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The first ruler of the Kingdom of Ayutthaya, King Uthong (r. 1351–1369), made two important contributions to Thai history: the establishment and promotion of Theravada Buddhism as the official religion to differentiate his kingdom from the neighbouring Hindu kingdom of Angkor and the compilation of the Dharmaśāstra, a legal code based on ...
Thailand, [i] officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), [ii] is a country in Southeast Asia on the Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, [8] it spans 513,115 square kilometres (198,115 sq mi). [9]
Thereafter the country remained a democracy apart from a brief period of military rule from 1991 to 1992. Between 1985 and 1994, Thailand was the world's fastest growing economy according to the World Bank. [1] Foreign investment primarily from Japan turned Thailand into a manufacturing hub in Southeast Asia by the end of the century. [2]
The history of Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, dates at least to the early 15th century, when it was under the rule of Ayutthaya.Due to its strategic location near the mouth of the Chao Phraya River, the town gradually increased in importance, and after the fall of Ayutthaya King Taksin established his new capital of Thonburi there, on the river's west bank.
The known early history of Thailand begins with the earliest major archaeological site at Ban Chiang.Dating of artifacts from this site is controversial, but there is a consensus that at least by 3600 BCE, inhabitants had developed bronze tools and had begun to cultivate wet rice, providing the impetus for social and political organisation.
In the early 20th-century however, Thai elites, influenced by Western ideas of European nationalism and the nation state, used that framework to create a nationalist history of Thailand, implementing it in ways deemphasized Ayutthaya's importance to Thai history by portraying the Sukhothai Kingdom as the first "Thai" kingdom or golden age of ...
After the Siamese revolution of 1932, the first coup of Thailand's history occurred on 1 April 1933 by conservative and monarchist elites led by Phraya Manopakorn Nititada, amid national debate surrounding a nationwide economic plan proposed by Pridi Banomyong, which was deemed to be a communist threat by King Prajadhipok and Mano.
Although the current Chakri dynasty was created in 1782, the existence of the institution of monarchy in Thailand is traditionally considered to have its roots in the founding of the Sukhothai Kingdom in 1238, with a brief interregnum from the death of Ekkathat to the accession of Taksin in the 18th century.