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Internat ional Relations Year 1

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The Spice Trade and Colonial Laos

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1. Trade, particularly in spices, brought European explorers to Southeast Asia in the 16 century.
The Portuguese first, then the Dutch claimed the Moluccas (Spice Islands) in an effort to
secure a monopoly in the lucrative trade. Spices such as nutmeg, cloves and black pepper
were very valuable in Europe. In fact, black pepper was so precious in Europe at that time that
it was sometimes sold by the grain.
2. Trade however, is a two- way street, and the Spanish and Portuguese introduced some
valuable crops from the Americas to Southeast Asia. Nowadays the chili is a very important
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part of Southeast Asian cuisine, yet it only arrived with European traders in the 16 century.
Other fruits, such as pineapple, pumpkin, the cashew and even the Frangipani tree (Dok
Champa) were also native to South America and brought to Southeast Asia at around the same
time.
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3. By the 19 century, the French had become interested in finding a possible means of sailing up
the Mekong River to China, thereby securing a faster alternative to the overland trade route
linking China with Europe. Along with Cambodia and Vietnam, Laos became part of French
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Indochina in the late 19 century. Initial voyages showed that the Mekong River was not
navigable due to the Khon Phapheng Waterfall.
4. The French took Laos as a colony, mainly as a buffer protecting its interests in Vietnam from
the British controlled territories of India and Burma. French- trained Vietnamese civil servants
were brought in to run the administration, and made up the majority of the population in the
main towns. The French renegotiated the modern border with Siam in a treaty of 1907,
recovering lands west of the Mekong including parts of Luang Prabang province and
Sayaboury province.
5. Opium and forest products such as stick lac were the main traded products. The French used
the local method of forced labour (corvée) to harvest the opium. Local men had to work for a
certain period each year; for the remainder of the year, they were free to farm their rice and
hunt wild animals in the forest.

6. The French selected a small group of Lao elites for training and some primary and secondary
schools were established in the main towns. Some elites were sent to France for University
education. The colonial power supported and advised the King as the figurehead of the Lao
state. After defeat by the Vietnamese at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, the French withdrew from
Indochina.

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