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Laos: The launch of the steam-powered ‘Le Trentinian’ in 1897. The steamer operated a freight and passenger service between Vientiane and Savannakhet on the Mekong River.

Laos: The launch of the steam-powered ‘Le Trentinian’ in 1897. The steamer operated a freight and passenger service between Vientiane and Savannakhet on the Mekong River.

Vientiane, formerly Sri Sattanak, was razed to the ground and looted by Siamese armies in 1827. The city was left in grave disrepair and became overgrown and nearly unpopulated until the French colonists arrived and took over the region in 1893. Vientiane became the capital of the French protectorate of Laos in 1899 and was rebuilt with renovated Buddhist temples surrounded by French architecture. Vientiane remained the ‘chef-lieu’- the district capital – of French Laos until 1949.

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