History of Thailand

The excavations in several archaeological sites in Thailand have revealed the presence of prehistoric civilizations dating from 10000 to 2000 BC. From the beginning of the first century, Mon-Khmer kingdoms were formed and occupied parts of Asias Southeast. The Khmer eventually control the entire region. By the mid-thirteenth century, under pressure from Mongol conquerors who controlled China, the Thai left the high valleys of Yunnan Chinese and settled in South-East Asia where they prospered on the sidelines of the two principalities Mon-Khmer present-day Thailand . These are the Khmer who called Syams (meaning "swarthy"), the first Thai immigrants from China .

In the nineteenth century, Siam opened to European influence and adopted the market economy and modern technology. Threatened by the ambitions British and French colonialists, the country lost territories in Laos , Cambodia and Malaysia . While Vietnam (Tonkin, Annam and Cochin) became a protectorate French, the Kingdom of Siam preserve its independence, thanks largely to the work of Rama V (1868-1910), who knew how taking advantage of the rivalry between the Powers Colonial, even at the cost of the recognition of French protectorates on Cambodia and Laos (1867), then English on the Malay sultanate (1874). The king encouraged Chinese immigration and appealed to the Western expertise to reorganize the administration and build a railway network. In fact, Thailand remained the only country in the Southeast Asia that has not been colonized. Indeed, while Burma had remained the exclusive preserve of the British, Vietnam , Cambodia and "on" Laos fell under French domination.

Between 1896 and 1898, the Thai government created a department of the Royal Forestry and decreed that any territory "unoccupied" belonged to the crown. However, the "unoccupied" territories in the north were actually inhabited by various ethnic groups mountain, which, in some cases, lived here for many generations
Thai. These are the Khmer who called Syams (meaning "swarthy"), the first Thai immigrants from China .

In terms of domestic politics, until 1973, coups d'état succeeded each other, but did not changed the nature of the political frozen in inaction. However, the country underwent profound socio-economic changes, which resulted in the emergence of an urban and rural proletariat. In 1979, Thailand had to cope with the influx of thousands of refugees from Cambodia and Laos as well as Vietnamese military ambitions on its border. During ten years, Thailand had to deploy an intense diplomatic activity aimed at reducing Vietnam .

The coups d'état continued, and in 1992 the king intervened to impose a government more respectful of democracy. Thailand has joined in 1993 the Asian Free Trade of ANSEAN (Nations Association of South East Asian Nations). In 1995, Chuan Leekpai, the leader of the Democratic Party, took over as head of government. Prime Minister until 1995, he returned to power in 1997 during the country's economic collapse.

The Kingdom of Siam

At the end of the twelth century, the Thai asserted sovereignty of Khmer and flourished under the authority of the Fort Rama : they founded a Thai state - the Kingdom of Siam - allied with the Malay Empire. The Thai society was then organized into nation Siam . For Mongolians, the Thais had borrowed the administrative and social; the Khmer, religion, Buddhism Sinhalese, and cursive writing. This was the era of Sukhothai (1220-1349), and then that of Ayuthya (1350-1767); kings of Ayuthya (then the capital) adopted the customs cambodian and established laws based on the Hindu tradition. At its peak, the Kingdom of Siam controlled not only the current Thailand , but also in territory today in Burma , and he was one of the most powerful states of Southeast Asia . But the kings of Ayuthya reigned at the cost of many wars fairly uneven results with neighbouring countries, including Burma and Cambodia . Thus, in 1563, Ayuthya, capital of the kingdom Siam , was conquered by the Burmese (1563), who imposed their guardianship for fifteen years and anéantirent and a large part of the cultural heritage of Thais.

From the sixteenth century Europeans, primarily the Portuguese, then the Dutch and the English visited Siam (the old name for Thailand ). The country had to resist referred Portuguese, Dutch and British. King Phra Narai (1657-1688) sought the alliance of France . In 1687, a squadron of six French ships went to Bangkok to fortify the city, but France failed in its attempt to implantation, the death of Phra Narai by ensuring that the troops of Louis XIV to retreat on the French Indies. Linguists say that the Thai King Phra Narai was the defining moment of the Thai language (or Siamese). It was at this time that the variety of Thai central (or Siamese) became the lingua franca used by government officials, academics, business, and so on. The Thai Siamese served as a standard from which all other varieties of Thai were compared. It was during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries of Portuguese and Spanish missionaries introduced Christianity to Siam . Their success was modest because the Christian community in Thailand still remained small. In the late twentieth century, there are about 260000 Catholics in the country, and is among the smallest in Asia .

During the first half of the eighteenth century, Siam had to cope with the Vietnamese and Burmese armies. In 1758, Burma attacked the town of Ayuthya which was razed in April 1767. Thousands of people were deported to Burma while the survivors retreated to the south. But the Kingdom of Siam was freed and restored by the General Phya Tak (or Taksin) who became proclaimed king. Taking advantage of the weakening of the Vietnamese, he annexed the kingdom Vientiane Lao and strengthened its positions in Cambodia . In 1782, Phya Tak was executed after being dethroned by General Chakri. Thereafter, Rama I (1782-1809) imposed a new dynasty and founded Bangkok as its capital. Buddhism remained the state religion.

Modern History

In 1932, a coup d'état engineered by senior military and administration instituted a system of constitutional monarchy and parliamentary instead of the absolute monarchy. For several years, the country was dominated by the armed forces. In 1938, Phibun Songkram, the government leader gave the country the name of Thailand, whose Siamese Thai translation means "land of the free", thus explaining the pride of the people they have never been colonized. Japan became the principal supplier of the kingdom; treaties of friendship (1940) and alliance (1941) were signed between the two countries, but the Sino-Soviet expansionism and the decolonization of Indochina enabled Thailand to blind us to its alliance with Japan . On December 15, 1946, Thailand was admitted to join the United Nations (UN), becoming its 55th member.

Since1962, the Americans won the right to station troops on the ground in Thailand and to open military bases. In 1969, there were about 49000 American soldiers in Thailand , including 36000 in aviation, 10000 in the Army and around 1000 military advisers. From that time, the Thai language was strongly influenced by American English, especially in the field of science and technology, but also in trade and business.

The city of Bangkok built international hotels, large shopping malls, as well as activities related to sex tourism, with the arrival of Nightclubs, discos and massage parlors. If the first clients were American soldiers on leave, it's an international clientele, from the 1970's, replaced by the development of mass tourism. To meet growing demand for the use of the English language has grown considerably. In order to attract foreign customers, it is no longer rare to see nowadays advertisements written in that language in the streets of Bangkok and Pattaya.

With the new Constitution of 1997, Thailand seems to have finally broken with the political instability in favour of an institutional framework that meets the requirements of more democratic game. In March 2000, the country was another step on the road to democratization, with the election for the first time in their history, the 200-member Senate, previously appointed by the head of government. This election also resulted in the entry of militants in the Senate for human rights and social rights, academics and other independent candidates.

On 19 September 2006 the Royal Thai Army staged a coup and ousted prime minister Thaksin, it was a peaceful event with no violence, on December 23 2007 democratic elections were held