Rattanakosin: Bangkok and the Chakri Kings Face Their Neighbours, 1782–1932
In 1782, a general moved the Siamese capital from one bank of the Chao Phraya to the other and founded a dynasty that still reigns today. The name…
Understand 13 min read
Theme · 01
History, Kingdoms & the Making of Siam
Civilisations, kingdoms, dynasties, diplomacy, borders, modernisation, conflicts, migrations and the formation of the state.
Articles
Thonburi and King Taksin: raising Siam again in fifteen years (1767–1782)
In April 1767, Ayutthaya fell to the Burmese army. The Siamese kingdom was left with neither capital nor dynasty, and several leaders vied for what…
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Ayutthaya: Four Centuries of a Cosmopolitan Capital (1350–1767)
For more than four centuries, from its foundation in the mid-fourteenth century to its destruction by Burmese armies in 1767, Ayutthaya was far more…
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Lanna, Kingdom of the North: from Mangrai to Dara Rasmi, Chiang Mai between Ayutthaya, Burma and Bangkok
For nearly six centuries, the north of present-day Thailand answered to a capital other than Sukhothai, Ayutthaya or Bangkok. Founded in 1296 by…
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Sukhothai, ‘the dawn of happiness’: kings, rivals and the birth of a Tai kingdom
In the 13th century, Tai chiefs broke away from Khmer authority and established at Sukhothai a power that rose to prominence, then, in little more…
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Temples, roads and Angkorian power: the Khmer imprint on the lands of the future Siam
From the Khorat Plateau to the Chao Phraya valley, stone sanctuaries are a reminder that between the 11th and 13th centuries much of present-day…
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Dvaravati, the ‘First Mon Kingdom’ of the Central Plain: Rulers, Figures and Neighbours (6th–11th Century)
It left no certain capital, no king list and no chronicle of its own. Yet Dvaravati is the name engraved, in the 7th century, on silver medallions…
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