Franco-Siamese War - Consequences

Consequences

The Siamese agreed to cede Laos to France, an act that led to the significant expansion of French Indochina. In 1896, France signed a treaty with Britain that defined the border between Laos and the British territory in Upper Burma. The Kingdom of Laos became a protectorate and was initially placed under the Governor General of Indochina in Hanoi. Pavie, who almost single handedly brought Laos under French rule, saw to the officialization in Hanoi.

The French and the British both had strong interests in controlling parts of Indochina. Twice in the 1890s, the French and British were on the verge of war over two different routes leading to Yunnan. Two major difficulties stopped these two powers from war. The first was the geography of the land made it difficult to move troops efficiently and therefore would have made waging a war very costly and most likely ineffective. The second factor that kept the two countries apart was that they were both fighting a very difficult battle within their respective countries. Malaria was common and deadly. The routes that the two countries were interested in never really came into use. In 1904 the French and the British put aside their differences with the Entente Cordiale of 1904, which ended their dispute over routes in southern Asia.