Brief History of Thailand

Thai History
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Thai History
Thai culture and history depends on environment, which includes social and cultural as well as geographical. Thus, we must observe the major geographic characteristics of the area which became Thailand. This includes mountains, plains, lowlands, rivers, and lakes. Obviously the mountains will be barriers and the areas between mountain ranges will be corridors. Yet the rivers seem to be the uniting element and the various cultures which developed beginning approximately 4000 years ago have some common characteristics, including words which appear in various languages and even the tones of particular words. Geography of the country Thailand, in SouthEast Asia, has a very different and distinctive shape. To the west and slightly north is Burma (now called Myanmar). To the east and north is Laos. To the southeast is Cambodia and to the south in the Malay Peninsula is Malaysia. The Gulf of Thailand is connected to the South China Sea. Rivers flow generally to the south and flow into the Central Plain which is a river (alluvial) delta just north of the capital city of Bangkok. The area north and east of the Central Plain is the Khorat Plateau which is watered by tributaries of the Mekong (which forms the northern border separating Thailand and Laos and then flows into Cambodia, eventually emptying into the South China Sea in the Delta area of Vietnam). The tail of Thailand is part of the Malay Peninsula, whose territory is shared with Myanmar and Malaysia. This is where the resort islands are located -- and where that part of the world suffered in the great Tsunami
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of several years ago. The river which flows through Bangkok, the Chao Phraya, rises in part in Myanmar and also in Laos. When we visit Chiang Mai, we will see one of these tributaries. Early History to the Kingdom of Ayutthaya Forty millennia ago, settlements developed and the groups who settled were hunter-gatherers. By ten thousand years ago, agriculture was evident which included specific crops and the domestication of certain animals. About the same time, language differences began to develop which was seen in the cultural differences as well. Sophisticated metallurgy developed around the same time particularly in what is now northeast Thailand. A very fine bronze was used for weapons which were shaped in molds going back 5000 years. By the time of Christ, nuclear families in small villages went out to their lowland fields, made textiles, and lived a rural life. Because the population was relatively small, women were highly prized as individuals and had high social and economic status, unlike the developing cultures in India and China. These people were referred to as Tai. Because they lived in lowland areas, their homes generally were built on stilts, a tradition which has continued to the present. Although the early Tais lived in the flat-lands where they could practice irrigation agriculture, eventually they had to move to the interior uplands as population increased. There, they encountered other ethnic and linguistic groups. The Tais dominated them as vassals over serfs and slaves. Increasingly, the Tai were forced to defend themselves against neighboring Mang and hill people and organized into inter-village governments. Taxes were collected to pay for security and defense and the increasingly complex organization developed.
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Because rice culture demands a great deal of organization based on the scheduled flooding of fields, areas with a dominant rice agricultural system seem to have a greater structure than the more casual agriculture. The south-flowing rivers mirror the vertical placement of mountains. Rice could not be grown in mountainous areas and the lowlands were desired by outsiders, so there was a constant threat of invasion from the north as the Chinese extended their control westward from the Pacific coast. A series of dynasties followed one another from the third century ad until the eleventh. The eleventh and twelfth centuries were the golden age of the classical empires of Southeast Asia. With origins in India, many in Southeast Asia became Buddhist and their languages reflected Sanskrit and Pali. To the east, the influence of Ankorean and Pagn created a different cultural base. When we spend three days in the area of Chiang Sn, we will see a bit of the Angkorean influence. This is where north Thailand borders on the Mekong River. These northerners were converted to Buddhism at the same time they were moving onto lowland plains which were good for irrigated rice cultivation. This made possible the development of urban centers and the growth of an urban ruling class freed from direct involvement in agriculture. In the twelfth century, no Tai ruler could develop a centralized administration in the form of a kingdom like Angkor. Local Tai chieftains had control over labor, always in short supply in Southeast Asia. These chieftains could mobilize their agricultural workers and the Angkorean and Pagn emperors had to make accommodations to the district chiefs. Increasingly, the lowlands had a Tai identity and would eventually challenge the empires.
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There is a marked similarity between the history of the larger region of Southeast Asia and Western Europe. In our heritage, just as the Roman Empire collapsed leading to the fracturing of imperial control (feudal system) in the period between 600-1200, a strikingly parallel situation occurred in Southeast Asia. Gone were the kingdoms of Angkor and Pagan; they were replaced by numerous smaller states which were relatively equal in power. Going geographically from north to south, the area around Chiang Sn on the banks of the Upper Mekong was a chief Tai center. It was here that the royal line was begun that would rule in the greatest Tai capital of all, Ayuttaha. The founder of the Lan Na kingdom, Mangrai, was born in Chiang Sn in 1238. He noted that there was continual fighting between the various tribes; to make things better for everyone, he conquered one area after another. This sounds amazingly like the justification of various Chinese emperors or even Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. By 1292, Mangrai had established his capital at Chiang Mai, moving south; he was now King Mangrai and got the attention of China, which invaded his territory. His kingdom barely survived his life (he lived to the ripe old age of 78) and didnt provide for an orderly succession. If we can compare this Tai system with the highly formalized Chinese system, political loyalties in the Tai world tended to be personal. Sukhothai is remembered as much for its art and ideas as for its political achievements. This capital was prosperous and powerful and was in contact with the outside world. Sukhothai moved its influence from upland valleys to the edge of the great Chaophraya plain, which was an alluvial delta. The personal relationships of the past were extended and the language (Siamese Tai) became the language of administration and prestige. Several Tai kingdoms competed for control of the
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area close to what is modern-day Thailand. Each kingdom insisted that it should be the central authority and make the other states their vassals. Each of these empires wanted its own identities. As the Chinese pressure from the North was in decline because of the impending collapse of the Mongol leaders and prior to the rise of the Ming dynasty, evident around 1350, Tai leaders turned to the Indian model. This coincided with the rise of Ayutthaya. I will not go into all of the details of the rise in power by the various contenders, but the city of Ayutthaya was the center of the controversy all during the 14th century. In the process, Ayutthaya became a major imperial power in Southeast Asia. One must look at a map of Thailand to see the movement of power center south along the Chao Phraya River approaching the present capital of Bangkok. Kingdom of Ayutthaya to 1767 From the very beginning of the Kingdom of Ayutthaya, its core provinces had been very tightly organized and controlled. The greater the distance from the city, the less the central control. All freemen were required to give six months service to the crown in the form of public or military works. This differed from the traditional Tai custom of personal relationships between workers and nobility (not unlike the medieval European feudal relationships). The increased need for bureaucracy led to greater central control. The kingdom lasted until 1767 as the succeeding kings absorbed one kingdom after another until the borders approximated the current ones of Thailand. Ayutthaya was friendly to foreign traders, which included Chinese, Annamese, Indians, Japanese, Persians, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and French. As the Ayutthaya government and people moved further down the river valleys in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries away from the highlands,
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the people involved became used to foreign trade and goods, including firearms and military mercenaries. A traditional custom among monarchs in Southeast Asia was to control trade and this extended into the sixteenth century. As the kings gained wealth, they gained power. A consequence of this was that the kings could gain more respect both among their subjects and internationally. Rivals, recognizing the increased power of the now rich kings, were willing to cast their lot with the monarchy and the territory of the kings increased, allowing them to trade with distinct advantages. Ayutthaya trade was not only with immediate neighbors, but with Muslim (Arab) and Chinese powers. Outsiders began interfering in internal affairs and the Tai government sent its military to quell the potential invasions, but unsuccessfully, leading to the final battle in 1569. The victorious Burmese forces wiped out much of the population in the interior of presentday Thailand and the area reverted to jungle. This condition remained until the middle of the eighteenth century, when the Ayutthaya empire began developing again. However, in the two centuries in between, there were a series of attacks on the land both from the west (Burmese) and from the east (Cambodian). In almost every invasion, the invading forces captured Tais who were ill-prepared to defend themselves. The Tai leaders turned to foreigners both to assist them in trade and also in defense. A whole series of non-native individuals appear in the chronicles: Dutch, Portuguese, Persians, papal legates, Danes, Japanese, French, the British East India Company, and even one enterprising Greek (Constantine Phaulkon who worked with the East India Company and then went independent). As an historian, I have always been curious whether trade followed the flag or vice versa. Based on the imperial history of the European nations, when they managed to get an
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economic foothold in a foreign land, it was only a matter of time before there were trade delegations and then national advisors present, then control of finances, tax-collection, etc. In Siamese history, the large European trading companies with their heavy overhead expenses and need for large profit margins, could not successfully compete on equal terms with either royal monopolies or private traders. It appears that warfare in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with the neighbors Burma and Cambodia was not to increase territorial control but to replenish the population with captured. Chakri Dynasty Ayutthaya was eventually destroyed in 1767 by the Burmese and one of the successor power centers shifted near the new city of Bangkok, headed by Taksin. This location has remained the center of power to the present day. It was actually on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River (Thonburi). There were four other control cities in Siam, even one run by Buddhist monks and one on the Malay Peninsula. Taksin extended Siamese control to an extent far greater than Ayutthaya ever did. He provided the leadership that Siam needed to pull itself out of the condition it had gotten into by 1767, yet his ungrateful subjects executed him in 1781. His successor, King Ramathibodi (known as Rama I), moved the capital across the river to presentday Bangkok, where it would be less vulnerable to a future Burmese attack. The capital was much closer to the southern coast which would benefit international trade. We will see evidence of the palaces and Buddhist temples which were built along the canals radiating east of the river. Rama I felt that the monks had become undisciplined, illiterate, and immoral so he began a series of reforms in the form of ecclesiastical
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laws. His construction of many temples convinced many monks to work with him in his attempts at governmental consolidation. In addition, Rama sponsored the revival of state ceremonies. He also appointed a commission of judges and scholars to codify Siamese law, the Three Seals Laws, which would function for more than a century. Rama I ordered that all freemen should be tattooed with the name of their masters and their city of residence. He also required that all freemen perform corve (forced labor on the kings property). This not only provided a ready source of laborers for royal projects, but also diminished the power of the nobility. How different was this from the efforts of the French kings Louis XIII or Louis XIV? Ramas son took the throne as Rama II and he named his son to succeed him as Rama III. We are now into the nineteenth century. Rama III had to determine the issue of the British move into Burma to protect their Indian flanks. Britain wanted to maintain Siamese neutrality both to Burma on the west and the growing British influence in the Malay Peninsula, to the south of Siam. Rama III had to handle some incursions from the Lao kingdom in Vientiane, Cambodia (Phnom Penh), and Vietnam. The leaders recognized, however, that the real threat was from the West. Some of the intellectuals had learned English and Latin and the government officials saw this influence was more threatening than Siams immediate neighbors. Western colonial powers -the British in India, Burma and Malaya and the French in Indochina -- were putting increasing pressure on Siam to fall to one or the other. Rama IV (King Mongkut), who ascended the throne in 1851, tried to play one off against the other. Siam had granted commercial concessions to the British and this threatened the power and livelihood of almost every prince and government
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official as they had depended on the former trade monopolies and the taxes which had been abolished by the treaties with the British. Three issues stared the Siamese government in the face: internal integration, external territorial losses, and the survival of an independent Siam. The intent here is somewhat confusing, but to the best of my research, I feel that the British were not of a mind to add Siam to their territorial empire; rather, they wanted a nation east of Burma which would not be a further threat -- particularly after the very expensive Second Anglo-Burmese War of 1852. The treaty reflecting the hope for amity allowed British citizens to purchase land in Siam and trade between the two nations was encouraged. Fearing a cloying relationship if the diplomacy was limited to Britain, the Siamese government pushed for better relations with other nations, including France, the United States, as well as other European states. At this time, France was just beginning to create its own colonial control in Southeast Asia, which would later be called French Indochina. This began with the takeover of Cambodia on the death of the king. Look at the map! Cambodia is directly to the east of Siam and Laos to the north of Cambodia. When we go to Chiang Sn, we will be close to both Burma (Myanmar) and Laos -- as a matter of fact, we will board a riverboat, cross the Mekong River, and spend part of a day in Laos. A concept that was not uncommon in the nineteenth century that was part of European diplomacy was extraterritoriality. This meant that a European subject always had his feet on his own national soil and he was only subject to the laws of his home country. It also limited local control of import and export duties, which put trade between Siam and outside powers on a distinctly unequal basis. Rama IV was willing to accept this inferior status because he was
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convinced that it was temporary and he would be able to gain control of diplomacy and soon dictate trade terms to the Europeans. Reform would come from the top down slowly. As King Mongkut (Rama IV) aged, he outlived his sons and dissention created indecision and less than a powerful front to outsiders. European powers such as the Dutch, Danes, Belgians, British, and French had used excuses of instability in the past in other parts of the world to move in to restore order. Since there were essentially two kingdoms in Siam: one in Chiang Mai and one in Bangkok, this could be seen as civil unrest and in the 1870s, a lot of maneuvering went on between the British and the Siamese. The French were not as subtle and considered a more blatant takeover, spreading the Indochinese Empire to the west. Having suffered the ignoble defeat at the hands of the Germans in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, the French felt obligated to prove to the world that they were capable of governing a far-flung empire. (Yes, they had conquered much of North Africa, Equatorial Africa, a couple small outcroppings on the coast of South America, some islands in the South Pacific, but the conquest of Siam would be a real indication of the staying power of France.) In the period prior to 1892, the central Thai government was able to consolidate its power over the outlying states. France feared that Siam would take over Laos as the Mekong Valley became like a magnet to balance the control over the Chao Phraya Valley. The long-standing enmity between Britain and France (this went back at least 800 years) was what Siam was able to use to maintain its sovereignty in Southeast Asia. But the rise of the potential European power of Germany brought France and Britain together in the ntente Cordiale in 1904. Through a series of forced treaties imposed on Siam by the British and
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French, Siam was forced to give up a total of 176,000 square miles, including both banks of the Mekong and the Malay States. I have ignored the domestic conditions in Siam. Remember that in the rural areas, control was by local rulers for many years and the relationships were quite personal. By the end of the nineteenth century, peasants were much more mobile, the ruling families had spread out and the sons preferred to move to cities and get a true education. The end of compulsory labor (corve) meant that land-holdings were broken up and new lands were cultivated for the growing of rice (which was needed in the rice-deficient areas of China and India). The parallel with medieval Europe can be stated as the king rather than a local landlord or prince became the central authority figure. Europe figured prominently in the latter part of the nineteenth century as the king (Rama V) and his prime advisors saw that survival meant a change in past practice: as most of the ministers and other bureaucrats were either members of the royal family or the aristocracy, he insisted that the younger sons who would eventually inherit the prime positions would be sent to European universities. This would give the sons and nephews a distinct advantage over any other contenders. This amounted to a revolution from above. This was a far cry from the curtain that had been artificially pulled over the Chinese, Japanese, and other Asian monarchies as these well-educated youth were publicly displayed to their subjects. These attempts to keep the leadership more transparent also allowed public criticism as a large segment of the population did not support the modernization promulgated by the monarchy at the turn of the twentieth century. Twentieth Century to Second World War
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Although the twentieth century saw a growth of a military group, Thailand declared its neutrality at the outbreak of World War One in 1914. As the war progressed, the Allied and Entente Powers wanted to swing neutral nations to their side, then by 1917 it was becoming increasingly evident that the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey) were losing. Fearing the consequences of the Allied Powers (particularly England and France) if Thailand had not committed itself, Thailand declared war on the side of the Allied forces in July 1917. Claiming that their involvement was for moral rightness, Thailand really wanted to ensure that England would not move east from Burma and north from Malaya and swallow Thai territory. The government wanted to end extraterritoriality and control full tariff autonomy, both elements to regain Thai sovereignty. King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) had fathered 77 children, but only seven had survived into the next reign. The last absolute monarch, Prajadhipok, who ruled in the 1920s, met a lot of criticism from public opinion. Remember that there was an attempt at increased transparency in the affairs of the monarchy and the promulgation of a budget which was carefully inspected led to increased inspection by the press and the public in general. The 1920s was also the time of involvement by an unknown Vietnamese Communist named Ho Chi Minh who was trying to rile the Viet minority in northeast Siam. A potential battleground pitted Chinese Communists against Nationalists, as well as other Vietnamese, Lao, Cambodian, and Burmese nationalists who were trying to gain independence from their colonial masters. The Siamese pride became apparent because Siam had not come under the colonial control of any outside power. A Siamese intelligentsia working out of Paris and using a relatively free press pushed either for radicalization of the
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government or greater rights for farmers. The majority of the Siamese did not fall under their sway, however. All this changed when Siam was affected by the Great Depression in 1932. Because the nation remained on the gold standard when Great Britain and other nations got off, the rice destined for export was much more expensive and the peasants could not sell their crops. As a consequence, they could not pay their debts and a groundswell of dissatisfaction developed. A coup dtat forced the king (Prajadhipok) to give up his absolute rule in the name of growing nationalism. Now another force developed: militarism. Unlike most others in Siam who came from a variety of social, economic, and tribal/regional backgrounds, the trained military men had a common purpose, understood a hierarchical nature of society, had been educated with a common curriculum, and as a result were much more cohesive than any other group in Siam. In 1935,with the abdication of the king, the majority of the people had no concept of what the terms democracy and constitution meant and several of the leaders guided the growing nationalism, using as examples Mussolini and Hitler. The official name of the country was changed from Siam to Thailand in 1939. This was probably an attempt to give wiggle room to those who feared the consequences of an antiJapanese bias during the Sino-Japanese War which began in earnest in 1937. There was a sizable Chinese minority in Siam and even the name Siam had antecedents in Chinese history. As much of Siams trade was with Japan, there was fear that this trade would disappear. So anti-Chinese became pro-Thai. In a 1940 war between Thailand and French Indochina over control of Laos, the Japanese stepped in to mediate. On 8 December 1941, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese
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troops invaded Thailand, Philippines, American Pacific islands, and Hong Kong. The Japanese had been refused free passage through Thailand to Burma earlier and this was their reaction. In January 1942, Thailand, now a puppet state of Japan, declared war on U.S. and Britain. This lasted until the Japanese military reversals and Thailand then stated that its declaration of war was coerced by Japanese pressure and everything should return as it was just prior to the outbreak of war. Successive Thai governments up to 1948 attempted to appear democratic to garner support from the United States. Leftist and antimonarchist leaders (involved in regicide) were discredited as Thailand became embroiled in Cold War politics. Post World War II Put all this in the international context: anticolonial struggles in the Philippines, French Indochina, Burma, Malaya, India, and Indonesia were accented with the apparent victory of Mao Zedong over the Chinese Nationalists. Thailand attempted to create a good impression and was the first Asian nation to send troops to the Korean Peninsula in 1951. A charter member of the South East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), it was the cornerstone of resistance to Communist conquest: China, North Korea, North Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. As a result, the U.S. increased its reliance on and assistance to Thailand. Thai leaders took advantage of this largesse and used the money which had been advanced to coerce their own people and increasingly tighten state control. The period from 1957 until 1964 was a time of increasing polarization as youth radicalized and the Buddhist monks reacted violently against this trend. Some Thais feared the growing American influence over Thai internal and foreign affairs. In 1962, with the Kennedy combat troop increase in South Vietnam followed by the death of the Thai strongman Thanarat Sarit in 1963, power
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devolved to General Thanom Kittikachorn for the next decade. In March 1964, U.S. Air Force planes were based at Takhli in Nakhon Sawan province and after August (Tonkin Gulf incidents) at Khorat, Udon, and U Tapao. The massive infusion of American money as Airmen and Soldiers demanded all kinds of services eventually became the extremely efficient and luxurious tourist industry of today. The process of Vietnamization of that war scared Thai leaders and, conscious of the several insurgencies supported by Beijing, Thailand in 1973 decided on an accommodation with China because of the impending U.S. pullout from Vietnam. (See, sometimes there are unexpected consequences from foreign policy actions -- or inactions.) The Thai government insisted that the United States pull its military facilities from the interior and Thailand looked north to China for economic, diplomatic, and military support. Unfortunately for Thailand, the victorious Communist government in Vietnam had designs on Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand. Suddenly, the bte noir, the United States, didnt seem so evil. A hostile and very powerful Vietnamese army was on the Thai border and hundreds of thousands of Cambodians and Laotians fled into eastern Thailand. The United States was invited back and relations between the two nations has improved considerably over the past 30 years. Political instability characterized the 1970s led primarily by students who felt that they had been left behind and betrayed. The growing middle class was willing to stabilize the internal conditions and support a loosely hierarchical system of nation, religion, and monarch. King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) who was born in Boston in 1927, came on the throne in 1946 and is still there, loved by most. He functioned as the symbol of stability and his refusal to support various strongmen led directly to their demise. The period since 1975 has been characterized as
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shifting from democracy to an authoritarianism typical of many Third World nations. Typifying the kind of leader developed is Thaksin Shinawatra, a man who became immensely wealthy and then pushed through the political system until he became Prime Minister in 2001. Instituting many populist reforms for the people and using the mantra: Thai Rak Thai (Thai Love Thai), he took advantage of the situation and was able to transfer a lot of money to offshore banks to personal accounts. Eventually he was driven out of power and out of the country, but in the most recent national elections of December 2007, although he was banned from serving in the government, his party regained the upper hand again. Thai-Americans today fear the influence of this man and his party. Current Thai economic conditions are fairly good. Because Thailand is one of the few rice-exporting nations and much of the land is destined for that crop. Thai farmers have also diversified into other cash crops, particularly tapioca, which is now the largest export commodity. Economists do not call them peasants but rather farmers because they are aware both of technological innovations and the world market. Surnames are a twentieth century invention/innovation in Thailand, so individuals are known by their given names, even officials. This is something that we need to observe.
Much of the information for this article came from Thailand: A Short History, 2nd Ed, David K. Wyatt (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003). I also used a series of unclassified government documents and connecting material from multiple foreign policy and diplomatic history texts. 1 The term tone is the intonation of a particular word, whether it is low, high,
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rising, falling, or some other tonal movement. These subtle differences can distinguish between meanings which look alike but sound quite different and thus mean entirely different things.
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