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Sugar was Siam’s most important export commodity until it was replaced by rice from the 1870s.

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During this reign, Siam concluded treaties with Western powers. In particular, the Bowring Treaty of 1855 forced the kingdom to integrate into the world market system. The Siamese court had to give up royal monopolies and grant extraterritorial rights to British subjects. Other Western powers followed the British example.

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During the ‘Paknam incident’ of 1893 Siam responded with military action after the French annexed its territory on the east bank of the Mekong. France sent two gunboats into the Chao Phraya River, demanding concession. The incident resulted in a French-Siamese treaty, which created a clear boundary between Siam and French Indochina along the Mekong River.

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Mongkut’s son, King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) was to take much greater steps in replacing the old political order with the model of the nation-state. He abolished slavery and the corvée system, which had lingered on ineffectively since the Ayuthaya period. The control of labour suddenly became difficult with the unmanageable influx of Chinese immigrants and frontier peasants, and the extraterritorial rights of the subjects of Western nations. Chulalongkorn’s reign oversaw the creation of a salaried bureaucracy, a police force and a standing army. His reforms brought uniformity to the legal code, law courts and revenue offices. As peasant colonisation on the frontiers was increasing, agriculture in Siam’s core areas was improved by new irrigation techniques. Schools were established along European lines. Universal conscription and poll taxes made all men the king’s men.

In ‘civilising’ his country, Chulalongkorn relied greatly on foreign advisors, mostly British. Within the royal court, much of the centuries-old protocol was abandoned and replaced by Western forms. The architecture and visual art of state, like the new throne halls, were designed by Italian artists. Defying old traditions, the king allowed himself to be seen in public, photographed, painted and sculpted, and allowed his image to be reproduced on coins, stamps and postcards. (Although King Mongkut was the first Siamese monarch to allow himself to be photographed and seen by commoners in public.)

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Klai Ban is available in English, French and German translations.

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King Chulalongkorn annexed Lanna, Khorat and Phuket. In 1893 the Ministry of Interior was created to supervise the provinces, and railways were built to connect distant population centres. However, Siam was forced to concede territories to French Indochina (Laos in 1893 and Cambodia in 1907) and British Malaya (three Malayan states in 1909). Siam was becoming a geographically defined country in a modern sense. By 1902, the country no longer called itself Siam but Prathet Thai (the country of the Thai) or Ratcha-anachak Thai (the kingdom of the Thai). By 1913, all those living within its borders were defined as ‘Thai’.

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CHULALONGKORN, THE TRAVELLER KING

While still a boy, young King Chulalongkorn travelled to observe the colonial countries of Singapore, Java, Malaya, Burma and India in order to select ‘what may be safe models for the future prosperity of Siam’. In 1897, four years after the ‘Paknam incident’ with the French, he visited Europe, hoping to show that Siam was a civilised country which should be treated like a European power. His second visit in 1907 resulted in Klai Ban (Far from Home), a compilation of letters written to his daughter in Siam during his journey. They present an insightful account of early 20th century Europe.

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In the face of imperialist threats and internal disarray, Western modernisation seemed to the Siamese elite to be the logical response. However, establishing a parliament was too great a step for King Chulalongkorn and his immediate successor to take.

English-educated King Vajiravudh (Rama VI) introduced further reforms, including