Background of Thailand

          Thailand's origin is traditionally tied to the short lived kingdom of Sukhothai founded in 1238, after which the larger kingdom of Ayutthaya was established in the mid 14th century.

         Siam is the name, which the country was known all over the world until 1949. On 11 may, 1949, an official proclamation changed the name of the country to "Prathet Thai", or Thailand.

        Contact with various European powers became in the 16th century. Thailand was never colonized by European power. There are two main reasons for this.

        First, it is left as a buffer state between parts of Asia that were colonized by the French and the British. Second, Thailand has been a number of very able rulers in the 1800s. However western influence including the threat of force, led to many changes in the 19th in century and major concessions to British mercantile interest.

        This included the lost of the 3 Southern Provinces which later became Malaysia's 3 northern states.

        The geographical Thailand located in the Southeast Asian on the gulf of Thailand, the Andaman Sea and covering an area of 513, 115 sq. km. and shares boundaries with Myanmar on the west and Northwest, Laos on the east and Northeast, Cambodia on the Southeast and Malaysia on the South.