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Laos
Index
Figure 2. Administrative Organization and Territorial Changes,
1895-1947
The French, in their early forays into the interior of
Indochina, had stuck mainly to the rivers, looking for
access
routes to China. An April 1867 expedition led by Ernest
Doudart de
Lagrée and Francis Garnier visited the ruins of Vientiane.
In 1869
an expedition led by Rheinart and Mourin d'Arfeuille
traveled up
the Mekong without penetrating the mountains. Although
another
explorer, Jules Harmand, a French army physician, reached
Attapu on
the Xé Kong, these forays provided the French with only a
superficial knowledge of the peoples of the interior. What
these
early French explorers and scientists did find, however,
were the
Siamese and the Vietnamese already contesting for
suzerainty over
the territory between the mountains and the Mekong.
Data as of July 1994
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