Despite its remote location close to the Laotian border, Khemmarat was designated a first class city during the Rattanakosin era and reported directly to Bangkok. Border tensions were high in 1893 when French colonialists took over Vientiane and the Lao region north of the Mekong. That same year, the French authorities in Indochina used a minor border dispute to provoke a crisis. French gunboats appeared at Bangkok and demanded the cession of Lao territories east of the Mekong. The King appealed to the British, but the British minister told the King to settle on whatever terms he could get, and he had no choice but to comply. Britain's only gesture was an agreement with France guaranteeing the integrity of the rest of Siam. In exchange, Siam had to give up its claim to the Tai-speaking Shan region of northeastern Burma to the British.