Thailand
Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand, and formerly known as Siam until 1939, is a country located in mainland Southeast Asia. It shares land borders with Myanmar to the west and northwest, Laos to the east and northeast, Cambodia to the southeast, and Malaysia to the south. Its maritime boundaries include the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea, as well as maritime borders with Vietnam, Indonesia, and India. Thailand has a population of nearly 66 million people, covers an area of approximately 513,115 km2. The country's capital and largest city is Bangkok.
Archaeological evidence indicates that humans have inhabited the area of present-day Thailand for at least 40,000 years. Indigenous ethnic groups include the Mon, Khmer, and Malay people. The Tai people are believed to have originated from the Điện Biên Phủ region since the 5th century and began migrating into the territory of modern Thailand between the 8th and 10th centuries. During the classical historical period, major kingdoms such as Sukhothai, Lan Na, and Ayutthaya were established. The Sukhothai Kingdom is regarded as the beginning of Thai history, while the Ayutthaya Kingdom, founded in 1350 CE, became a regional power replacing the Khmer Empire. European contact began in 1511 CE when Portuguese envoys arrived in Ayutthaya. The Ayutthaya Kingdom flourished until its complete destruction during the 1765–1767 Burmese–Siamese War by the Burmese forces under the Konbaung dynasty in 1767.
After the fall of Ayutthaya, King Taksin reunified the kingdom and established the Thonburi Kingdom, which lasted only 15 years before he was overthrown by Phutthayotfa Chulalok, the founder of the Chakri dynasty. King Rama I established the Rattanakosin Kingdom and moved the capital to Bangkok in 1782. During the era of Western imperialism, Siam remained the only country in Southeast Asia to avoid colonization by European powers, although it ceded territory, trade rights, and legal privileges through several unequal treaties. The governance system evolved into an absolute monarchy centralized under the rule of King Chulalongkorn. Siam adapted to international relations during the imperialist era and joined World War I on the side of the Allies, a political decision aimed at revising the effects of unequal treaties and enhancing Siam's international status.
Following the Siamese revolution of 1932 by the Khana Ratsadon, Siam transitioned from an absolute monarchy to a parliamentary constitutional monarchy and was officially renamed Thailand. During World War II, the country was under the military dictatorship of Plaek Phibunsongkhram and allied with the Empire of Japan as part of the Axis powers, but Thailand did not become a defeated nation due to the underground Free Thai Movement's "Declaration of Peace", which was recognized by the Allies. During the Cold War, Thailand became a key major non-NATO ally of the United States and played a major role in countering communism in the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and other proxy wars. Thailand also joined the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization. Despite brief periods of liberal democracy in the 1970s and 1990s, Thailand alternated between liberal democracy and military dictatorship.
Since the 2000s, Thailand has experienced political conflict between supporters and opponents of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, leading to the 2006 and 2014 coup d'états. Today, Thailand operates under the 2017 Constitution and a coalition government following the 2019 Thai general election, as well as political demonstrations demanding democracy and monarchy reform. The current constitutional structure still allows de facto political influence by the Royal Thai Armed Forces. Thailand has also faced border tensions from the 2008–2011 Cambodian–Thai border crisis extending to the 2025 Cambodia–Thailand border crisis involving territorial disputes and military clashes.
Currently, Thailand is recognized as a developing country and holds significant geopolitical importance in Southeast Asia. It is a unitary state governed under a parliamentary system with a bicameral legislature comprising the elected House of Representatives and the appointed Senate. Thailand is a member of the United Nations, a major non-NATO ally of the United States, and a founding member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, as well as a regional power. The Royal Thai Armed Forces are among the largest military forces in Southeast Asia. Thailand's economy is the second-largest in the region and the 23rd globally by purchasing power parity, ranking 29th by gross domestic product. Thailand is classified as a newly industrialized country, with manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism being the main economic sectors.
Etymology
Thailand was known by outsiders before 1939 as Siam. According to George Cœdès, the word Thai means 'free man' in the Thai language, "differentiating the Thai from the natives encompassed in Thai society as serfs". According to Chit Phumisak, Thai simply means 'people' or 'human being'; his investigation shows that some rural areas used the word "Thai" instead of the usual Thai word khon for people. According to Michel Ferlus, the ethnonyms Thai-Tai would have evolved from the etymon *kri: 'human being'.Thais often refer to their country using the polite form prathet Thai. They also use the more colloquial term mueang Thai or simply Thai; the word mueang, archaically referring to a city-state, is commonly used to refer to a city or town as the centre of a region. Ratcha Anachak Thai means 'kingdom of Thailand' or 'kingdom of Thai'.
Etymologically, its components are: ratcha, ana-, and -chak.
The Thai National Anthem, written by Luang Saranupraphan during the patriotic 1930s, refers to the Thai nation as prathet Thai. The first line of the national anthem is: prathet thai ruam lueat nuea chat chuea thai, 'Thailand is founded on blood and flesh'.
The former name Siam may have originated from Sanskrit श्याम or Mon ရာမည, probably the same root as Shan and Assam. The word Śyâma is possibly not the true origin, but a pre-designed deviation from its proper, original meaning. Another theory is the name derives from the Chinese calling this region 'Xian'.
The ancient Khmers used the word Siam to refer to people settled in the west Chao Phraya River valley surrounding the ancient city of Nakhon Pathom in the present-day central Thailand; it may probably originate from the name of Lord Krishna, which also called Shyam, as in the Wat Sri Chum Inscription, dated 13th century CE, mentions came to restore Phra Pathommachedi at the city of Lord Krishna in the early era of the Sukhothai Kingdom.
The signature of King Mongkut reads SPPM ''Mongkut Rex Siamensium. This usage of the name in the country's first international treaty gave the name Siam official status, until 24 June 1939 when it was changed to Thailand''.
History
Prehistory and origins
There is evidence of continuous human habitation in present-day Thailand from 20,000 years ago to the present day. The earliest evidence of rice growing is dated at 2,000 BCE. Areas comprising what is now Thailand participated in the Maritime Jade Road, as ascertained by archeological research. The trading network existed for 3,000 years, between 2000 BCE to 1000 CE. Bronze appeared –1,000 BCE. The site of Ban Chiang in northeast Thailand currently ranks as the earliest known centre of copper and bronze production in Southeast Asia. Iron appeared around 500 BCE.The Kingdom of Funan was the first and most powerful Southeast Asian kingdom at the time. The Mon people established the principalities of Dvaravati and Kingdom of Hariphunchai in the 6th century. The Khmer people established the Khmer empire, centred in Angkor, in the 9th century. Tambralinga, a Malay state controlling trade through the Malacca Strait, rose in the 10th century. The Indochina peninsula was heavily influenced by the culture and religions of India from the time of the Kingdom of Funan to that of the Khmer Empire.
The Thai people are of the Tai ethnic group, characterised by common linguistic roots. Chinese chronicles first mention the Tai peoples in the 6th century BCE. While there are many assumptions regarding the origin of Tai peoples, David K. Wyatt, a historian of Thailand, argued that their ancestors who at present inhabit Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, India, and China 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. Thus Thai culture was influenced by Indian, Mon, and Khmer cultures. Tai people intermixed with various ethnic and cultural groups in the region, resulting in many groups of present-day Thai people. Genetic evidences suggested that ethnolinguistics could not accurately predict the origins of the Thais. Sujit Wongthes argued that Thai is not a race or ethnicity but a culture group.
According to French historian George Cœdès, "The Thai first enter history of Farther India in the eleventh century with the mention of Syam slaves or prisoners of war in Champa epigraphy", and "in the twelfth century, the bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat" where "a group of warriors" are described as Syam, though Cham accounts do not indicate the origins of Syam or what ethnic group they belonged to. The origins and ethnicity of the Syam remain unclear, with some literature suggesting that Syam refers to the Shan people, the Bru people, or the Brau people. However, mainland Southeast Asian sources from before the fourteenth century primarily used the word Syam as an ethnonym, referring to those who belonged to a separate cultural category different from the Khmer, Cham, Bagan, or Mon. This contrasts with the Chinese sources, where Xian was used as a toponym.