According to George Cœdès, the word Thai ( ไทย) means 'free man' in the Thai language, "differentiating the Thai from the natives encompassed in Thai society as serfs". Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand, was known by outsiders prior to 1949 as Siam.
Since 2019, it has been nominally a parliamentary constitutional monarchy in practice, however, structural advantages in the constitution have ensured the military's hold on power. Since the 2000s the country has been caught in continual bitter political conflict between supporters and opponents of Thaksin Shinawatra, which resulted in two coups (in 20), along with the establishment of its current constitution, a nominally democratic government after the 2019 Thai general election, and large pro-democracy protests in 2020–2021 which included unprecedented demands to reform the monarchy. Thailand became a major ally of the United States, and played an anti-communist role in the region as a member of the failed SEATO, but from 1975 sought to improve relations with Communist China and Thailand's neighbours.Īpart from a brief period of parliamentary democracy in the mid-1970s, Thailand has periodically alternated between democracy and military rule. In the late 1950s, a military coup under Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat revived the monarchy's historically influential role in politics. Following a bloodless revolution in 1932, it became a constitutional monarchy and changed its official name to Thailand, becoming an ally of Japan in World War II. In World War I, Siam sided with the Allies, a political decision made in order to amend the unequal treaties. The Siamese system of government was centralised and transformed into a modern unitary absolute monarchy in the reign of Chulalongkorn. Throughout the era of Western imperialism in Asia, Siam remained the only nation in the region to avoid colonization by foreign powers, although it was often forced to cede territory, trade and legal concessions in unequal treaties. He was succeeded in 1782 by Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke, the first monarch of the current Chakri dynasty. Taksin quickly reunified the fragmented territory and established the short-lived Thonburi Kingdom. Ayutthaya reached its peak during the 18th century, until it was destroyed in the Burmese–Siamese War. European contact began in 1511 with a Portuguese diplomatic mission to Ayutthaya, which became a regional power by the end of the 15th century. Indianised kingdoms such as the Mon, Khmer Empire and Malay states ruled the region, competing with Thai states such as the Kingdoms of Ngoenyang, Sukhothai, Lan Na and Ayutthaya, which also rivalled each other. Tai peoples migrated from southwestern China to mainland Southeast Asia from the 11th century.
Bangkok is the nation's capital and largest city.
Thailand also shares maritime borders with Vietnam to the southeast, and Indonesia and India to the southwest. The country is bordered to the north by Myanmar and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and the extremity of Myanmar. Thailand ( / ˈ t aɪ l æ n d, ˈ t aɪ l ə n d/ TY-land, TY-lənd), historically known as Siam ( / s aɪ ˈ æ m, ˈ s aɪ æ m/) and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning 513,120 square kilometres (198,120 sq mi), with a population of almost 70 million. You may need rendering support to display the Thai text in this article correctly.
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