Haw wars

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Haw Wars
Siamese army during Haw wars in 1875
Date 1865–1890 Location Northern Laos, western Vietnam, northern Thailand
Belligerents
Haw rebels (Red flag and Striped flag bands)	Rattanakosin Kingdom (Siam) Luang Phrabang
Commanders and leaders
Unknown	Chulalongkorn Surasakmontri Chao Oun Kham

The Haw Wars (Thai: สงครามปราบฮ่อ) were fought against Chinese quasi-military refugee gangs invading parts of Tonkin and the Siam from 1865–1890. Forces invading Lao domains were ill-disciplined and freely demolished Buddhist temples. Not knowing these were remnants of secret societies, the invaders were wrongly called Haw (Lao: ຫໍ້;^[1] Thai: ฮ่อ; Chinese: Hao).^[2] Forces sent by King Rama V failed to suppress the various groups, the last of which eventually disbanded in 1890.