History of Thailand

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is part of the History of Thailand series

Early history of Thailand
Sukhothai Kingdom (1238 - 1438)
Ayutthaya Kingdom (1350 - 1767)
* History of Thailand:
1768–1932
1932–1973
1973–
* Regional History:
Dvaravati
Srivijaya (3rd century -1400)
Hariphunchai
Lanna
Nakhon Si Thammarat
History of Isan
[edit this box]

The history of Thailand begins with the migration of the Thais from their ancestoral home in southern China into mainland southeast asia around the 10th century AD. Prior to this Mon, Khmer and Malay kingdoms ruled the region. The Thais established their own states starting with Sukhothai and then Ayutthaya kingdom. These states fought each other and were under constant threat from the Khmers, Burma and Vietnam. Much later, the European colonial powers threatened in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but Thailand survived as the only Southeast Asian state to avoid colonial rule. After the end of the absolute monarchy in 1932, Thailand endured sixty years of almost permanent military rule before the establishment of a democratic system.

1 Sukhothai and Lannathai
2 Ayutthaya
3 Thornburi and Bangkok period
4 Military rule
5 Democracy
6 See also
7 References

[edit] Sukhothai and Lannathai

Main article: Sukhothai kingdom

Main article: Lannathai

Thais date the founding of their nation to the 13th century. According to tradition, Thai chieftains gained independence from the Khmer Empire at Sukhothai, which was established as a sovereign Kingdom by Pho Khun Si Indrathit in 1238. The political feature, in Thai, we called 'father governs children' where everybody could recognise their problems to the king directly; there was a bell in front of the palace for this purpose. The city briefly dominated the area of under King Ramkhamhaeng who established the Thai alphabet, but after his death it fell into decline and became subject to another emerging Thai state know as the Ayutthaya kingdom in 1365, which dominated southern and central Thailand until the 1700s.

Another Thai state that coexisted with Sukhothai was the northern state of Lanna. This state emerged in the same period as Sukhothai, but survived longer. Its independent history ended in 1558, when it fell to the Burmese; thereafter it was dominated by Burma and Ayutthaya in turn before falling to the army of the Siamese King Taksin in 1775.

[edit] Ayutthaya

Main article: Ayutthaya kingdom

The first ruler of the Kingdom of Ayutthaya, King Ramathibodi I, made two important contributions to Thai history: the establishment and promotion of Theravada Buddhism as the official religion - to differentiate his kingdom from the neighbouring Hindu kingdom of Angkor - and the compilation of the Dharmashastra, a legal code based on Hindu sources and traditional Thai custom. The Dharmashastra remained a tool of Thai law until late in the 19th century. Beginning with the Portuguese in the 16th century, Ayutthaya had some contact with the West, but until the 1800s, its relations with neighbouring nations as well as with India and China, were of primary importance. Ayutthaya dominated a considerable area, ranging from the Islamic states on the Malay Peninsula to states in northern Thailand. Nonetheless, the Burmese, who had control of Lanna and had also unified their kingdom under a powerful dynasty, launched several invasion attempts in the 1750s and 1760s. Finally, in 1767, the Burmese attacked the city and conquered it. The royal family fled the city where the king died of starvation ten days later. The Ayutthaya royal line had been extinguished.There is overall 33 kings in this period, including an unofficial.

There were 5 dynasties during Ayutthaya period:

1.Eu Thong Dynasty which consisting of 3 kings
2.Suphanabhumi Dynasty consisting of 13 kings
3.Sukhothai Dynasty consisting of 7 kings
4.Prasart Thong (Golden Tower) Dynasty consisting of 4 kings
5.Bann Plu Dynasty consisting of 6 kings

[edit] Thornburi and Bangkok period

Main article: History of Thailand (1768-1932)

After more than 400 years of power, in 1767, the Kingdom of Ayutthaya was brought down by invading Burmese armies, its capital burned, and the territory split. General Taksin managed to reunite the Thai kingdom from his new capital of Thonburi and declared himself king in 1769. However, Taksin allegedly became mad, and he was deposed, taken prisoner, and executed in 1782. General Chakri succeeded him in 1782 as Rama I, the first king of the Chakri dynasty. In the same year he founded the new capital city at Bangkok, across the Chao Phraya river from Thonburi, Taksin's capital. In the 1790s Burma was defeated and driven out of Siam, as it was now called. Lanna also became free of Burmese occupation, but the king of a new dynasty was installed in the 1790s was effectively a puppet ruler of the Chakri monarch.

The heirs of Rama I became increasingly concerned with the threat of European colonialism after British victories in neighbouring Burma in 1826. The first Thai recognition of Western power in the region was the Treaty of Amity and Commerce with the United Kingdom in 1826. In 1833, the United States began diplomatic exchanges with Siam, as Thailand was called until 1939, and again between 1945 and 1949. However, it was during the later reigns of King Chulalongkorn, and his father King Mongkut, that Thailand established firm rapprochement with Western powers. It is a widely held view in Thailand that the diplomatic skills of these monarchs, combined with the modernising reforms of the Thai Government, made Siam the only country in South and Southeast Asia to avoid European colonisation. This is reflected in the country's modern name, Prathet Thai or Thai-land, used unofficially between 1939 and 1945 and officially declared on May 11, 1949, in which prathet means "nation" and thai means "free".

The Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909 made the modern border between Siam and British Malaya by securing the Thai authority on the provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and Satun, which were previously part of the semi-independent Malay sultanates of Pattani and Kedah. A series of treaties with France fixed the country's current eastern border with Laos and Cambodia.

[edit] Military rule

Main article: History of Thailand (1932-1973)

The Siamese coup d'état of 1932 transformed the Government of Thailand from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy. King Prajadhipok initially accepted this change but later surrendered the throne to his ten-year old nephew, Ananda Mahidol. Upon his abdication, King Prajadhipok said that the duty of a ruler was to reign for the good of the whole people, not for a select few. King Ananda Mahidol (Rama VIII) died in 1946 under somewhat mysterious circumstances, the official explanation being that he shot himself by accident while cleaning his gun. He was succeeded by his brother Bhumibol Adulyadej, the longest reigning king of Thailand, and very popular with the Thais. Although nominally a constitutional monarchy, Thailand was ruled by a series of military governments, most prominently led by Luang Phibunsongkhram and Sarit Dhanarajata, interspersed with brief periods of democracy. In 1992 the last military ruler, Suchinda Kraprayoon, gave up power in the face of massive popular protests, supported by the king. From 1992 to September 2006, Thailand was a functioning democracy with constitutional changes of government. However, in September 2006 a coup removed the controversial government led by the billionaire Thaksin, and the country has been run by the military since.

In early January 1941, Thailand invaded French Indochina, beginning the French-Thai War. The Thais were better equipped than, and outnumbered, the French forces, easily taking Laos. The French decisively won the naval Battle of Koh Chang.

The Japanese mediated the conflict, and a general armistice was declared on January 28. On May 9 a peace treaty was signed in Tokyo, with the French being coerced by the Japanese into relinquishing its hold on the disputed territories.

After the end of World War II, Prime Minister Pridi Phanomyong agreed to return the captured territories to France, as a condition for admission to the newly created United Nations.

On December 8, 1941, a few hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan demanded the right to move troops across Thailand to the Malayan frontier. Japan invaded the country and engaged the Thai army for six to eight hours before Phibun ordered an armistice. Shortly thereafter Japan was granted free passage, and on December 21, 1941, Thailand and Japan signed a military alliance with a secret protocol wherein Tokyo agreed to help Thailand get back territories lost to the British and French colonial powers and Thailand undertook to assist Japan in her war against the Allies.

After Japan's defeat in 1945, with the help of a group of Thais known as Seri Thai who were supported by the United States, Thailand was treated as a defeated country by the British and French, although American support mitigated the Allied terms. Thailand was not occupied by the Allies, but it was forced to return the territory it had gained to the British and the French. In the post-war period Thailand enjoyed close relations with the United States, which it saw as a protector from the communist revolutions in neighbouring countries.

Recently, Thailand also has been an active member in the regional Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), especially after democratic rule was restored in 1992.

[edit] Democracy

Main article: History of Thailand since 1973

This section documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.

The post-1973 has been marked by a struggle to define the political contours of the state. It was won by the King and General Prem Tinsulanonda, who favoured a democratic constitutional order.

The post-1973 years has seen a difficult and sometimes bloody transition from military to civilian rule, with several reversals along the way. The revolution of 1973 inaugurated a brief, unstable period of democracy, with military rule being reimposed after a bloody right-wing coup in 1976. For most of the 1980s, Thailand was ruled by Prem, a democratically-inclined strongman who restored parliamentary politics. Thereafter the country remained a democracy apart from a brief period of military rule from 1991 to 1992. The populist Thai Rak Thai party, led by prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, governed since 2001.

On September 19, 2006, with the prime minister in New York for a meeting of the UN, Army Commander-in-Chief Lieutenant General Sonthi Boonyaratglin launched a successful coup 'd'etat.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

Thongchai Winichakul. Siam Mapped. University of Hawaii Press, 1984. ISBN 0-8248-1974-8
Wyatt, David. Thailand: A Short History (2nd edition). Yale University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-300-08475-7