Archaeological evidence so far dates settlement of Thailand back at least
5,000 years. Successive migrations of Mons, Khmer and Tai from the north
settled more of the country. By the height of the Khmer kingdom based in
Angkor in the 11 th century, Cambodia controled much of what is now
Thailand.

By late in the 13th century, Angkor's power was on the wane, and several
northern chieftans came together to form the first "Thai" kingdom of
Sukhothai. Although the period is heavily romanticized by the Thais
themselves, a visit to Sukhothai itself demonstrates that there was a
significant kingdom established here, capable of erecting huge monuments
which must have required a good sized economic and social base to achieve.

Sukhothai flourished and expanded for nearly 200 years, but power eventually
shifted southward to Ayuthaya, which was founded in the mid fourteenth
century. Under the 33 kings of Ayuthaya, Thai influence expanded until they
held sway over the entire Malay peninsula and much of what is today Laos
and Cambodia. During this time, the first formal contacts between Siam and
Europe were established, and around Ayuthaya today there are the remains of
the Portuguese village as well as a Japanese area.

Late in the 18 th century, the Burmese launched an attack on Siam and
managed to take Ayuthaya, burning and sacking the entire town. The Thais
regrouped under a general named Taksin, who managed to expel the Burmese
and then establish a new capitol in Thonburi, on the east bank of the
Chaophraya river across from what is today Bangkok. Taksin's commander of
the army, general Chakri, later returned from subduing rebel provinces in the
East to find that Taksin had gone insane.

General Chakri had Taksin executed and himself crowned king Rama I, the first
of the Chakri kings that rule Thailand to this day. Rama I moved the capitol
across the river to the more defensible village of Bangkok. His successors
managed to maintain Thailand's independence by dealing away the vassal
states -- Laos and Cambodia to the French, the Malay peninsula to the British
-- in the late 19th century. Thailand remained an absolute monarchy up until
1932, when a coup (the first of many) forced a new constitution on the then
king Rama VII. However, the king remains a highly respected figure to this
day, and lesse majeste laws are taken very seriously.

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