Laos is a landlocked country with an area of about 237 000 km2 (91 500 mi2). It is bounded by China on the N, Vietnam on the E, Cambodia on the S, Thailand on the W and Burma (Myanmar) on the NW.
During the 18th and early 19th centuries, Laos comprised three separate and rival kingdoms, those of Luang Prabang in the N, Vientiane in the centre and Champassac in the S. In 1828 the kingdom of Vientiane was overrun by Siam, to which the other Lao kingdoms became more or less vassal. French intervention in the 1860s and the incorporation of Loas into French Indochina led eventually to a treaty with Siam in 1907, settling the border between Laos and Siam. Laos achieved independence in 1954 and became a communist state in 1975.
The whole of Laos, except for a small area around Sam Neua in the NE, lies within the catchment of the Mekong River (Fig. 407). The N of the country is a region of rugged mountains with summits above 2000 m (highest point Phu Bia, 2816 m, 9240 ft, situated SE of the...
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Workman, D.R. (1997). Laos. In: Encyclopedia of European and Asian Regional Geology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4495-X_58
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