King Chulalongkorn as Builder of Incipient Siamese Nation-State

Abstract

© 2019, Springer Nature B.V. In his long reign, King Chulalongkorn displayed deep wisdom and political acumen in laying down the foundation of the Siamese nation-state. He continued the project of his father in modernizing Siamese state and society. In the early period of his reign, his efforts were opposed by conservative forces and vested interested, but he bid his time and pressed on when situation improved. With a weak military and no support from Britain, he was forced to give outlying territories to France under gunboat threats. The event spurred him on to speed up and intensify the program to modernize and build a unitary and absolutist modern state. His visits abroad and other exposures to the outside world stimulated him to take steps to build a Siamese nation by nurturing a collective sense of identity of the peoples in Siam. By virtue of his achievements, he left behind a significant legacy and a distinctive imprint on the Thai political culture. The paper discusses to what extent was Siam different from her neighbors, given the fact that she was able to escape being colonized.