Thailand
Archaeological evidence indicates that humans have inhabited the area of present-day Thailand for at least 40,000 years. The earliest evidence of rice growing is dated to 2,000 BCE. Areas comprising what is now Thailand participated in the Maritime Jade Road, a trading network that existed for 3,000 years between 2000 BCE and 1000 CE. Bronze appeared around 1,000 BCE, with the site of Ban Chiang in northeast Thailand ranking as the earliest known centre of copper and bronze production in Southeast Asia. Iron appeared around 500 BCE.
The Tai people are believed to have originated from the Điện Biên Phủ region since the 5th century. They began migrating into the territory of modern Thailand between the 8th and 10th centuries. Chinese chronicles first mention the Tai peoples in the 6th century BCE. David K. Wyatt, a historian of Thailand, argued that their ancestors came from the Điện Biên Phủ area between the 5th and the 8th century. Thai people began migrating into present-day Thailand gradually from the 6th to 11th century, which Mon and Khmer people occupied at the time. Some evidence indicates that the ancestors of Tai people migrated en masse southwestwards out of Yunnan only after the 1253 Mongol invasion of Dali.
Tai people defeated indigenous tribes and emerged as the new power in the new region. As a result, several Tai city-states were established, scattered from Điện Biên Phủ in present-day northwestern Vietnam and highland Southeast Asia to northeastern India. Theoretically, Tai-Kadai-speaking people formed as early as the 12th century BCE in the middle of the Yangtze basin. Some groups later migrated south to Guangxi. However, after several bloody centuries against Chinese influence in Guangxi between 333 BCE and the 11th century, hundreds of thousands of Tais were killed.
The Mon people established the principalities of Dvaravati and Kingdom of Hariphunchai in the 6th century. The Chao Phraya River in what is now central Thailand had once been the home of the Mon Dvaravati culture, which prevailed from the seventh century to the tenth century. Samuel Beal discovered the polity among the Chinese writings on Southeast Asia as Duoluobodi. During the early 20th century, archaeological excavations led by George Coedès found Nakhon Pathom Province to be a centre of Dvaravati culture.
Around 1240, Pho Khun Bang Klang Hao, a local Tai ruler, rallied the people to rebel against the Khmer. He later crowned himself the first king of Sukhothai Kingdom in 1238. Mainstream Thai historians count Sukhothai as the first kingdom of Thai people. Sukhothai expanded furthest during the reign of Ram Khamhaeng. He is believed have invented Thai script and Thai ceramics were an important export in his era. Sukhothai embraced Theravada Buddhism in the reign of Maha Thammaracha I (1347, 1368).
According to the most widely accepted version of its origin, the Ayutthaya Kingdom rose from the earlier, nearby Lavo Kingdom and Suvarnabhumi with Uthong as its first king. Ayutthaya was founded in 1350 CE and became a regional power replacing the Khmer Empire. Before the end of the 15th century, Ayutthaya invaded the Khmer Empire three times and sacked its capital Angkor. Constant interference of Sukhothai effectively made it a vassal state of Ayutthaya and it was finally incorporated into the kingdom.
European contact began in 1511 CE when Portuguese envoys arrived in Ayutthaya. Portugal became an ally and ceded some soldiers to King Rama Thibodi II. The Portuguese were followed in the 17th century by the French, Dutch, and English. Rivalry for supremacy over Chiang Mai and the Mon people pitted Ayutthaya against the Burmese Kingdom.
In the reign of Mongkut (1851, 1868), who recognised the potential threat Western powers posed to Siam, his court contacted the British government directly to defuse tensions. A British mission led by Sir John Bowring, Governor of Hong Kong, led to the signing of the Bowring Treaty, the first of many unequal treaties with Western countries. This, however, brought trade and economic development to Siam. Chulalongkorn initiated centralisation, set up a privy council, and abolished slavery and the corvée system.
The crisis of 1893 erupted, caused by French demands for Laotian territory east of Mekong. Thailand is the only Southeast Asian state never to have been colonised by a Western power, in part because Britain and France agreed in 1896 to make the Chao Phraya valley a buffer state. Not until the 20th century could Siam renegotiate every unequal treaty dating from the Bowring Treaty, including extraterritoriality.
These conditions spurred on the bloodless Siamese revolution of 1932, in which the Khana Ratsadon movement forced King Prajadhipok to sign the country's first constitution, thereby ending centuries of feudal and absolute monarchy. Power was partially ceded to a democratic government, but it would not last a year before the rise of significant military influence in Thai political affairs. In 1933, Prime Minister Phraya Mano led a counter-revolutionary rebellion to reinstate an absolute monarchy under Prajadhipok.
Field Marshal Plaek Pibulsonggram became premier in 1938 and launched a campaign of political repression that saw the execution of both Monarchists and pro-democracy Liberals. His government adopted Thai nationalist, pro-Westernisation, anti-royalist, Irredentist, anti-Chinese and anti-French policies. In 1939, Phibun changed the country's name from Siam to Thailand. This coincided with the rise of fascist ideology in Thailand, with the name change reflecting policies that prioritized the needs of ethnic Thais over those of minorities like the Thai Chinese.
In October 1973, a popular democratic uprising against the Thanom government began to bring about an end to Thailand's military regime. The aftermath of the event marked a short-lived parliamentary democracy, often called the era when democracy blossomed. Right-wing fears of a Communist takeover of Thailand grew following the captures of South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos by Communist insurgents. These factors culminated in the Thammasat University massacre in October 1976, in which police and right-wing mobs massacred students protesting the return of Thanom Kittikachorn to Thai politics.
Thailand comprises several distinct geographic regions, partly corresponding to the provincial groups. The north of the country is the mountainous area of the Thai highlands, with the highest point being Doi Inthanon in the Thanon Thong Chai Range at above sea level. The northeast, Isan, consists of the Khorat Plateau, bordered to the east by the Mekong River. The centre of the country is dominated by the predominantly flat Chao Phraya river valley, which runs into the Gulf of Thailand.
Most of the country is classified as Köppen's tropical savanna climate. A year in Thailand is divided into three seasons. The first is the rainy or southwest monsoon season (mid, May to mid-October), which is caused by southwestern wind from the Indian Ocean. Rainfall is also contributed by Intertropical Convergence Zone ITCZ and tropical cyclones, with August and September being the wettest period of the year. The country receives a mean annual rainfall of .
Winter or the northeast monsoon occurs from mid-October until mid-February. Most of Thailand experiences dry weather with mild temperatures. Summer or the pre-monsoon season runs from mid-February until mid-May. Due to their inland position and latitude, the north, northeast, central and eastern parts of Thailand experience a long period of warm weather, where temperatures can reach up to during March to May.
Thailand is an emerging economy and is considered a newly industrialised country. Thailand had a 2017 GDP of US$1.236 trillion on a purchasing power parity basis. Thailand is the second largest economy in Southeast Asia after Indonesia. Thailand ranks midway in the wealth spread in Southeast Asia as it is the fourth richest nation according to GDP per capita, after Singapore, Brunei, and Malaysia.
The economy of Thailand is heavily export-dependent, with exports accounting for more than two-thirds of gross domestic product GDP. Thailand exports over US$105 billion worth of goods and services annually. Major exports include cars, computers, electrical appliances, rice, textiles and footwear, fishery products, rubber, and jewellery. Industrial scale production of crops use both rivers and their tributaries.
To cover a shortage of foreign currency and investments, which had come primarily from Japan, Chavalit Yongchaiyudh's government took out a $17 billion International Monetary Fund loan in US dollars. To satisfy the conditions of the loan, Thailand underwent a series of austerity measures until the loan was repaid in 2003. The crisis brought on the ascendancy of the populist Thai Rak Thai party, whose base consisted primarily of indebted rural workers.
Continue Browsing
Common questions
When did humans first inhabit the area of present-day Thailand?
Archaeological evidence indicates that humans have inhabited the area of present-day Thailand for at least 40,000 years. The earliest evidence of rice growing is dated to 2,000 BCE.
Who founded the Sukhothai Kingdom and when was it established?
Pho Khun Bang Klang Hao crowned himself the first king of Sukhothai Kingdom in 1238. Mainstream Thai historians count Sukhothai as the first kingdom of Thai people.
Why has Thailand never been colonized by a Western power?
Thailand is the only Southeast Asian state never to have been colonised by a Western power because Britain and France agreed in 1896 to make the Chao Phraya valley a buffer state. This agreement followed the crisis of 1893 caused by French demands for Laotian territory east of Mekong.
What year did the name change from Siam to Thailand occur?
In 1939, Prime Minister Plaek Pibulsonggram changed the country's name from Siam to Thailand. This decision coincided with the rise of fascist ideology in Thailand and policies prioritizing ethnic Thais over minorities like the Thai Chinese.
When does the rainy season occur in Thailand?
The rainy or southwest monsoon season runs from mid-May to mid-October. August and September are the wettest period of the year due to southwestern winds from the Indian Ocean and tropical cyclones.