erupted, caused by French demands for Laotian territory east of Mekong.
