Origins The lower Chao Phraya Basin around the turn of the second millennium was split between
Lavo Kingdom, which dominated the eastern half of the Lower Chao Phraya, and
Suphannabhum, which dominated the west. The western lower Chao Phraya Basin was also influenced by
Angkorian culture but not direct Angkorian political and military influence. Suphanburi, Ayutthaya, and Phetchaburi. Suphanburi had first sent a tribute mission to
Song dynasty in 1180 and Phetchaburi to the
Yuan dynasty in 1294 and tribute missions to
Vijaynagar empire between 1400 and 1500. The earliest written records of Ayutthaya in the Chinese chronicles is that a Chinese official fled to Xian in 1282/83. Xian first sent an embassy to the Yuan dynasty in 1292, after which the Yuan requested another embassy. While older and traditional scholars argue that the ethnically Thai
Sukhothai or Suphanburi was the
Xiān Xian also sent tributes to
Đại Việt in 1182 In 1313–1315, Xiān attempted to annex
Champa but failed due to the reinforcements from
Đại Việt. Since the late 13th century, expeditions were sent to the
Malay Peninsula and Sumatra in the goal of extracting resources to gain a share of the maritime trade. Other contemporary scholars argued that Ayutthaya had been an important commercial center since the 11th century or at least several centuries prior to 1351. Twenty-first century archaeological surveys found that the name of the pre-Ayutthaya cities on the Khao Kop Inscription dated to the 14th–15th centuries is
Ayothaya Si Ram Thep Nakhon (), as stated in the Thai Chronicle,
Phraratchaphongsawadan Nuea (
Royal Chronicle of The North compiled in 1807 collected from old books from period of King
Narai and stories told by northerners). (not to be confused with King
Uthong reigning from 1351 to 69). It was also found that
Thai was used as the official language at that time, which reflected the social changes of the people in the Chao Phraya River Basin. The existence of
Ayothaya Si Ram Thep Nakhon is also mentioned in the Burmese chronicle,
Hmannan Yazawin, which mentions the Gywan warriors, who are descendants of the
Thai Yuan, marched to
Thaton kingdom in 1056 as inscribed on the Burmese inscriptions at Arakan Pagoda,
Mandalay. The
Hmannan Yazawin said the south-eastward country of the Gywans, also called
Ayoja.
George Cœdès pointed out that
Ayoja or
Arawsa meant Ayudhya or Siam. The Malay annals (
Sulalatus Salatin) and History of the Malay Kingdom of Patani (
Sejarah Kerajaan Melayu Patani) say that prior to 1160, the Siam-Thai of Ayutthaya (Tai-Shan's or Siam-Asli, literally "aboriginal Siamese") were migrating southward and penetrating far into the Malay Peninsula. The History of the Malay Kingdom of Patani highlights the fact that Patani rulers treated the Siam-Thai of Ayutthaya (but not
Sukhothai Kingdom) as equals rather than vassals when discussing the southward expansion of Siam. In the 12th century, the
Malays were successful in establishing states such as
Kedah,
Melaka, and
Temasek. However,
Patani and other surrounding territories remained under the control of the aboriginal Siamese.
Pre-Ayutthaya cities Archaeology surveys performed near Wat Khun Mueang Chai have found traces of pre–1100s buildings. Old temples in the area to the east may have been forest monasteries, similar to the pattern of other early towns. Digs have yielded pottery shards dating back to the 1270s. Narai renamed the city Ayodhya () and eventually set it
Lavo's new capital. The former capital was then renamed
Lopburi. The majority of Ayodhya's inhabitants are supposed to have migrated from
Dvaravati's
Ayojjhapura following its fall in 946, as well as residents from
Lavo's
Lavapura who fled after the city was destroyed by
Angkor in 1001. The rising of Ayodhya happened after the fall of
Kamalanka or Mevilimbangam, centered at
Nakhon Pathom, which was sacked by the
Chola and
Pagan in 1030 and 1058, respectively. Ayodhya then overshadowed Lopburi and other cities in the lower Chaophraya Plain by exploiting opportunities created by the decline of the
Srivijaya trading network in the 13th century. in several Chinese and
Đại Việt texts from 1149 to the official establishment of the Ayutthaya Kingdom in 1351. There are many records of Xiān invasion of
Champa, Xī lǐ (), and
Samudera Pasai Sultanate on
Sumatra, as well as a well-known bas relief panel of
Angkor Wat showing mercenaries of the Khmer army, who, among others, are identified as
syam-kuk, perhaps "of the land of Siam." One cannot be certain what ethnolinguistic group these mercenaries belonged to, but many scholars have thought them to be
Siam people. In 1431, a
Ryukyu ship reported that “the King of Xian had punished the previous chief of
Palembang and had put a new chief in power. It was recorded by Zhou Daguan that Cambodia also imported cloth and silkworms from Xian, and suffered from repeated attacks by its people. The Laotian
Phra That Phanom Chronicle refers to Ayodhya before the traditional formation of the Ayutthaya Kingdom by several names, including Pahalanakhon (),
Dvaravati, and Sri Ayodhiya Dvaravati Nakhon (). Meanwhile, the
Lan Na's Yonok Chronicle mentions Ayodhya during this period as Guru Rath (; ), which is almost identical to the
Kolo Kingdom or Kamalanka in several Chinese texts that existed from the 1st to 11th century. It was ruled by King Guru Wongsa (; ), and its people were called
Khlom (), which has been mispronounced as
Khom till the present day.
Traditional founding of Ayutthaya , painting made by Nai Im according to the royal decree of king
Chulalongkorn in 1897. Ayutthaya was traditionally founded by King
Uthong on 4 March 1351. This fact, however, has been subject to long scholarly debate. According to Chris Baker-Pasuk Phongpaichit, there are at least seven legends about who Uthong was: "a Northern Thai prince, a fugitive Chinese prince from the sea, a Khmer noble from Angkor, a ruler from one of the gulf cities, or a
Chola." Other than being the legendary founder of Ayutthaya, the only thing known about Uthong in the chronicles is the year of his death.
Early maritime dominance File:Ayutthaya Kingdom map in the 14th century.png|The Ayutthaya heartland (red), invaded territories (light red) and the Northern Cities (blue) in the 14th century File:Ayutthaya attack on Malay.jpg|Ayutthaya attack and subjugation of the Malay peninsula and Sumatra between the 13th–16th century, according to Chris Baker:
Ayutthaya rising from land or sea? File:Fra Mauro map, sector XX.jpg|Ayutthaya is shown in the
Fra Mauro map of the world (c. 1450) under the name "Scierno", derived from the Persian "Shahr-I-Naw", meaning 'New City' In the 1290s through to the 1490s, Ayutthaya sent forces down to the peninsula and demanded tribute from the Malay principalities down to
Temasek (
Singapura (modern Singapore)) and
Sumatra. The early Ayutthaya polity was a maritime-oriented confederation, more in line with the Malay polities of Maritime Southeast Asia than with states inland like Sukhothai and the Northern Cities. Muslim and European mapmakers labeled the
Malay Peninsula up to the
Tenasserim coast as part of Ayutthaya in the 15th and early 16th centuries. Early Ayutthaya did not keep records and their early dynastic chronology is likely fabricated by later Ayutthaya elites writing their histories: the early chronology in the palace chronicles does not correlate with the Ayutthaya temple chronicles nor the Chinese court chronicles. circa 1360: from north to south:
Lan Xang,
Lanna,
Northern Cities, Ayutthaya,
Angkor and
Champa The integrity of the patchwork of cities of the early Ayutthaya Kingdom was maintained largely through familial connections under the
mandala system. King Uthong had his son, Prince
Ramesuan, the ruler of Lopburi (Lavo),(in modern
Chainat Province) and his brother-in-law,
Khun Luang Pa-ngua, the ruler of Suphanburi. The ruler of Phetchaburi was his distant relative. The king would appoint a prince or a relative to be the ruler of a city, and a city that was ruled by a prince was called
Muang Look Luang (). Each city ruler swore allegiance and loyalty to the King of Ayutthaya but also retained certain privileges. Politics of Early Ayutthaya was characterized by rivalries between the two dynasties; the
Uthong dynasty based on Lopburi (Lavo) and the
Suphannabhum dynasty based on Suphanburi. Traditional narratives argued that Ayutthaya conquered Sukhothai,
Angkor, etc., but more modern narratives argue that territorial conquest was a European thing and not a Southeast Asian thing. Rather, the processes which saw Ayutthaya expand was one of political merger and consolidation between the cities at the head of the peninsula and slowly ascending up the Chao Phraya River Basin to the Northern Cities. The culture of early Ayutthaya, described by
Ma Huan, a scribe on
Zheng He's voyages, in the early 15th century, described Ayutthaya as a rowdy port town, whose men practice fighting on water, and where the affairs of everyday life was arranged by the women. The cities on the peninsula regularly complained to the Chinese court about constant Siamese attacks down the peninsula around this time period.
Age of warfare The 1430s through to 1600 marked a period of rising warfare throughout Mainland Southeast Asia. In 1500, the Portuguese noted that Ayutthaya had 100 elephants, 50 years later, Ayutthaya had 50,000 elephants. Ayutthaya began launching military land expeditions far to the west and east. In the west, Ayutthaya fought to acquire the cities of
Tavoy,
Mergui, Tenasserim, and
Martaban in the late 15th century. Song China's increasing interests to sea commerce at the turn of the second millennium made trade between China and the Indian Ocean especially lucrative. In the 1430s,
Ayutthaya attacked Angkor, but did not sack the city, although Ayutthaya did install a short-lived puppet ruler. Ayutthaya's attention to the portage routes across the upper peninsula meant that it did not send a military expedition to the lower peninsula and the Malay States throughout the 16th century.
Centralization and dominance of the Northern lords which house the remains of King
Borommatrailokkanat,
Borommarachathirat III, and
Ramathibodi II Ayutthaya's sphere of influence was now stretched from the Northern Cities to the Malay Peninsula, with its heartland centered around the old Ayutthaya-Suphanburi-Lopburi-Phetchaburi polity. The
Muang Look Luang system was inadequate to govern relatively vast territories. The government of Ayutthaya was centralized and institutionalized under King Borommatrailokkanat in his reforms promulgating in Palatine Law of 1455, which became the constitution of Ayutthaya for the rest of its existence and continued to be the constitution of Siam until 1892, albeit in altered forms. The central government was dominated by the
Chatusadom system ( lit. "Four Pillars), in which the court was led by two
Prime Ministers; the
Samuha Nayok the Civil Prime Minister and the
Samuha Kalahom the Grand Commander of Forces overseeing Civil and Military affairs, respectively. Under the
Samuha Nayok were the Four Ministries. In the regions, the king sent not "rulers" but "governors" to govern cities. The cities were under governors who were from nobility not rulers with privileges as it had previously been. The "Hierarchy of Cities" was established and cities were organized into four levels. Large, top level cities held authorities over secondary or low-level cities. The increased wealth of Ayutthaya resulted in the beginnings of a chronic succession struggle for the Ayutthaya throne. Due to the lack of stable
succession law, from each succession from the 16th century onwards, princely governors or powerful dignitaries claiming their merit gathered their forces and moved on the capital to press their claims, culminating in several bloody coups. With the dominance of the Suphanburi clan, it now had to face the militaristic nobles of the Northern Cities, who increasingly came south for wealth prospects at an increasingly wealthy and powerful Ayutthaya. In 1568, Mahinthrathirat revolted when his father managed to return from Pegu as a
Buddhist monk.
The ensuing third siege captured Ayutthaya in 1569 and Bayinnaung made
Maha Thammarachathirat (also known as Sanphet I) his vassal king, instating the
Sukhothai dynasty. although the existence of this battle has been challenged by modern scholars such as
Sulak Sivaraksa. Today, this Siamese victory is
observed annually on 18 January as
Royal Thai Armed Forces day. Later that same year warfare erupted again (the
Burmese–Siamese War (1593–1600)) when the Siamese invaded Burma, first occupying the
Tanintharyi province in southeast Burma in 1593 and later the cities of
Moulmein and
Martaban in 1594. In 1599, the Siamese attacked the city of Pegu but were ultimately driven out by Burmese rebels who had assassinated Burmese King
Nanda Bayin and taken power. Ekathotsarot's reign was marked with stability for Siam and its sphere of influence, as well as increased foreign interactions, especially with the
Dutch Republic,
Portuguese Empire, and Tokugawa Shogunate (by way of the
Red Seal Ships), among others. Indeed, representatives from many foreign lands began to fill Siam's civil and military administration – Japanese traders and mercenaries led by
Yamada Nagamasa, for example, had considerable influence with the king. Ekathotsarot's era ended with his death in 1610/11. and expanded Siam's foreign trade ties to include both the
English East India Company and
French East India Company, along with new merchant colonies in Siam representing communities from all across Asia. In 1662 war between
Burma and Ayutthaya erupted again when King Narai attempted to take advantage of unrest in Burma to seize control of Lan Na. Fighting along the border between the two adversaries continued for two years and at one time Narai seized Tavoy and Martaban. Ultimately, Narai and the Siamese ran out of supplies and returned home back within their border. During this time, Narai abandoned the traditional capital of
Ayutthaya for a new
Jesuit-designed palace in
Lopburi. Much of this turmoil was primarily religious, as the French Jesuits were openly attempting to convert Narai and the royal family to
Catholicism. While members of the anti-foreign court faction were primarily concerned with Catholic influence, there is evidence to suggest that Narai was equally interested in Islam, and had no desire to fully convert to either religion. Nonetheless, a dissatisfied faction now led by Narai's celebrated elephantry commander,
Phetracha, had long planned a coup to remove Narai. When the king became seriously ill in May 1688, Phetracha and his accomplices had him arrested along with Phaulkon and many members of the royal family, all of whom were put to death besides Narai, who died in captivity in July of that year. With the king and his heirs out of the way, Phetracha then usurped the throne and officially crowned himself King of Ayutthaya on 1 August. particularly due to trade with
Qing China. The growth of China's population in the late 17th–18th centuries, alongside nationwide rice shortages and famines in Southern China, meant that China was eager to import rice from other nations, particularly from Ayutthaya. During the Late Ayutthaya Period (1688–1767), the Chinese population in Ayutthaya possibly tripled in size to 30,000 from 1680 to 1767. The Chinese played a pivotal role in stimulating Ayutthaya's economy in the last 100 years of the kingdom's existence and eventually played a pivotal role in Siam's quick recovery from the
Burmese invasions of the 1760s, whose post-Ayutthaya monarchs (
Taksin and
Rama I), held close ties, through blood and through political connections, to this
Sino-Siamese community. The last monarch,
Ekkathat, alongside his brother,
Uthumphon, undermined Prince
Thammathibet, the Front Palace Uparaj and designated heir to his father, King
Borommakot, by instigating or exposing his affair with two of his fathers' consorts. Prince Thammathibet was executed for his alleged crimes. Corruption was rampant due to economic prosperity. Position buying and bribery for political offices became commonplace. File:ประตูมุกพระวิหารพระพุทธชินราช วัดพระศรีรัตนมหาธาตุวรมหาวิหาร จังหวัดพิษณุโลก.jpg|The mother-of-pearl inlaid doors of the Phra Phuttha Chinnarat vihara,
Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat, Phitsanulok. Built in 1756 during the reign of King
Borommakot, they are considered a masterpiece of late Ayutthaya art. File:จิตรกรรมฝาผนังสมัยอยุธยา.JPG|18th-century Ayutthaya temple murals in Wat Ko Kaew Suttharam,
Phetchaburi, constructed by King Borommakot (r. 1733–1758) File:001 Wihan Phra Mongkhon Bophit (9197756441).jpg|Wihan Phra Mongkhon Bopit, one of King Borommakot's major construction projects that drastically transformed the 18th century Ayutthaya skyline
Military and political situation to 1759 In the period between 1600 and 1759, the scale of war subsided compared to the preceding era of warfare. Narai tried (and failed) to capture Chiang Mai in the 1650s and 1660s. Ayutthaya fought with the
Nguyễn Lords (Vietnamese rulers of south Vietnam) for control of
Cambodia starting around 1715. In contrast, the Ayutthaya Kingdom and the Restored Taungoo Burma overall generally engaged in harmonious relations with each other and traded an embassy with each other in the 17th century. Ayutthaya's military organization had remained virtually unchanged for the next 150 years. Ayutthaya still heavily relied on its mercenary forces. It had failed to create an elite military caste like the
Samurai of Japan or the
Sikh Rajputs, perhaps due to Ayutthaya kings purposely undermining the creation of such an elite group of warriors that can significantly influence or challenge the throne. On the other hand, the city of Ayutthaya relied on the wet season monsoons making the city impenetrable to a siege for six months a year. Ayutthaya had over time amassed a huge stockpile of large cannons and arms that amazed the Burmese when they opened the treasury of Ayutthaya in the sack of Ayutthaya in 1767. It however lacked the men to arm these weapons, with the failure of the Ayutthaya corvee system and increased economic incentives for phrai to escape due to greater integration with the world's economy over the past 150 years of peace.
Aung Zeiya, a local Burmese leader, arose against the Mons and reconquered
Upper Burma, proclaiming himself
King Alaungpaya and establishing militaristic regime of the new
Konbaung dynasty. Alaungpaya proceeded to conquer the Mons of
Lower Burma in 1757, Alaungpaya marched his war-hardened Burmese armies to attack Ayutthaya in mid-1759 conquering Tenasserim, coming through the
Singkhon Pass and attacking on the way to northwestern outskirts of
Ayutthaya city itself in early 1760. Ayutthaya was not prepared for war. Long absence of external threats and economic prosperity in the mid-eighteenth century rendered traditional conscription system useless and ineffective. Manpower shortage undermined Siamese defense system. Panicked Ayutthayan people beseeched the more-capable temple king Uthumphon to leave monkhood to lead the defenses. Fortunately, the treacherous wet rainy season arrived, obliging the Burmese to retreat. Alaungpaya himself was either ill and injured from cannon explosion, died on his way back to Burma in 1760. Ayutthaya was thus saved from Burmese conquest for one last time. After the Burmese retreat, Siam did little to improve or reform its own military in preparation against Burmese invasions. Ekkathat pressured Uthumphon to return to monkhood permanently in mid-1760 and resumed powers. Prince Thepphiphit, who had been exiled to Ceylon previously in 1758, became involved in local rebellion and was repatriated to Siam in 1762, upsetting Ekkathat. The new Burmese king
Hsinbyushin, who had partaken in the 1759–1760 invasion of Siam, was determined to accomplish the unfinished campaign of his father Alaungpaya to conquer Ayutthaya. Burma conquest of Lanna (modern
Northern Thailand) in 1763 and Laos in 1765 allowed Burmese access to vast manpower. Hsinbyushin ordered the grand invasion of Ayutthaya through two routes; the
Tavoy-Tenasserim route with 20,000 Burmese-Mon men under
Maha Nawrahta and the Lanna route under
Nemyo Thihapate with 20,000 Burmese-Lanna men. These two routes were to converge on Ayutthaya. In early 1765, the Burmese Tavoy regiment conquered
Western Siam. a British merchant who happened to be trading in Ayutthaya, led British-Siamese forces to attack the Burmese in the Battle of Nonthaburi in December 1765 but was defeated. Two Burmese invading regiments eventually converged on Ayutthaya in January 1766 and laid siege. Maha Nawrahta placed his Tavoy regiment at Siguk (modern
Bang Ban district) to the west of Ayutthaya in Nemyo Thihapate at Paknam Prasop (ฺ
Bang Pahan district) to the north. Ayutthaya initially fared well in the siege due to abundance of supplies as Ayutthayan defenders simply waited for rainy season to arrive. The Burmese, however, did not plan to leave.
Bang Rachan camps, a group of self-defenders in
Bang Rachan, managed to locally resist Burmese occupying forces for five months in early 1766. When the rainy season approached, the Burmese held their grounds by staying on flotillas and concentrated on high grounds. The Burmese approached Ayutthaya city walls in September 1766. In early 1766, due to conflicts over the
Shan States,
Qing China invaded Burma in the
Sino-Burmese War. Burmese king Hsinbyushin urged his commanders to finish up the conquest of Ayutthaya in order to divert forces to the Chinese front. The besieging Burmese then constructed twenty-seven fort towers surrounding Ayutthaya to escalate the siege in January 1767. The situation for Ayutthayan defenders became dire as more Siamese people surrendered to the Burmese An estimated 200,000 Siamese died during the war and 30,000 to 100,000 Siamese people, including the temple king Uthumphon, other members of Ban Phlu Luang dynasty and thousands of courtiers, were deported
en masse from
Central Thailand to Burmese capital of
Ava. The Burmese conquest of Siam in 1767 left Siam depopulated Local regimes emerged from various regional centers due to absence of central authority. Lieberman states that, "hundreds of thousands possibly died during the [1765–67] Burmese invasion." Many people were either forcibly taken by the Burmese or fled into the forests. Objects were hauled back to Burma. Whatever that wasn't movable was burned by Burmese soldiers. Historians Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit describe the fall of the city as a failure of defence and a failure of dealing with rising wealth. By 1767, Ayutthaya had become a prize that many kingdoms would seek. In an age where warfare was fought among kings than ethnic boundaries, a number of Siamese joined the Burmese in the sack of Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya nobles who were seized from Ayutthaya settled according to their stations at the court of Ava and settled in well, according to the Burmese chronicles. Historian Nidhi Eoseewong, says the "kingdom fell even before the walls of Ayutthaya fell". He gathered his forces and retook the ruined capital of Ayutthaya from the Burmese garrison at Pho Sam Thon in June 1767, using his connections to the Chinese community to lend him significant resources and political support. He finally established a capital at
Thonburi, across the
Chao Phraya River from the present capital,
Bangkok. Thaksin ascended the throne, becoming known as King Taksin. By 1771, he had defeated all of the local warlords and reunited Siam, with the exception of the cities of Mergui and Tenasserim. The conflict between Burma and Siam would last for another 50 years, depopulating large areas of Siam (including the Northern Cities and Phitsanulok, the former second capital of Ayutthaya) and leaving some areas deserted as late as the 1880s. Ayutthaya however represented centuries of political and economic development that was hard to destroy. It was soon resettled, its former temples being used for festivals and celebrations. while the prospect of future Burmese invasions meant that there was not enough time to build a capital via the traditional method during the early Rattanakosin Kingdom. ==Government==