Laos is a landlocked, sovereign nation in Southeast Asia. Laos borders Burma (Myanmar) and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south, and Thailand to the west. Laos traces its history to the Kingdom of "Lan Xang" or "Land of a Million Elephants", which existed from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century. After a period as a French protectorate, it gained independence in 1949. A long civil war ended officially when the communist Pathet Lao movement came to power in 1975, but strife between competing between factions continued for several years.