ABSTRACT
L Ax Xang has known many disasters in the course of its history, but they are as nothing compared to the consequences of Chao Anou's ‘war of independence’. Despite the train of calamities and horrors that followed his defeat, there has been little attempt over the last century and three-quarters to make an historical assessment of why Chao Anou, against the advice of his family and Ministers, ever started the war with Siam.
