Post-1973
has been marked by a struggle to define the political contours of the state. It
was won by the King and General Prem Tinsulanonda, who favored a monarchy
constitutional order.
The Siamese revolution of 1932 was led by a group of young military officers
and civil servants. The group held key figures, ministers who were of the royal
blood as hostages while the king, Rama VII, was at the summer palace in Hua Hin.
The coup, usually called 'The Revolution of 1932', transformed the Government
of Thailand from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy.
After
more than 400 years of power, in 1767, the Kingdom of Ayutthaya was brought down
by invading Burmese armies, its capital burned, and the territory split. General
Taksin managed to reunite the Thai kingdom from his new capital of Thonburi and
declared himself king in 1769.
The
city of Ayutthaya was located on a small island, encircled by three rivers. Due
to its superior location, Ayutthaya quickly became powerful, politically and
economically. Ayutthaya had different, various names ranging from 'Ayothaya',
derived from Ayodhya, an Indian holy city,'Krung Thep', 'Phra Nakorn' and 'Dvaravati'.
The Kingdom of Lanna (Thai: ??????????????, Kingdom of Million
Rice Fields, Northern Thai
was a state in what is now northern Thailand from the 13th to 18th
centuries. The cultural development of the people of Lanna, the Tai Yuan
people, had begun long before as successive Tai Yuan kingdoms preceded Lanna.
As a continuation of the Ngoenyang kingdom, Lanna emerged strong enough in the
15th century to rival the Ayutthaya
kingdom, with whom great wars were fought. However, Lanna was weakened and then
fell under Burmese tributary.
The Sukhothai kingdom (Thai:
??????????????????
(Pronunciation)) was an early kingdom in the area around the city Sukhothai, in
north central Thailand. The Kingdom existed from 1238 till 1438. The old
capital, now 12 km outside of New Sukhothai in Tambon Mueang Kao, is in ruins
and has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage historical park.
From about the 10th century to the 14th century Thailand was known through
archeological findings and a number of local legends. The period saw the Khmer
domination over a large portion of Chao Phraya basin and the Isan. The expansion
of Tai people and culture southwards also happened during the classical era.
Prior to the arrival of the Tai people and culture into what is now Thailand,
the region hosted a number of indigenous Mon-Khmer and Malay civilizations. Yet
little is known about Thailand before the 13th century as the literary and
concrete sources are scarce and most of the knowledge about this period is
gleaned from archeological evidence.
Prior to the southwards migration of the Tai people from Yunnan
in the 10th century, the Indochina peninsula
had been a home to various indigenous animistic communities for as far back as
500,000 years ago. The recent discovery of Homo erectus fossils such as Lampang
man is but one example.
Archeological
discoveries around the northeast hamlet of Ban Chiang suggests that the
world's oldest Bronze Age civilization had flourished in Thailand some
5,600 years ago.
The Sukhothai kingdom (Thai:
Prior to the arrival of the Tai people and culture into what is now Thailand,
the region hosted a number of indigenous Mon-Khmer and Malay civilizations. Yet
little is known about Thailand before the 13th century as the literary and
concrete sources are scarce and most of the knowledge about this period is
gleaned from archeological evidence. 
