During the colonial era, the French considered annexing Laos to its Vietnamese possessions twice, in 1902-1903 and again in the 1920s.
There was a debate among colonial officials about how to administer Laos.
Some parts of the French Indochina administration proposed absorbing Laos into the adjacent territories of Annam and Tonkin to further encourage Vietnamese immigration, mainly because they thought Vietnamese were harder working than Lao, that the Vietnamese could economically develop the sparsely populated land more thoroughly, and it would provide more tax revenue for the colonial administration and be a good way to demonstrate the benefits for the Vietnamese of being part of the French Empire.
I imagine a division would have looked something like this in terms of major colonial territories
At the provincial level, the provinces of what became independent Laos instead become additionprovinces of Annam and Tonkin. In Annam, possibly some of the very skinny provinces are just extended west across the Annamese Cordillera to the Mekong.
How would this change in colonial boundaries, if it took place in the early 1920s, have altered the demography, culture, economy and politics of Vietnam and Laos to the present day? Note that if history went down a different path than ours only in 1923, most later leaders of North and South Vietnam would have been born already and many would be grown men already.
Shout-out to @ComradeH and @LaRougeBeret while I am at it.
There was a debate among colonial officials about how to administer Laos.
Some parts of the French Indochina administration proposed absorbing Laos into the adjacent territories of Annam and Tonkin to further encourage Vietnamese immigration, mainly because they thought Vietnamese were harder working than Lao, that the Vietnamese could economically develop the sparsely populated land more thoroughly, and it would provide more tax revenue for the colonial administration and be a good way to demonstrate the benefits for the Vietnamese of being part of the French Empire.
I imagine a division would have looked something like this in terms of major colonial territories
At the provincial level, the provinces of what became independent Laos instead become additionprovinces of Annam and Tonkin. In Annam, possibly some of the very skinny provinces are just extended west across the Annamese Cordillera to the Mekong.
How would this change in colonial boundaries, if it took place in the early 1920s, have altered the demography, culture, economy and politics of Vietnam and Laos to the present day? Note that if history went down a different path than ours only in 1923, most later leaders of North and South Vietnam would have been born already and many would be grown men already.
Shout-out to @ComradeH and @LaRougeBeret while I am at it.