Laos is officially the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, a socialist state and the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. At the heart of the Indochinese Peninsula, Laos is bordered by Myanmar and also the People’s Republic of China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west as well as southwest. Its capital as well as largest city is Vientiane.

Present-day Laos traces its historical and also social identification to Lan Xang, which existed from the 14th century to the 18th century as one of the biggest kingdoms in Southeast Asia. Due to its central geographical area in Southeast Asia, the kingdom became a center for overland trade and prospered economically as well as culturally.

After a duration of inner conflict, Lan Xang got into three separate kingdoms– Luang Phrabang, Vientiane, and Champasak. In 1893, the 3 regions came under a French protectorate and were united to create what is now referred to as Laos. It quickly got self-reliance in 1945 after Japanese occupation but was re-colonised by France until it won autonomy in 1949. Laos ended up being independent in 1953, with a constitutional monarchy under Sisavang Vong.

A post-independence civil battle started, which saw the communist resistance, supported by the Soviet Union, battle versus the monarchy that later on came under impact of military routines supported by the USA. After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, the communist Pathet Lao pertained to power, finishing the civil battle. Laos was after that based on army and financial help from the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991.

Laos is a member of the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement, the ASEAN, East Asia Summit, and also La Francophonie. Laos obtained membership of the Globe Trade Organization in 1997; on 2 February 2013, it was given full membership.

It is a one-party socialist republic, espousing Marxism– Leninism and also controlled by the Lao Individuals’s Revolutionary Event, under which non-governmental organisations have consistently qualified the country’s human rights record as bad, citing repeated misuses such as torment, constraints on constitutional freedoms, and also persecution of minorities.