The existence of Laos today is taken for granted. But the crystallization of a Lao national idea and ultimately independence for the country was a long and uncertain process. This book examines the process through which Laos came into existence under French colonial rule through to the end of World War II. Rather than assuming that the Laos we see today was a historical given, the book looks at how Laos's position at the intersection of two conflicting spatial layouts of 'Thailand' and 'Iindochina' made its national form a particularly contested process.