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Thailand officially adopted a neutral position during World War II until the five hour-long Japanese invasion of Thailand on 8 December 1941, which led to an armistice and military alliance treaty between Thailand and the Empire of Japan in mid-December 1941. At the start of the Pacific War, the Japanese Empire pressured the Thai government to ...
The population began to grow explosively as the standard of living rose, and a flood of people began to move from the villages to the cities, and above all to Bangkok. Thailand had 30 million people in 1965, while by the end of the 20th century the population had doubled. Bangkok's population had grown tenfold since 1945 and had tripled since 1970.
One version of the map of Thailand's territorial losses, listing eight instances of losses to the French and British colonial empires. The territorial losses of Thailand is a concept in Thai historiography, referring to conflicts during the Rattanakosin period of Thailand (or Siam as it was historically known) where the country was forced to cede territory, especially to the Western powers of ...
The kingdom of the Siamese has been known to the West since 1430; when the Italian Niccolò de' Conti first visited Tenasserim, then part of the Kingdom of Sukhothai. [2] The first known Briton recorded to have set foot in the area that is now modern Thailand was Ralph Fitch who arrived in Chiang Mai (referred to as Lamahey in his account) in 1586. [3]
The history of Thailand from 1932 to 1973 was dominated by military dictatorships which were in power for much of the period. The main personalities of the period were the dictator Plaek Phibunsongkhram, who allied the country with Japan during the Second World War, and the civilian politician Pridi Banomyong, who founded Thammasat University and was briefly prime minister after the war.
Hong Kong was returned to the United Kingdom following its occupation by the Japanese during the Second World War. [2] It was controlled directly by a British governor until the expiry of the ninety-nine-year lease of the New Territories , which occurred in 1997.
Phibun did not keep his word. [16] Relations between Japan and Thailand were subsequently stressed, as a disappointed Phibun switched to courting the British and Americans to ward off what he saw as an imminent Japanese invasion. [17] However, on 8 December 1941, the Japanese invaded Thailand at the same time as the Japanese invasion of Malaya ...
In November 1941, the British became aware of the large scale buildup of Japanese troops in French Indo-China. Thailand was seen to be under threat from this build-up as well as Malaya. British strategists had foreseen the possibility of Thailand's Kra isthmus being used by the Japanese to invade Malaya.