A short history of Thailand: from the first kingdom to the present day
The only country in Southeast Asia never to be colonised. Eight centuries from Sukhothai to Bangkok, why Siam became Thailand, and how the fishing village of Pattaya turned into a city in sixty years.
It is worth knowing at least the outline of the history of the country you live in — if only to understand why things are arranged the way they are. Especially if you plan to stay.
Eight centuries in one article — no dates for the sake of dates, only what explains the present.
Before Thailand: Mon, Khmer and the Bronze Age
Thai statehood is about seven hundred years old, but people lived here thousands of years before that.
At Ban Chiang in the north-east, archaeologists found a settlement some three and a half thousand years old, with pottery, burials and bronze objects. The find changed how the region is understood: metallurgy here was practised in ordinary villages, without cities or armies. Ban Chiang has been a UNESCO site since 1992.
Later these lands were home to the Mon and the Khmer. From the sixth to the thirteenth century much of the territory lay under the influence of the Khmer Empire, whose capital was Angkor — the one in present-day Cambodia. The Khmer legacy is still visible: in temple architecture, in the Thai language, in court ceremony.
Sukhothai: the first kingdom, 1238
Thai peoples came to these lands from the north and lived for a long time under Khmer rule. In 1238 two local rulers rebelled and founded a kingdom of their own with its capital at Sukhothai — the name means "dawn of happiness".
The kingdom lasted two centuries. Under King Ramkhamhaeng the Thai alphabet appeared, and Theravada Buddhism became the foundation of public life — as it remains today.
Sukhothai gradually weakened and by 1438 had submitted to a new centre of power to the south.
Ayutthaya: four centuries of splendour, 1351–1767
Ayutthaya was founded in 1351 and grew into one of the largest cities in the world of its time. Trade passed through it from China, India, Persia, Portugal, the Netherlands and France. European envoys described it as the richest city they had seen.
Four hundred years, thirty-three kings — and a sudden end. In 1767, after a long siege, the Burmese army took Ayutthaya and burned it to the ground. The city was never rebuilt: the ruins are open to visitors today and listed by UNESCO.
Thonburi: fifteen years of General Taksin, 1767–1782
The country fell apart. General Taksin put it back together — within a few years he had reclaimed the territories and founded a new capital at Thonburi, on the western bank of the Chao Phraya.
He ruled for fifteen years and it ended badly: he was removed from power and executed. His place was taken by the military commander Chakri.
Bangkok and the Chakri dynasty: 1782 to today
In 1782 Chakri — King Rama I — moved the capital to the opposite bank of the river, to Bangkok. The dynasty he founded still rules Thailand; the present king, Rama X, is the tenth.
He also built the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the country's holiest site. The Buddha image is just 66 centimetres tall, carved from a single block of jade, and three times a year the king personally changes its robes according to the season. Both remain open to visitors and are still the first stop for anyone arriving in the country.
Bangkok's full ceremonial name in Thai runs to 168 letters and is listed in the record books as the longest place name in the world. Thais themselves use the shorter Krung Thep, "city of angels".
How Thailand avoided colonisation
By the middle of the nineteenth century the whole of Southeast Asia had been divided among the European powers. Britain took Burma and Malaya, France took Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, the Netherlands took Indonesia.
Siam remained the only country in the region that never became a colony. That was neither an accident nor luck.
Two kings steered the country between two empires. Rama IV — the king of "Anna and the King" — opened the country to trade and signed treaties with the West. His son Rama V, Chulalongkorn, who reigned from 1868 to 1910, carried out reforms that made Siam resemble a European state: ministries, a regular army, railways, electricity, a modern judiciary.
He also abolished slavery — gradually, over thirty years, so as not to wreck the economy: he began in 1874 and completed it with the act of 1905.
Independence came at a territorial price. France received the lands east of the Mekong (1893) and part of Cambodia including Battambang and Siem Reap (1906). Britain received four Malay sultanates under the treaty of 1909.
In exchange Siam kept its sovereignty. That remains a point of national pride — and it is also why there was never a European administration here, never European landholding, and never colonial privileges for foreigners.
This, incidentally, is where the roots of today's restrictions lie: a foreigner in Thailand cannot own land, only an apartment in a condominium. A country that spent centuries fending off outside influence is particularly careful about land.
1932: the end of absolute monarchy
The revolution of 1932 was almost bloodless. A group of officers and officials educated in Europe demanded a constitution — and King Rama VII agreed.
Absolute monarchy ended and a constitutional one began. The rest of the twentieth century was turbulent: during the reign of the next king the country went through ten coups and seventeen constitutions.
1939: Siam becomes Thailand
The country was called Siam. In 1939 it was renamed Thailand — "Prathet Thai", meaning "land of the free".
The name underlined exactly the point above: the only free country in the region.
The Second World War: fought on both sides at once
On 8 December 1941 Japanese troops entered Thailand. Resistance lasted a few hours, after which the government agreed to let the Japanese army pass through towards Malaya and Burma. On 21 December an alliance pact was signed and 150,000 Japanese soldiers were stationed in the country.
On 25 January 1942 Thailand declared war on Britain and the United States. And then came the move that shaped much of what followed:
The Thai ambassador in Washington refused to deliver the declaration of war. Formally, the United States never recognised Thailand as a belligerent.
At the same time the Free Thai movement was operating inside the country — some ninety thousand people running intelligence and sabotage against the Japanese, with American support. The country was simultaneously an ally of Japan and working underground against it.
The gamble paid off. Thailand escaped serious punishment after the war: in 1946 it returned the territories it had annexed, joined the United Nations and received American aid.
The same principle as a century earlier under Rama V — flexibility instead of direct confrontation. Here they call it bamboo diplomacy: it bends in the wind but does not break.
Rama IX: seventy years on the throne, 1946–2016
King Bhumibol Adulyadej came to the throne in 1946 and reigned for seventy years — longer than any monarch in Thai history and one of the longest reigns in world history.
Under him the country moved from an agrarian periphery to an industrial economy. His portraits still hang in homes, shops and offices across the country, and the memory of him shapes how Thais regard the monarchy as a whole.
In 2016 his son, Rama X, Maha Vajiralongkorn, came to the throne.
Pattaya: from village to city in sixty years
The history of our own city is the shortest in this article, and all of it fits within a single lifetime.
Until the 1960s Pattaya was a fishing village. A few dozen houses, boats, and a beach with nobody on it.
On 29 April 1961 the first group of American servicemen arrived here on leave — about a hundred men. The Vietnam War was under way, American bases stood in Thailand, and Pattaya happened to be the nearest decent beach. At the peak, tens of thousands of servicemen came here on R&R every year.
After that it ran on its own: the soldiers brought hotels, the hotels brought tourists, the tourists brought developers. Fishermen's huts gave way to bungalows, bungalows to hotels, hotels to high-rise condominiums.
Today Pattaya is the country's second most popular resort, a city with international schools, hospitals and a permanent foreign community. Almost nothing remains of the fishing village but the name.
How the different parts of the city developed, and how they differ today, is covered in our guide to Pattaya's districts.
What is worth remembering
- Thailand is the only country in the region never to have been a colony
- The monarchy here is not decorative: attitudes to the royal family are part of everyday culture
- Thais take pride in their independence, and it shows in the laws on land
- Pattaya is a very young city — sixty years old, and still growing
If you are planning to live here, have a look at our guide to Pattaya's districts and our article on the climate for the seasons and the rains.
Sources
- History of Thailand, Chulalongkorn, Thailand in World War II, Ban Chiang — Wikipedia
- Published material on the history of Pattaya from Thai and international outlets
Prepared by the Realty 51 editorial team with the help of artificial intelligence tools and checked against open sources. This is an overview: we verify our facts, but errors are possible.