The borders of Indochina in 1824

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 then called. Lanna also became free of Burmese occupation, but the king of a new dynasty who was installed in the 1790s was effectively a tributary ruler of the Chakri monarch.

The heirs of Rama I became increasingly concerned with the threat of European colonialism after British victories in neighboring 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 Mongkut (1804-1868), and his son King Chulalongkorn (1853-1910), 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 since 1939 (although the name was reverted to Siam during 1945

Siamese embassy to Louis XIV in 1686, by Jacques Vigouroux Duplessis

Ayutthaya in the 17th century

The city of Ayutthaya was located on a small island, encircled by three rivers. Due to its superior location, Ayutthaya quickly became powerful, politically and economically. Ayutthaya had different, various names ranging from ‘Ayothaya’, derived from Ayodhya, an Indian holy city,’Krung Thep’, ‘Phra Nakorn’ and ‘Dvaravati’.

The first ruler of the Kingdom of Ayutthaya, King Ramathibodi I (ruled 1351 to 1369), made two important contributions to Thai history: the establishment and promotion of Theravada Buddhism as the official religion

The ruins of Wat Mahathat, Sukhothai Historical Park

Thai city-states gradually became independent from the weaker Khmer Empire. It is said that Sukhothai was established as a sovereign, strong kingdom by Pho Khun Si Indrathit in 1238 AD. A political feature called by ‘classic’ Thai historians as, ‘father governs children’ existed at this time. Everybody could bring their problems to the king directly; as there was a bell in front of the palace for this purpose. The city briefly dominated the area under King Ramkhamhaeng, who established the Thai alphabet, but after his death in 1365 it fell into decline and became subject to another emerging Thai state: the Ayutthaya kingdom in the lower Chao Phraya area.

Another Thai state that coexisted with Sukhothai was the northern state of Lanna, centred in Chiang Mai. King Phya Mangrai was its founder. This city-state emerged in the same period as Sukhothai. Evidently Lanna became closely allied with Sukhothai. After the Ayutthaya kingdom had emerged and expanded its influence from the Chao Phraya valley, Sukhothai was finally subdued. Fierce battles between Lanna and Ayutthaya also constantly took place and Chiang Mai was eventually subjugated, becoming Ayutthaya’s ‘vassal’.

Lanna’s independent history ended in 1558, when it finally fell to the Burmese; thereafter it was dominated by Burma until the late eighteenth century. Local leaders then rose up against the Burmese with the help of the rising Thai kingdom of Thonburi of king Taksin. The ‘Northern City-States’ then became vassals of the lower Thai kingdoms of Thonburi and Bangkok. In the early twentieth century they were annexed and became part of modern Siam, the country now called Thailand.

From about the tenth century to the fourteenth century Thailand was known through archeological findings and a number of local legends. The period saw the Khmer domination over a large portion of Chao Phraya basin and the Isan. The expansion of Tai people and culture southwards also happened during the classical era.

Lavo

Wat Phra Prang Sam Yod in Lopburi

Around the tenth century, the city-states of Dvaravati coalesced into two mandalas

Prior to the arrival of the Tai people and culture into what is now Thailand, the region had hosted a number of indigenous Mon-Khmer and Malay civilizations. Yet few are known about Thailand before the thirteenth century as the literary and concrete sources are scarce and most of the knowledge come from archeological evidences and assumptions.
Dvaravati
Main article: Dvaravati
A 13 meter long reclining Buddha, Nakhon Ratchasima

The Chao Phraya valley in what is now Central Thailand had once been the home of Mon Dvaravati culture, which prevailed from the 7th century to the 10th century.[1] The existence of the civilizations had long been forgotten by the Thai when Samuel Beal discovered the polity among the Chinese writings on Southeast Asia as