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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Laos
Index
Figure 3. Laos in Its Southeast Asian Setting, 1994
Figure 4. Topography and Drainage
Laos, a landlocked nation that covers 236,800 square
kilometers
in the center of the Southeast Asian peninsula, is
surrounded by
Burma, Cambodia, China, Thailand, and Vietnam
(see
fig. 3). Its
location has often made it a buffer between more powerful
neighboring states, as well as a crossroads for trade and
communication
(see Developments in the Nineteenth Century
, ch. 1;
Foreign Trade
, ch. 3). Migration and international
conflict have
contributed to the present ethnic composition of the
country and to
the geographic distribution of its ethnic groups.
Data as of July 1994
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