- Government and society
- Cultural life
- Early Tai culture
- Mon-Khmer civilizations
- Sukhothai and Lan Na
- The Ayutthayan period, 1351–1767
- The Thon Buri and Early Bangkok periods
- The last absolute monarchs of Siam
- The 1932 coup and the creation of a constitutional order
- The Phibunsongkhram dictatorship and World War II
- The postwar crisis and the return of Phibunsongkhram
- Military dictatorship, economic growth, and the reemergence of the monarchy
- The 1973 revolution and its aftermath
- Partial democracy and the search for a new political order
- Attempts to institute populist democracy
- Economic and foreign-policy developments
A new era in Thai history began with the rise to power of Taksin, a military commander of great skill and charismatic personality who succeeded within a decade after the fall of Ayutthaya in expelling the Burmans and making himself king of Siam. In 1767 Taksin established his new capital at Thon Buri, on the opposite side of the Chao Phraya River from present-day Bangkok. The new location was less accessible to the armies of Myanmar than Ayutthaya had been and was ideally situated for the conduct of seaborne trade and commerce. Capitalizing on the trade relations that Siam had already developed with China, Taksin encouraged Chinese merchants and craftsmen to take advantage of the economic opportunities offered by the site of his new capital. Large numbers of Chinese settled permanently in Siam, where their involvement in business and trade—coupled with the tax revenues that these activities provided—helped restore the kingdom’s devastated economy.
Taksin not only recovered the territories that had formerly been part of the Ayutthayan empire but also set out to extend Siamese control over new areas. His armies annexed part of what is now northeastern Cambodia and advanced up the Mekong River as far as present-day Vientiane in Laos. In the south they subdued the northern part of the Malay Peninsula, and to the north they pushed the Burmans out of the old northern Tai kingdom of Lan Na.
Within a few years of seizing power, however, Taksin showed signs of serious mental instability, and in 1782 he was overthrown and put to death. He was succeeded by his former military commander, known by his official name of Chao Phraya (“Great Lord”) Chakri. The new king founded the Chakri (or Chakkri) dynasty, which has continued to the present day.
The early Chakri kings and a resurgent Siam
One of the first acts of the new king—who would come to be known as Rama I (reigned 1782–1809)—was to move his capital across the Chao Phraya River to Bangkok, which at the time was still a small village. By the mid-19th century, Bangkok had become a city of some 400,000 people, swelled by the huge numbers of Chinese who had poured into Siam during those years. In addition to settling in Bangkok, the Chinese established trading settlements inland, some of which grew into small towns. As time went on, the Chinese thus gained even greater control over both the internal and foreign trade of the country.
The Burmese kingdom continued to harass Siam throughout the early Chakri reigns. In 1785 it launched a massive invasion of the country, which was repelled only with great difficulty. Other lesser attacks followed. Not until the 1820s, when British encroachment on Burmese territory forced Burman attention inward, was Siam able to relax its vigilance along its western borders. In the east Rama I and later Rama III (reigned 1824–51) reduced Khmer territories to vassal status, and in the south Rama III strengthened Siamese control over tributary states of the Malay Peninsula. Rama III also put down a major uprising in the north led by Chao Anou, the young Lao ruler of the kingdom of Vien Chan (Vientiane). In 1827 Siamese armies razed and plundered Vientiane; thousands of Lao were taken prisoner and deported to central Siam.
The early Chakri kings sought to restore the cultural heritage of Ayutthaya. New temples and palaces were built in Bangkok following the same styles and even using some of the same bricks that had embellished Ayutthaya. Rama I reestablished court rituals, issued comprehensive law codes and authoritative Buddhist texts, and helped revive the sangha by placing learned and pious monks in leading positions within the Buddhist hierarchy. The early Bangkok period also produced a great literary flowering. The Ramakian, the Thai version of the Indian epic Ramayana, was set to verse during the reign of Rama I. Rama II (reigned 1809–24), an accomplished poet, was a patron of the arts, and Sunthon Phu, Thailand’s greatest poet, wrote some of his best-known works during Rama II’s reign.
Western influence also grew in mainland Southeast Asia during the early years of the 19th century, and with it came increasing Western pressures on Siam. When Britain declared war on the Burmese kingdom in 1824, Rama III feared that the British might also attack Siam. He subsequently agreed to sign the Burney Treaty (1826), which set conditions for the conduct of trade between the two countries.
1Appointed July 31, 2014, by the ruling council of military leaders.
|Official name||Ratcha Anachak Thai (Kingdom of Thailand)|
|Form of government||constitutional monarchy with a 200-member interim legislature1])|
|Head of state||King: Bhumibol Adulyadej|
|Head of government||Prime Minister: Prayuth Chan-ocha (interim)|
|Monetary unit||baht (THB)|
|Population||(2013 est.) 66,777,000|
|Total area (sq mi)||198,117|
|Total area (sq km)||513,120|
|Urban-rural population||Urban: (2011) 36.1%|
Rural: (2011) 63.9%
|Life expectancy at birth||Male: (2012) 70.9 years|
Female: (2012) 77.6 years
|Literacy: percentage of population age 15 and over literate||Male: (2007) 95.9%|
Female: (2007) 92.6%
|GNI per capita (U.S.$)||(2012) 5,210|