As the powers of Europe started to expand into every corner of the world, few countries
were spared.
Just about every country in the world was either European itself, a European colony,
or had territories occupied by a European power.
Southeast Asia was most certainly no exception to this, as Britain took Myanmar and Malaysia,
France took what was known as Indochina, and the Netherlands took Indonesia… but who
took Thailand?
No one, actually.
Thailand, despite being a prosperous kingdom based on the Chao Phraya River, and thus a
valuable target right in the middle of a bunch of other European colonies, completely escaped
the same fate that befell all its neighbors, so how exactly did they manage to do so?
Well, let’s look at the whole story.
Siam was a kingdom in what is now Thailand.
It‘s essentially just a beta version of modern Thailand.
Siam’s capital was then the fortified trading post of Ayutthaya, a slight ways up the Chao
Phraya River, which had become a major worldwide trading center for centuries.
So much so that archaeologists have even found Roman coins in Ayutthaya!
Ayutthaya was a major trading port city surrounded by small canals, to which it was given the
nickname of the “Venice of the East”.
Not too surprisingly either, by the 17th and 18th centuries, some European powers, like
the French, English and Dutch, were already knocking on Thai shores to establish business
relations, with many of the European powers even building their own factories and settlements
just outside the walls of Ayutthaya.
At the end of the Burmese-Siamese War however, Burmese forces besieged Ayutthaya, completely
ending the Ayutthaya Kingdom.
A few years later, the Thonburi Kingdom would rise from the ashes, moving the capital down
the Chao Phraya River to Thonburi Si Mahasamut and… quickly fall barely 15 years later.
But then the Rattanakosin Kingdom emerged and moved the capital again, this time just
across the River to a village [bang] in the middle of a bunch of plum trees [makok], and
named it…
Krungthep mahanakhon bowon rattanakosin burirom…
I’m just kidding, I’m not saying that, just know that I’m talking about Bangkok.
The reason Bangkok was established on the eastern side of the Chao Phraya River, by
the way, was to at least help protect against another Burmese invasion.
Nevertheless, the new Rattanakosin Kingdom of Siam knew very well what kind of pressure
it would soon be under with nearby France and Britain.
Under King Mongkut (Rama IV) and Chulalongkorn (Rama V), the country started to westernize
itself.
The kings would make deals with some of the European powers, as was the case with the
Bowring Treaty, where King Mongkut and Hong Kong Governor John Bowring agreed to trade
conditions between Thailand and Britain, and also later signed similar deals with Prussia
and Austria-Hungary, integrating Siam into the world marketplace.
King Chulalongkorn also received a fully western education, and promised to gradually abolish
slavery.
During this time, Siam’s infrastructure was also built up with the help of many different
western powers, notably in the German railways, leading up to a Dutch central station, selling
newspapers published with help from the US.
In 1896, the British and French also agreed to basically leave Siam alone as a kind of
buffer state.
Despite this, Siam also lost a lot of its territory in some following disputes with
France and Britain.
Siam lost part of modern Cambodia in 1867 to the French, then a little bit of Laos in
1888, followed by most of the rest of Laos in the Franco-Siamese War in 1893, as well
as the Shan states falling to British Burma in the same year, then the rest of Laos was
ceded in 1904, followed by the rest of Cambodia in 1907, and finally some parts of what would
become Malaysia in 1909.
After all this, Siam was starting to look a lot like Thailand does today, with its final
borders cemented around 1910.
During WWI, Siam declared war against the Central Powers, partially to gain favor of
the British and French, and also probably because that was turning out to be the winning
side.
This didn’t happen until 1917, after all.
After the war, the king became very popular, but then his extravagant lifestyle became
clear to the people, and that combined with other tensions resulted in a revolution that
ended absolute monarchy in 1932.
It actually wasn’t that violent, it was a bloodless revolution.
Thailand of course still has a monarchy, run by the same dynasty as all the kings we just
talked about, just as a constitutional monarchy.
However, in WWII, Thailand initially declared neutrality for the first few years, but Japan
invaded just a few hours after attacking Pearl Harbor on a date that will live in infamy.
When people say Thailand was never colonized, they are often tempted to bring up Japanese
occupation during WWII, but when Japan invaded, Thailand actually sided with the Japanese,
against the Allies.
What Japan really wanted from Thailand was passage from the freshly conquered French
Indochina to British-controlled Burma and Malaya, which Thai Field Marshal Phibun took
opportunity of.
Thailand even regained some of the territories it had recently lost, but of course, those
of us from beyond 2000 know how the war went for Japan.
While Japan unconditionally surrendered, Regent Pridi Banomyong declared Field Marshal Phibun’s
declaration of war null and void, basically meaning that Thailand was suddenly never at
war with the Allies.
Nonetheless, once peace was declared, all the Allied powers got their share of demands;
France demanded the territories in Indochina that Thailand had seized, Britain dwmanded
reparations in the form of rice shipments to Malaya, and the USSR a repeal of previously
passed anti-Communist legislature.
So yeah, Thailand basically escaped colonialism by essentially wiggling its way through reforms,
trade deals, and armistice agreements.
Sure, Thailand has been occupied a couple times, but it was ultimately never truly colonized.
It was settled by foreign powers, had a lot of land taken from it, and effectively made
a puppet state, but never technically colonized, putting it in more or less an exclusive club
that only really includes itself, the Koreas, Japan, and kind of also Liberia and Ethiopia,
as countries that have never been colonized by European powers.
Thanks as always for watching.
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