The Lao Rebellion of 1826–1828 (also known as Anouvong's Rebellion) was an attempt by King Anouvong (Xaiya Sethathirath V) of the Kingdom of Vientiane to end the suzerainty of Siam and recreate the former kingdom of Lan Xang. In January 1827 the Lao armies of the kingdoms of Vientiane and Champasak moved south and west across the Khorat Plateau, advancing as far as Saraburi, just three days' march from the Siamese capital of Bangkok. The Siamese mounted a counterattack to the north and east, forcing the Lao forces to retreat and ultimately taking the capital of Vientiane. Anouvong failed in both his attempt to resist Siamese encroachment, and to check the further political fragmentation among the Lao. The kingdom of Vientiane was abolished, its population was forcibly moved to Siam, and its former territories fell under the direct control of Siamese provincial administration. The kingdoms of Champasak and Lan Na were drawn more closely into the Siamese administrative system. The kingdom of Luang Prabang was weakened but allowed the most regional autonomy. In its expansion into the Lao states, Siam overextended itself. The rebellion was a direct cause of the Siamese—Vietnamese wars in the 1830s and 1840s. The slave raids and forced population transfers conducted by Siam led to a demographic disparity between the areas that would ultimately become Thailand and Laos, and facilitated the "civilizing mission" of the French into Lao areas during the latter half of the nineteenth century.
The legacy of the rebellion remains controversial. Thai historiography has portrayed Anouvong as petty and his rebellion which came close to Bangkok as dangerous. Thai nationalist movements in the mid-twentieth century have seized onto local heroes such as Lady Mo, and Chao Phaya Lae as symbols of loyalty and "Thai" identity. Lao historiography has emphasized the role of Anouvong in promoting a sense of "Lao" identity, and has become a symbol of independence against foreign influence. Laos similarly promotes local heroes including Ratsavong Ngau and Anouvong himself, who was memorialized in 2010 with a large statute in central Vientiane.
Background
Burma, Siam, and the Lao states
In 1763, the armies of the Burmese King Alaungpaya took Chiang Mai as a prelude to advancing on Siam. In 1765 they invaded Luang Prabang with the aid of King Siribunnyasan of Vientiane, in an effort to stave off a similar fate at Burmese hands. In addition to many horses, elephants, and supplies for war, the Burmese also carried off one of the king's younger brothers as security for the treaty they obtained, and at the same time concluded an alliance with Vientiane. The prince who was taken captive would later escape and returned to Luang Prabang, and would become King Tiao Vongsa. In 1767 King Alaungpaya's armies destroyed the city and polity of Ayutthaya, however, over the next few decades the kingdom was re-constituted under a series of aggressive rulers, beginning with Chao Phraya Taksin whose capital was based at Thonburi, south of the ruins of Ayutthaya. By the 1770s Taksin had won back the old Ayutthayan core territories, and was resisting renewed Burmese incursions and in the process also expanding Siam's influence further to the Lao areas of north, north-east, and east.
Throughout the Burmese-Siamese wars of the mid eighteenth century, each side became involved in Lao affairs to strengthen their own forces and to deny strength to their enemy. The use of competing alliances further militarized the conflict between the Lao kingdoms of Luang Prabang and Vientiane. If one of the Lao kingdoms formed an alliance with either Burma or Siam, the other would tend to support the opposite side. The network of alliances, and distrust, shifted repeatedly with the political and military landscape throughout the period.
King Siribunnyasan was caught in a balancing act between the Burmese and Taksin's Siam. He first sought an alliance with Taksin in early 1770, who in turn sought aid from Vientiane in a planned campaign against the Burmese at Chiang Mai. However, within a year, Siribunnyasan was besieged by Luang Prabang for two months, and he sought assistance from the Burmese forces in Chiang Mai. Siribunnyasan also secured Burmese assistance in suppressing an insurrection of two of his disaffected officials who had revolted and declared Nong Bua Lamphu an independent principality. On their return, the Burmese forces went to Chiang Mai, carrying with them some of Sribunnyasan's children and court officials as hostages. In return for the Burmese assistance, Siribunnyasan was to attack Siam's northeastern stronghold of Nakhon Ratchasima (Khorat City) a move planned to coincide with a Burmese invasion of Siam. The situation became more complex, to the detriment of Vientiane. When Siamese forces took Chiang Mai from the Burmese in 1774 they found some of Siribunnyasan's officials present, arousing Taksin's suspicions. At the same time, Siam and Luang Prabang entered into an alliance.
In 1777 Vientiane launched a punitive attack on Phra Wo, the surviving leader of the revolt at Nong Bua Lamphu who had sought refuge near Champasak and established his own village at Ban Du Ban Kae near today's Ubon Ratchathani. Phra Wo had fallen out with King Saiyakuman of Champasak, and King Siribunnyasan took the opportunity to have him killed, but not before Phra Wo and his sons had sought vassalage under Siamese protection and sent word that Vientiane was secretly cooperating with the Burmese.
On the pretext that Vientiane had conspired with the Burmese and murdered Phra Wo a Siamese vassal, Siamese armies moved to punish both Vientiane and Champasak in 1778 and in so doing they expanded the political and tribute orbit of Taksin's state.
General Chao Phraya Chakri with a force of 20,000 marched overland toward Vientiane, while a separate force of 10,000 under General Surasi came up on Vientiane from the south, taking Champasak, Nakhon Phanom, and Nongkhai. The Siamese forces combined and besieged Vientiane for four months, eventually being assisted by the kingdom of Luang Prabang.
Following their victory, the troops looted the city and took the sacred Phra Saek Kham, Phra Bang and Phra Kaew Buddha images to Thonburi, and forcibly resettled thousands of Lao families to Saraburi, Ratchaburi province, and Chanthaburi on the Gulf of Siam. All the members of the Vientiane Kingdom's royal family, except Siribunnyasan himself, were taken to the Siamese capital. In 1779, the Siamese withdrew from the kingdoms of Vientiane and Champasak, leaving them under temporary military rule, while the kingdom of Luang Prabang accepted Siamese suzerainty. By 1782 the Siamese general who had conducted the campaign, Chao Phraya Chakkri, overthrew Taksin, establishing a new dynasty as King Rama I and a new capital opposite Thonburi at Bangkok. King Rama I adopted the Phra Kaew image as the palladium of his new city and dynasty.
Territorial conflict on the Khorat Plateau
After the fall of Angkorian Empire in the fifteenth century, the territories of Khorat Plateau that corresponds to modern-day Isan region were depopulated. Most of major towns or human settlements were concentrated along the Mekong-vicinity region to the northeast that belonged to the Lanxang Kingdom and around Nakhon Ratchasima to the southwest that was under Siam. Most of the central plains of Chi-Mun valley were sparsely inhabited covered by forests and roamed by local Austroasiatic-speaking kha, Kuy and Northern Khmer tribes, becoming a political no-man's land. There was hardly any recorded towns in this area before the eighteenth century. In 1718, King Nokasad of Champasak founded the town of Thong or Suwannaphum as the first Lao town on the Chi valley. In 1763, due to a political conflict, Suwannaphum seceded from Champasak while another faction founded the rival town of Roi-et in 1775. Both Roi-et and Suwannaphum submitted and became parts of Siamese Thonburi Kingdom in 1776.
In 1767, two Lao brethren nobles by the name of Phra Ta and Phra Vo rebelled against King Ong Boun of Vientiane. Phra Ta and Phra Vo established their new town called Nakhon Khueankhan (in modern Nong Bua Lamphu) and seceded from Vientiane. Ong Boun managed to defeat the rebel brothers in 1771. Phra Ta was killed in battle, while his brother Phra Vo escaped to seek refuge in Champasak. Seven years later in 1778, Phra Vo had conflicts with Sayakumane of Champasak. Ong Boun took this opportunity to attack and killed Phra Vo. Thau Kam, son of Phra Vo, informed Siam about his father's death at the hands of Vientiane. King Taksin, who regarded Phra Vo as his subject because Phra Vo had sought alliance with him earlier, dispatched Siamese armies to conquer Lao kingdoms in response. The death of Phra Vo became the casus belli for Taksin's subjugation of Laos.
Siamese authorities in Khorat Plateau traditionally centered on the area around the cities of Nakhon Ratchasima and Phimai. During the reign of King Rama I (1782–1809), direct Siamese administration of the Khorat Plateau greatly expanded into the areas that had been held as parts of the Lao kingdoms (i.e. Kingdom of Vientiane, Kingdom of Champasak, and Lan Xang). Cities and surrounding areas (mueang) that had been integral to the Kingdoms of Vientiane and Champasak, were brought into Siamese control through the efforts of the Governor and Deputy-Governor (Yokkrabat) of Nakhon Ratchasima. Also new towns were created through co-opting ambitious local Lao nobles, among them the family and followers of Phra Vo who were hostile to the Vientiane dynasty.
After the death of their father, Khamphong and Fayna, sons of Phra Ta, continued to stay in Champasak and even fought for Champasak against the Siamese in 1778. In 1791, a man named Xiengkaeo who claimed to possess magical powers rebelled against Champasak. King Sayakumane of Champasak died from illness during these events. Khamphong and Fayna raised their army to successfully defeat and kill Xiengkaeo. The Bangkok court rewarded the two victors. Khamphong was made the first governor of Ubon as a direct vassal to Bangkok, while his brother Fayna was made the new ruler of Champasak with the title of Phra Wisaiyarat Khattiyawongsa. Fayna ruled Champasak until his death in 1811, when a grandson of Sayakumane was made to succeed in Champasak. Khamsing, son of Fayna, refused to be a subject of Champasak and demanded to have his own fief. Bangkok then appointed Khamsing as the first governor of Yasothon, again as a separate direct vassal at the expense of Champasak.
In 1814, Thau Kam, son of Phra Vo, was made the governor of Khemmarat. Suvannaphum suffered a local succession dispute in 1793, and Siam began the elevation of village officials who would declare their allegiance to Siam. Mueang Ubon, Chonnabot, Khon Kaen, Phutthaisong were founded from territory and people who had formerly been part of Suvannaphum. In 1815, the Governor of Nakhon Ratchasima had the leader of Suvannaphum accused by his own wife of maladministration, and was subsequently sent to Bangkok and executed in Saraburi. According to Siamese records, during the period the number of towns in the region had increased from thirteen to thirty-five. The process of division and local opposition was ongoing up to the rebellion of Anouvong in 1826, however the areas directly across from the city of Vientiane and the areas of Nakhon Phanom, Mahachai-Kongkeo, and Khamkeut remained vassals to the Kingdom of Vientiane.
The governors (chao mueang) of these "west bank" Mekong valley towns were semi-independent within their own jurisdictions. Decisions involving war, capital punishment, appointment of higher officials would be referred to Nakhon Ratchasima or Bangkok. Provinces were attached to various Siamese officials and ministries, and had to render taxes and labor. Periodic censuses were made, and boundaries were set and changed by the central administration in Bangkok in order to create more towns. There was a policy to reward chao mueang for increases in population and territory by awarding them titles as high as phraya. In general, the area did not differ greatly from the rest of Siam.
The "east bank" kingdoms of Vientiane, Luang Prabang and Champasak were more independent as vassals to the suzerainty of Siam. These states had much greater powers, including capital punishment, making war with Siamese consent, and appointing all but the four highest officials within the kingdom. In practice, the appointment of highest officials was often made locally by a council of nobility and then submitted to Bangkok for approval. The states’ obligations to provide revenue and corvée labor were curtailed to providing annual tribute (including "gold and silver trees,") and armies in times of war. Each of the three Lao states had its own vassals, and to some extent, carried on limited independent foreign relations.
"Forest Cambodia
During the last decade of Ayutthaya, Siam managed to expand its influence into what was called Khamen Pa Dong (Thai: เขมรป่าดง), or literally "Forest Cambodia", corresponding to modern Southern Isan in Sisaket and Surin Provinces, which were inhabited by independent Kuy and Northern Khmer tribes. Local leaders of Khukhan, Sangkha and Banteay Sman (Surin) submitted to Siam in 1759 and paid their tributary Suay taxes in form of forest products.