History
Dating back to the Neolithic civilization situated at the
modern-day UNESCO World Heritage Site in Ban Chiang, the history of Thailand is
long, proud, and fairly well documented. Over the early centuries of the
Common Era, tribes of Mon, Khmer, and Tai peoples established realms within the
borders of modern Thailand; the Mon speaking Buddhist civilization of Dvaravati
in the first millennium giving way to the Khmer empire of Angkor by the turn of
the second millennium.
However, the history of Thailand
as we know it began when the kingdoms of Lan Na (Chiang Rai/Chiang Mai) and
Sukhothai, the first truly independent Thai Kingdoms, established highly
developed societies in the North and Central regions of Thailand in the
13th and 14th centuries. The Kingdom of
Ayutthaya , which was heavily
influenced by the Khmer’s of Angkor ,
eventually conquered neighboring Sukhothai and dominated the region for the
next several hundred years of Thai history. Unfortunately, first Chaing
Mai and then Ayutthaya were overrun by Burmese
invaders, who occupied the Lan Na capital for several centuries and sacked Ayutthaya , forcing the central Thai kingdom to relocate
farther south, establishing a new capital in Thon Buri near Bangkok . After the short lived Thon
Buri Period (1767-1772), the capital was moved across the Chao
Phraya River , and the
first of the current line of Kings, Rama I of the Chakri Dynasty, established
the modern capital of Bangkok
to commence the Ratanakosin Period of Thai history. The adroit diplomatic
leadership of Kings Mongkut (Rama IV, 1851-1868) and Chulalongkorn (Rama V,
1868-1910) were responsible for maintaining a remarkable 700 year Thai history
during which the kingdom was never officially colonized by foreign powers; a
turbulent 20th century witnessed the transition to a system of constitutional
monarchy, currently overseen by Head of State, King Bumibol Adulyadej (1946-
present), is King Rama IX of the Chakri Dynasty and a tenuous but functional
democracy has existed under the regency of this much beloved king.