Thailand History

The major characteristic of Thai history during the 19th and 20th centuries may be summed up by the phrase "the challenge of the West." The reigns of King Rama II and his two sons, Rama III and Rama IV, marked the first stage in the Thai kingdom's dealings with the West during the Age of Imperialism.

During the Ayutthaya period, the Thais had more often than not chosen just how they wanted to deal with foreign countries, European states included. By the 19th century this freedom of choice became more and more constricted. The West had undergone a momentous change during the Industrial Revolution, and western technology and economy had begun to outstrip those of Asian and African nations. This fact was not readily apparent to the Asians of the early 19th century, but it became alarmingly obvious as the century wore on and several erstwhile proud kingdoms fell under the sway of the western powers. The early 19th century was a time when the Napoleonic Wars were preoccupying all the major European powers, but once the British had gained their victory in Europe, they resumed their quest for additional commerce and territory in Asia.

King Rama III may have been "conservative" in outlook, striving hard to uphold Buddhism (he built or repaired many monasteries), and refusing to acknowledge the claims of Western powers to increased shares in the Thai trade, but he was above all a shrewd ruler. He was justifiably wary of Western ambitions in Southeast Asia, but he was tolerant enough to come to an agreement with Burney, as well as to allow Christian missionaries to work in the kingdom. One of the men most intellectually stimulated by the Western missionaries was Prince Mongkut. The priest-prince had an inquiring mind, a philosophical nature, and a voracious appetite for new knowledge. He learnt Latin from the French Catholic bishop Jean-Baptiste Pallegoix and English from the American Protestant missionary Jesse Caswell. Prince Mongkut's intellectual interests were wide-ranging; not only did he study the Buddhist Pali scriptures but also Western astronomy, mathematics, science, geography, and culture. His wide knowledge of the West helped him to deal with Britain, France, and other powers when he reigned as King of Siam (1851-1868).

King Mongkut was the first Chakri king to embark seriously on reform based on Western models. This did not mean wholesale structural change, since King Mongkut did not wish to undermine his own status and power as a traditional and absolute ruler. He concentrated on the technological and organizational aspects of reform. During this reign, there were road building, canal digging, shipbuilding, a reorganization of the Thai army and administration, and the minting of money to meet the demands of a growing money economy. The King employed Western experts and advisers at the court and in the administration. One of his employees at court was the English governess Anna H. Leonowens, whose books on Siam have resulted in several misunderstandings concerning King Mongkut's character and reign. Far from being the strutting "noble savage" figure portrayed by Hollywood in the musical "The King and I." King Mongkut was a scholarly, conscientious, and humane monarch who ruled at a difficult time in Thai history.