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.

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.

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.

[18] During the last decade of Ayutthaya, Siam managed to expand its influence into what was called Khamen Pa Dong[19] (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[19] tribes.

Although dynastic disputes split the Lan Xang kingdom into three competing centers in the early eighteenth century, and left the rulers of Vientiane a reduced territory, this capital remained the largest city of the Lao with a pre-eminent position until 1828.

[20] Vientiane's rulers continued to nurture a symbolic legitimacy that was embodied in the monumental achievements of the earlier Lan Xang monarchs who had helped build the capital and its hinterland of cities and shrines.

In addition to larger annual tribute, they were required to provide labor for warfare and public works, sometimes married into Siam's royal family, and occasionally suffered interference in internal affairs.

During Nguyễn Phúc Ánh's campaign against the Tây Sơn, he obtained assistance from the newly established Chakri Dynasty in Siam, which sent a large expedition to the Mekong Delta to support him.

And it was for this reason that Crawfurd, Dangerfield, the doctor and the military officer sounded the rivers and measured the size of the islands, small and great, and reckoned the population, and took counsel to do many other things to give cause of offence.

As noted by the Governor General of India, "…the concession on our part of permission to the Siamese Government to purchase fire arms…would to all appearance have induced the King to grant the freedom of commerce…which it was a special object of your Mission to obtain.

[57] In Cambodia, as in the Lao states, Siam and Vietnam adopted a system of tributary diplomacy which the newly created dynasties in Bangkok and Huế used to legitimize themselves and restore their nations’ influence over bordering areas.

The largest group were common folk, who were settled as virtual serfs in under-populated provinces and districts, as war slaves (that chaloei), to serve Thai elite beyond the limits of annual corvee labor that was imposed on Siam's freemen (phrai).

[68] Prince Phithaksamontri, King Rama II's cousin, brother-in-law and general adviser to the Siamese government, opposed Nyo's appointment arguing it would extend Vientiane's influence to the south and make Anouvong a dangerous vassal.

[70] Early in his reign, Rama III ordered a complete census of manpower throughout Siam to ensure every peasant performed his prescribed corvee labor, followed by a comprehensive land survey for tax purposes.

Lao were also impressed to build the Phra Samut Chedi, located on an island at the mouth of the Chaophraya river, and to construct defensive works in the same area to protect against the potential of an attack by the British fleet.

[78] Two additional demands are noted in some sources, one is for the repatriation of the Lao in Saraburi, and the other is for the return of the Phra Kaeo, or Emerald Buddha, which had become the palladium of the Chakri dynasty, but which had been taken in 1779 from Vientiane and remained a powerful symbol of dispossession.

Moving rapidly, Anouvong hoped to persuade the kingdoms of Luang Prabang and Lan Na to join his side, while Siamese concern for the potential of British or Vietnamese involvement would delay their response.

The Battle of Loei lasted for two days and a night, at which point Ratsavong Ngau fell back to a position on Siang Khan on the eastern shore of the Mekong to protect Lao on the west bank.

Therefore, we have decided to slice them alive, to saw their heads into four parts, to saw off their ears, their hands, and their feet, to behead them and then expose their remains at Ban (Takutchork) in order that all the chiefs of the Lao will take them as an example.

On the morning of 13 May, the Siamese forces broke rank and retreated to Nong Bua Lamphu, the pursuing Lao were stopped by artillery fire and their commander Phraya Kongkeo of Saraburi was killed in action.

[101] The Lao defeat at the Khao San pass left Vientiane exposed, Anouvong returned to organize a hasty evacuation of the capital and to establish two camps further south at Tha Sida and Nakhon Phanom.

[n 2] In addition, Rama III ordered a chedi memorial to be erected across the river at Phan Phao commemorating the suppression of Anouvong's rebellion, to be adorned with one of Vientiane's own most revered Buddha images, the Pha Serm.

Phraya Ratchanikun led part of the Siamese army, while Bodindecha made a large bend to the north to destroy communication lines and cut off Chao Tissa's path toward Vientiane.

It is possible, but Chao Tissa's movements and fact that Bodindecha used a similar tactic by authoring dubious letters in 1837 to pit the Vietnamese against their own commanders, suggest it was part of a misinformation campaign to divide and weaken Lao resistance.

Bodindecha recalled in his memoirs that as he went to Vientiane to report to Sakdiphonlasep the end of his campaign on the Khorat Plateauand the arrival of Vietnamese envoys, that he instead encountered Chao Tissa, who not only surrendered but also defected.

The Vietnamese Emperor Minh Mạng was caught in a politically delicate situation as he sought to maintain the autonomy and prestige of his country, while assisting a dependent kingdom that had agitated Vietnam's regional rival Siam.

As Minister of the Interior in the last two decades of the reign of King Chulalongkorn, he played a key role in the creation of the modern state of Thailand, and laid the foundations for the writing of national history.

The modern Siamese and successive Thai historiography has been constructed while producing a huge amount of source materials esteemed as "canon," a process that did not refrain from manipulating even historical texts.

French colonial histories concentrated particularly on the division of Lan Xang, the destruction of Vientiane and its ruling family following the Lao-Siamese war of 1827-1828 and the role of France in reconstituting a Lao political identity.

[149] Political uses of the story of Thao Suranari have contributed to its acquiring additional meanings- militant patriotism, regional loyalty, and even gender equality- that were, at best, only vaguely foreshadowed in the original telling.