| Nationalism and Constitution (1910-1932)
King Chulalongkorn's son and successor Vajiravudh (Rama VI) was the first
Thai king to have been educated abroad, in his case at Harrow School and
Oxford University in England. King Vajiravudh (r. 1910-1925) was notable for
his accomplishments as a poet, dramatist (in both English and Thai), and
polemicist. He was a convinced nationalist and was the first person to try
to instill a western-style nationalistic fervor in his subjects. Like his
father, he was determined to modernize Siam while still upholding
traditional Thai values and royal authority.
King Vajiravudh chose to work on issues and problems that appealed to his
personal interests, largely in the literary, educational, and ideological
fields. The King was also keenly interested in military affairs and formed
his own paramilitary organization, the "Wild Tiger Corps," to inculcate
nationalism and promote national unity. When the First World War broke out,
he was determined to join the Allies in their struggle against Germany. His
decision in 1917 to send Thai troops to fight in Europe was a felicitous
piece of timing: although the Thai expeditionary force did not see much
action. Siam's participation in the war on the Allied side earned the
country and its king much praise and recognition from the international
community.
The major achievements of King Vajiravudh, however, lay in the area of
education and related legislation.
In 1913, he compelled his subjects by law to use surnames and thus be no
different from the Western nations. As a measure of his personal commitment
to this idea, he himself coined hundreds of family names.
In 1921, the King issued a law on compulsory primary education, which was
the first step in Siam 5 path towards universal primary education. Two of
present-day Thailand's most prestigious educational establishments were
founded by King Vajiravudh, Chulalongkorn University, Siam's first
Western-style University, named in honour of King Chulalongkorn, and
Vajiravudh College, a boarding school for boys modeled upon the English
public school.
The death of King Vajiravudh in 1925 meant that Prince Prajadhipok, his
younger brother, succeeded to the throne since King Vajiravudh had no male
heir. The new king (also known as Rama VII) began his reign at an unenviable
juncture of both Thai and world history. The global economic depression of
the late 1920's and early 1930's forced the Thai government to make economic
measures that led to some discontentment. As for Siam's internal
development, the dilemma about when or whether to institute wide-ranging
political reforms became more acute during this reign.
King Prajadhipok was a liberal and a conscientious man. A soldier by
training, he nevertheless worked hard in addressing himself to Siam's
problems, and his comments on various matters of government and
administration in the state papers of this reign reveal him to be an
admirable ruler in many ways. He was well aware of the desirability of
establishing Siam in the international political community as a country with
a "modern" and "liberal" constitutional system of government. The King,
however, was still in the process of trying to convince the more
conservative of his relatives in the Supreme State Council about the need to
promulgate a constitution when matters were taken out of his hands by the
bloodless "revolution", or coup d'etat, of 24 June 1932.
The 1932 coup d'etat put an end to absolute monarchy in Siam. Prior to
this event, there had been an increased political awareness among the
middle-ranking military officers and civilian officials who were to become
the major figures in the coup group, which called itself the People's Party.
Many of these men had been educated abroad, principally in France and
Britain. There had also been a degree of discontent within the military and
civilian bureaucracy resulting from. the royal government's retrenchment
program, which in turn had been dictated by the worldwide economic
depression. Government expenditures had been cut by one-third in early 1932,
salaries were also cut, and many government officials lost their jobs. All
these factors were instrumental in motivating the coup group of 1932 to
initiate a new system of government. A formal constitution was promulgated
and a National Assembly set up. Siam thus became a constitutional monarchy
without any bloodshed or wholesale changes in its society and economy. |
