1648 年西發里亞條約簽訂後，「領土律令」成為主權國家的一項基本原理。 可是，像泰國這樣的東南亞國家，在劃定政治空間以後，卻未能完全地控制邊界。在邊界地帶，中央政府的政治權力相當虛弱，而且，容易遭遇挑戰。冷戰時期，泰國政府因認知到共產主義威脅，而將邊界地帶的高山民族納入國家統合的議程中。為有效地對邊界地帶的高山民族進行統治，且主張統治的正當性，泰國官方創造出一套關於高山民族的論述體系，使得「山民」成為泰國北部高山民族的一種身分織別的負面標籤。泰國政府持續地把焦點放在「山民問題」的解決，..

Since 1648, territorial imperative has become a basic principle of the modern sovereign nation-state system. With the emergence of modern nation-states in peninsular Southeast Asia in the post-colonial era， however, those states' writ still fails to extend to the borderland. During the Cold War period, the central government of Thailand perceived Communism as a threat to Southeast Asia, thus necessary to integrate the highlanders into a territorially bounded nation. For effective ruling， the term chao khao (hill tribe peoples ) was used..