Take a trip to Thailand

• History of Thailand
• Thailand politics
• Economy of Thailand
• Culture of Thailand

History of Thailand The history of Thailand begins with the Thai Government, made Siam the only country migration of the Thais from their ancestoral in South and Southeast Asia to avoid European home in southern China into mainland colonisation. This is reflected in the southeast asia around the 10th century AD. country's modern name, Prathet Thai or Prior to this Mon, Khmer and Malay kingdoms Thai-land, used unofficially between 1939 and ruled the region. The Thais established their 1945 and officially declared on May 11, 1949, own states starting with Sukhothai and then in which prathet means "nation" and thai Ayutthaya kingdom. These states fought each means  "free". other and were under constant threat from the Khmers, Burma and Vietnam. Much later, the The Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909 made the European colonial powers threatened in the modern border between Siam and British Malaya 19th and early 20th centuries, but Thailand by securing the Thai authority on the survived as the only Southeast Asian state to provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and avoid colonial rule. After the end of the Satun, which were previously part of the absolute monarchy in 1932, Thailand endured semi-independent Malay sultanates of Pattani sixty years of almost permanent military rule and Kedah. A series of treaties with France before the establishment of a democratic fixed the country's current eastern border system. with  Laos  and  Cambodia. Sukhothai  and  Lannathai Military  rule Thais date the founding of their nation to The Siamese coup d'état of 1932 the 13th century. According to tradition, transformed the Government of Thailand from Thai chieftains gained independence from the an absolute to a constitutional monarchy. Khmer Empire at Sukhothai, which was King Prajadhipok initially accepted this established as a sovereign Kingdom by Pho change but later surrendered the throne to Khun Si Indrathit in 1238. A political his ten-year old nephew, Ananda Mahidol. Upon feature called, in Thai, 'father governs his abdication, King Prajadhipok said that children' existed at this time. Everybody the duty of a ruler was to reign for the good could bring their problems to the king of the whole people, not for a select few. directly; there was a bell in front of the King Ananda Mahidol (Rama VIII) died in 1946 palace for this purpose. The city briefly under somewhat mysterious circumstances, the dominated the area under King Ramkhamhaeng, official explanation being that he shot who established the Thai alphabet, but after himself by accident while cleaning his gun. his death in 1365 it fell into decline and He was succeeded by his brother Bhumibol became subject to another emerging Thai state Adulyadej, the longest reigning king of known as the Ayutthaya kingdom, which Thailand, and very popular with the Thais. dominated southern and central Thailand until Although nominally a constitutional monarchy, the  1700s. Thailand was ruled by a series of military governments, most prominently led by Luang Another Thai state that coexisted with Phibunsongkhram and Sarit Dhanarajata, Sukhothai was the northern state of Lanna. interspersed with brief periods of democracy. This state emerged in the same period as In 1992 the last military ruler, Suchinda Sukhothai, but survived longer. Its Kraprayoon, gave up power in the face of independent history ended in 1558, when it massive popular protests, supported by the fell to the Burmese; thereafter it was king. From 1992 to September 2006, Thailand dominated by Burma and Ayutthaya in turn was a functioning democracy with before falling to the army of the Siamese constitutional changes of government. King  Taksin  in  1775. However, in September 2006 a coup removed the controversial government led by the Ayutthaya billionaire Thaksin, and the country has been run  by  the  military  since. The first ruler of the Kingdom of Ayutthaya, King Ramathibodi I, made two important In early January 1941, Thailand invaded contributions to Thai history: the French Indochina, beginning the French-Thai establishment and promotion of Theravada War. The Thais were better equipped than, and Buddhism as the official religion - to outnumbered, the French forces, easily taking differentiate his kingdom from the Laos. The French decisively won the naval neighbouring Hindu kingdom of Angkor - and Battle  of  Koh  Chang. the compilation of the Dharmashastra, a legal code based on Hindu sources and traditional The Japanese mediated the conflict, and a Thai custom. The Dharmashastra remained a general armistice was declared on January 28. tool of Thai law until late in the 19th On May 9 a peace treaty was signed in Tokyo, century. Beginning with the Portuguese in the with the French being coerced by the Japanese 16th century, Ayutthaya had some contact with into relinquishing its hold on the disputed the West, but until the 1800s, its relations territories. with neighbouring nations as well as with India and China, were of primary importance. After the end of World War II, Prime Minister Ayutthaya dominated a considerable area, Pridi Phanomyong agreed to return the ranging from the Islamic states on the Malay captured territories to France, as a Peninsula to states in northern Thailand. condition for admission to the newly created Nonetheless, the Burmese, who had control of United  Nations. Lanna and had also unified their kingdom under a powerful dynasty, launched several On December 8, 1941, a few hours after the invasion attempts in the 1750s and 1760s. attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan demanded the Finally, in 1767, the Burmese attacked the right to move troops across Thailand to the city and conquered it. The royal family fled Malayan frontier. Japan invaded the country the city where the king died of starvation and engaged the Thai army for six to eight ten days later. The Ayutthaya royal line had hours before Phibun ordered an armistice. been extinguished. Overall there are 33 kings Shortly thereafter Japan was granted free in this period, including an unofficial king. passage, and on December 21, 1941, Thailand and Japan signed a military alliance with a There were 5 dynasties during Ayutthaya secret protocol wherein Tokyo agreed to help period: Thailand get back territories lost to the British and French colonial powers and 1.Eu Thong Dynasty which consisting of 3 Thailand undertook to assist Japan in her war kings against  the  Allies. 2.Suphanabhumi Dynasty consisting of 13 kings 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 3.Sukhothai  Dynasty  consisting  of 7 kings was treated as a defeated country by the British and French, although American support 4.Prasart Thong (Golden Tower) Dynasty mitigated the Allied terms. Thailand was not consisting  of  4  kings occupied by the Allies, but it was forced to return the territory it had gained to the 5.Bann  Plu  Dynasty  consisting  of 6 kings British and the French. In the post-war period Thailand enjoyed close relations with Thornburi  and  Bangkok  period the United States, which it saw as a protector from the communist revolutions in After more than 400 years of power, in 1767, neighbouring  countries. the Kingdom of Ayutthaya was brought down by invading Burmese armies, its capital burned, Recently, Thailand also has been an active and the territory split. General Taksin member in the regional Association of managed to reunite the Thai kingdom from his Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), especially new capital of Thonburi and declared himself after  democratic  rule was restored in 1992. king in 1769. However, Taksin allegedly became mad, and he was deposed, taken Democracy prisoner, and executed in 1782. General Chakri succeeded him in 1782 as Rama I, the The post-1973 has been marked by a struggle first king of the Chakri dynasty. In the same to define the political contours of the year he founded the new capital city at state. It was won by the King and General Bangkok, across the Chao Phraya river from Prem Tinsulanonda, who favoured a democratic Thonburi, Taksin's capital. In the 1790s constitutional  order. Burma was defeated and driven out of Siam, as it was now called. Lanna also became free of The post-1973 years has seen a difficult and Burmese occupation, but the king of a new sometimes bloody transition from military to dynasty was installed in the 1790s was civilian rule, with several reversals along effectively a puppet ruler of the Chakri the way. The revolution of 1973 inaugurated a monarch. brief, unstable period of democracy, with military rule being reimposed after a bloody The heirs of Rama I became increasingly right-wing coup in 1976. For most of the concerned with the threat of European 1980s, Thailand was ruled by Prem, a colonialism after British victories in democratically-inclined strongman who neighbouring Burma in 1826. The first Thai restored parliamentary politics. Thereafter recognition of Western power in the region the country remained a democracy apart from a was the Treaty of Amity and Commerce with the brief period of military rule from 1991 to United Kingdom in 1826. In 1833, the United 1992. The populist Thai Rak Thai party, led States began diplomatic exchanges with Siam, by prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, as Thailand was called until 1939, and again governed  since  2001. between 1945 and 1949. However, it was during the later reigns of King Chulalongkorn, and On September 19, 2006, with the prime his father King Mongkut, that Thailand minister in New York for a meeting of the UN, established firm rapprochement with Western Army Commander-in-Chief Lieutenant General powers. It is a widely held view in Thailand Sonthi Boonyaratglin launched a successful that the diplomatic skills of these monarchs, coup d'état. combined with the modernising reforms of the 1 A B C D 58 59 60 61 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108