THAILAND THE HISTORICAL STATE

Known as Siam in earlier times, Thailand was renamed as such in 1939 after the king, an absolute monarch, was coerced to accept a constitution in 1932.  It is a country located in the heart of mainland Southeast Asia nestled on the arm of the South China Sea and the Gulf of Thailand. Thailand is bordered by Lao People’s Democratic Republic in the north; Myanmar, previously known as Burma, in the north and west; Cambodia in the east; and Malaysia in the south. With current population topping 65 million, Thailand’s capital and largest city is Bangkok.

A variety of indigenous cultures existed in the region that we call Thailand today for thousands of years and the Thai people themselves arrived into the region after being ousted from southern China some 2,000 years ago. Due to its geographical location and its proximity to very different cultures, the Thai culture was greatly impacted by the Indian customs and Chinese ethos.

The first officially recognized Siamese or Thai state was the Buddhist kingdom of Sukhothai founded in 1238 after the weakening and collapse of the Khmer Empire between the thirteenth and the fifteenth centuries. This powerful empire was overthrown by the Siamese kingdom of Ayutthaya in 1431 and the Hindu customs and rituals of the Khmer were adopted into the Siam culture. Thonburi was the capital of Thailand for a short time under Ing Taksin the Great but Bangkok was establish as the capital of the Chakri Dynasty under King Ram I the Great in 1782.

Despite the frequent European visits to Thailand beginning with the sixteenth century and in the face of the European pressure, Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country that was never colonized by a European power. The two most significant reasons for this were that Thailand had a long string of powerfully capable rulers in the 1800s and that it found a way to manipulate the enmity and ever growing tension between the French and the British. Consequently, Thailand became the buffer zone between parts of Southeast Asia that were occupied by the colonial powers, France and Britain.

Notwithstanding its complete autonomy, Thailand was greatly influence by the West which led to many significant reforms in the nineteenth century as well as foremost allowances to British trading interests—this included the forfeiting of three southern provinces that later became Malaysia’s three northern states.

A peaceful revolution lead to a new constitutional monarchy in 1932 but after a series of coups d'état, Thailand eventually advanced towards democracy in the 1980s.

Thailand was hit very hard by the Asian financial crisis of 1997 and its currency, the Thai baht, was devastated and plunged to the low exchange rate of 56 baht to one U.S. dollar from the previous 25 baht to one U.S. dollar. The baht has recovered some strength since then and the exchange rate is currently at about 35 baht to one dollar.

There was an obvious need for reorganization and Utah State University jumped in with a crew of consultants, engineers and sociologists with a five-year, ten million dollar contract that was funded in part by the low-interest loan from the Asian Development Bank to encourage the local Thai government into action for better training and education for it citizens.