Haw wars
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (August 2015) |
Haw Wars | |||||
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Siamese army during Haw wars in 1875 | |||||
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Belligerents | |||||
Haw rebels (Red flag and Striped flag bands) |
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Commanders and leaders | |||||
Unknown |
The Haw Wars (
Invasion of the flags
During the latter half of the 19th century, bands of Chinese warriors known as "flag gangs" ravaged large areas of northern Laos. Outlaws and freebooters, the Black flag gangs were fleeing the suppression of the Red Turban secret society. Tonkin (now northern Vietnam) was invaded first, when units of the "Black Flags" and the rival "Yellow Flags" crossed the China-Vietnam frontier in 1865 and set up bases in the upper reaches of the Red River Valley.
Vietnamese and Black Flags fight back
Black and yellow flags
Liu Yongfu and Black forces fighting the French acquired a certain legitimacy and fame of the Vietnamese ruler Tự Đức. In contrast the Yellow Flags, under the leadership of Huang Chung-ying, failed to acquire any legitimacy and, pursued by a combination of the Vietnamese and Black Flag forces, were broken up and defeated. In 1875–1876, following the capture and execution of Huang Chung-ying by the Black Flag-Vietnamese forces, the surviving Yellow Flag remnants fled westwards into the upper part of the Black River Valley where they harassed the townships of the semi-independent Tai-speaking federation of Sip Son Chu Tai (or Sip Song Chau Tai – Twelve Tai lands), today part of northwestern Vietnam) and northeastern Laos.[3]
Red and striped flags
Further to the west, starting from about 1872, bands of defeated rebels began drifting across the frontier into Laos, then a tributary state of the Kingdom of Siam. These new bands, distinguished by "Red Flag" and "Striped Flag" banners, moved south to occupy nearly all of northern Laos. The Red Flags sacked Điện Biên Phủ in 1873, and the Striped Flags seized control of Muang Phuan and the Plain of Jars that same year.
Responding to this serious challenge, in 1874 Chao Oun Kham, ruling prince of Luang Prabang, and the Nguyen monarch Tự Đức, sent a joint army to expel the invaders. The force was routed, and Chao Ung, prince of Phuan, was killed. The victorious Haw moved south to sack Vientiane, while Chao Unkham sent urgent appeals for assistance to the Thai monarch, King Chulalongkorn (Rama V).
Arrival of the Siamese
In the spring of 1875,
Second Siamese expedition and James McCarthy
Eight years later, in 1883, faced with a renewed Haw threat to his capital at Luang Prabang, Chao Unkham again appealed to Bangkok for assistance. King Chulalongkorn dispatched a Siamese army composed largely of Isan and northern Thai levies. The resulting expedition, in which the British surveyor James McCarthy participated, "was ill-conceived, inadequately planned, and ultimately unsuccessful". Thanks to McCarthy's presence, the 1884-1885 expedition is unusually well-documented. McCarthy's personal accounts provide descriptions of the effort, suffering and incompetence of the Haw Wars which are more evocative than those in official Siamese accounts.
McCarthy had begun his acquaintance with the Lao-Tonkin borderlands in the 1884, when he led a Thai surveying expedition to Phuan and the southern frontiers of Huaphan, as part of his task of mapping the Thai Kingdom. During this journey he travelled widely through territories subject to regular attack by the flag gangs. He noted that "as we went on, tales of the Haw were brought in, agonizing accounts of their raiding on villages, whose inhabitants they had slaughtered, mutilated or carried into captivity".
McCarthy was greatly impressed by the beauty and natural wealth of the regions, but found the inhabitants living a "wretched existence...harried, mutilated and slaughtered by robbers". As in
Subsequently, McCarthy travelled to
Battle of February 1885
McCarthy was ordered to return to Laos at the end of the rainy season. He set out from Bangkok in November 1884, travelling by way of
The Haw were armed with modern
Aftermath
Subsequently, McCarthy made enquiries into the origins and purpose of the Haw invaders. He concluded that the Governor of
Today the Haw Wars are all but forgotten. One memorial to the Thai and Lao soldiers killed in the struggle stands in front of the old Nong Khai City Hall, now a community center and museum. A larger, newer one stands behind the police barracks. Down by the Mekong River in view of Laos on the opposite side stands Wat Angkhan (อังคาร), which is from the Pali language for "ashes of the dead", and is also Thai for the planet Mars that Romans named for their God of War.[4] Nearby, the city maintains the Garden of Sorrows (สวนโศกเศร้า), with signs signifying this is where widows came to grieve.
References
- ^ SEAlang library Lao lexicography. SEAlang Projects. http://sealang.net/lao/dictionary.htm
- ^ Glenn S. (March 15, 2012). "ฮ่อ Haaw" (Dictionary). Royal Institute - 1982. Thai-language.com. Archived from the original on May 1, 2012. Retrieved April 13, 2012.
- ^ "White Tai or Tai Don". Tai Literary and Cultural Centre web site. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2010.
In the 1880s, the White Tai ruler of Muang Lay, Cam Oum, allied himself with Chinese bandits who were plundering and causing considerable chaos in the area. During the years 1884 to 1887 two Siamese military expeditions made an effort to put down these depredations and reassert Siamese suzerainty. The Siamese operated out of Muang Thanh (Dien Bien) and maintained close relations with the Black Tai there.
- ^ "อังคาร angkhan". Thailanguage.com. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
Further reading
- Forbes, Andrew ; Henley, David (2011). "The Haw Wars", chapter in: Traders of the Golden Triangle. Chiang Mai: Cognoscenti Books. ASIN: B006GMID5
- McCarthy, James, F.R.G.S., "Report of a Survey in Siam". (1895).
- McCarthy, James, F.R.G.S., "Surveying and Exploring in Siam" with Descriptions of Lao Dependencies and of Battles against the Chinese Haws". (1900).