Siam

Siam
   Siam, contemporary Thailand, was the only country of the Far East, besides Japan and China, never to experience colonial rule. In the early nineteenth century, Siam’s leaders concentrated on rivalry with neighboring Burma until realizing that the main threat came from the British and French Empires. King Mongkut, an acute observer of international affairs, managed to come to terms with the British by granting them extraterritoriality and free trade in the Bowring treaty of 1855.
   Mongkut and his son Chulalongkorn relied on a mixture of modernization, diplomacy, and sometimes good fortune to defend Siam’s independence. Under their leadership, limited but real reforms were introduced, often with the help of experts and advisers recruited from the European colonial services. A Western-style government and a centralized provincial administration were created in the 1890s, as well as an independent judiciary, a body of codified law, and a competent administration of the country’s finances. Reforms helped preserve financial independence, prevent incidents that might provide pretexts for intervention, and win back jurisdiction over British subjects in 1909. Britain was interested chiefly in stability and free trade, whereas France, pursuing territorial rather than economic interests, was harder to placate. Repeatedly, Siam had to offer territorial concessions, beginning with the “Siam Crisis” of 1893 when French gunboats forced their way to Bangkok. After France had accepted to restrain her ambitions in Siam in the Entente Cordiale and Siam had ceded further territory to France in 1907 and Britain in 1909, independence was finally secure.
   Except through the settlement of Siam’s lowlands by people escaping from the control of the nobility and producing rice for export after the introduction of free trade in 1855 and the immigration of Chinese traders and laborers into Bangkok, Siamese society changed very little and only at the top. Chulalongkorn had received a partly Western education and from the 1880s, princes were educated in Europe. Administrative reforms and the creation of a modern army were accompanied by the training of new staff and resulted in the appearance of a small modern middle class. Universal education remained a distant prospect, however, held back by cautious fiscal policies that also hampered efforts at economic diversification. Siam managed to secure independence and create the structures of a modern state, but social and economic change was limited.
   See also <>; <>; <>.
   FURTHER READING:
    Wyatt, David K. Thailand: A Short History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1984.
   NIELS P. PETERSSON

Encyclopedia of the Age of Imperialism, 1800–1914. 2014.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • siam — siam …   Dictionnaire des rimes

  • SIAM — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Siam (homonymie). Royaume de Siam สยาม th …   Wikipédia en Français

  • siam — (golfe du). V. Thaïlande (golfe de). Thaïlande (golfe de) ou Siam (golfe du) golfe de l Asie du Sud Est dans la mer de Chine méridionale, bordant la Malaisie, la Thaïlande et la péninsule indochinoise. Siam V. Thaïlande. ⇒SIAM, subst. masc. Jeu… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • siam — 1. (si am ) s. m. 1°   Nom d un jeu de quille qui se joue avec une roulette dont une face est plus petite que l autre, de sorte qu elle ne roule pas en ligne droite, mais décrit une courbe sur le sol. 2°   Siam blanc, espèce de turbinelle,… …   Dictionnaire de la Langue Française d'Émile Littré

  • Siam [1] — Siam, 1) Königreich in Hinterindien, von den Siamesen selbst Thai genannt, grenzt im Norden an die chinesische Provinz Yünnan, im Osten an das Reich Anam, im Süden an das Chinesische Meer u. den Golf von Siam, im Westen an Birma u. die britischen …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Siam — Siam, Königreich in Hinterindien, an Französisch Indochina und Britisch Ostindien (Birma) und südlich an die Halbinsel Malakka grenzend, 634.000 km2, 6,320.000 Einwohner. Der Bau von Eisenbahnen geht zurück bis zum Jahre 1893, in welchem Jahre… …   Enzyklopädie des Eisenbahnwesens

  • Siam [2] — Siam (Gesch.). Die Geschichte von S. soll nach den mythischen Annalen des Reiches bis 1440 v. Chr. hinaufsteigen, gewiß ist, daß 638 n.Chr. der Buddhaismus eingeführt wurde, der damalige König wird Krek (Sammonacadan) genannt u. von ihm ab sollen …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Siam — (wahrscheinlich = Schan, ferner Sayam Thai, Muong Thai, »Land der Freien«), Reich in Hinterindien (s. Karten »Französisch Indochina« und »Hinterindien«), zwischen 4 und 203/4° nördl. Br. und 971/2 106° östl. L., begrenzt durch das britische… …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Siam — Siam, von den Siamesen Thai genannt, Reich in Hinterindien, zwischen China, Birma, Britischindien, den Malayenstaaten Perak und Tringano, dem Meerbusen von S., Anam, besteht aus S. u. Cambodscha (1822 größtentheils verloren) und aus… …   Herders Conversations-Lexikon

  • Siam — • Siam, the land of the White Elephant or the country of the Muang Thai (the Free) Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006 …   Catholic encyclopedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”