| Abstract: |
The Modern Part of an Universal History, published in England in 1759, is a valuable compilation for the study of historical interaction between Europe and mainland South-East Asia. Published in the English language, it synthesized a variety of earlier European travelogues and reports previously available only in French, Italian, and Portuguese. The Universal History is also a useful complement to indigenous accounts of social conditions and economic activities in the Lao kingdoms prior to European colonialism. Commenting on the merits of early European contributions to the historiography of mainland South-East Asia, Donald Lach explained that the European sources, while admittedly meager, are nevertheless important because the native annals on the period before 1600 are sparse, non-existent, unreliable or written so long after the even as to be suspect. This chapter provides an introduction to the section on Laos in the Universal History. It seems helpful to begin with a rough chronology of the earliest European reports on the Lao. Although many of the same sources are mentioned in the Universal History, there is little regard for establishing a historical sequence. Next, a few interesting topics are discussed, to serve as a guide for reading the text of the Universal History. Appended notes provide a brief glossary of uncommon terms, which may facilitate the reading of the Universal Historys descriptions.
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