Thonburi Kingdom

Taksin's reunification of Siam File:Phrayatakjourney.jpg|Journey of Phraya Tak from Ayutthaya to Chanthaburi and his return to reconquer Ayutthaya in 1767, according to traditional Thai historiography. File:1767 Separate Factions of Siam.png|The five states that emerged following the dissolution of the Ayutthaya Kingdom in 1767. Phraya Tak, personal name Sin, Zheng Zhao (鄭昭) By the time of Burmese Invasion of 1765-1767, Phraya Tak had been the governor of Tak and called to join the defense of Ayutthaya. There, Phraya Tak competed with Pu Lan the Phraya Chanthaburi or the governor of Chanthaburi for domination over the eastern coastline. In the famous episode, Phraya Tak ordered all cooking pots in the supplies to be destroyed and then successfully took Chanthaburi in June 1767. Phraya Tak established his dominions of influence on the eastern coast stretching from Bang Plasoi (Chonburi) to Trat. Ayutthaya fell in April 1767. Due to the intervening Sino-Burmese War, Burma was obliged to divert most of its forces from Ayutthaya to the Chinese front. To the north, Chaophraya Phitsanulok Rueang made his base in Phitsanulok, while the heterodox monk Chao Phra Fang to the Chao Phraya. He took Thonburi and proceeded to attack the Burmese at Phosamton in November, defeating the Burmese commander Thugyi or Suki. and Siam was unified at last. Invasion of Cambodia and Hà Tiên In the eighteenth century, the port city of Hà Tiên, ruled by the Cantonese Mạc Thiên Tứ, arose to become the economic centre of the Gulf of Siam. After the fall of Ayutthaya, two Ayutthayan princes: Prince Chao Sisang and Prince Chao Chui, took refuge at Oudong the royal city of Cambodia and Hà Tiên, respectively. The Qing Chinese court at Beijing refused to recognize King Taksin as the ruler of Siam in Chinese tributary system because Mạc Thiên Tứ had told Beijing that the remaining descendants of the Ayutthayan dynasty were with him in Hà Tiên. In 1769, King Taksin urged the pro-Vietnamese King Ang Ton of Cambodia to send tributes to Siam. Ang Ton refused and Taksin sent armies to invade Cambodia in 1769 but did not meet with success. In 1771, Taksin resumed his campaigns to invade Cambodia and Hà Tiên in order to find the Ayutthayan princes and to put the pro-Siamese Ang Non on the Cambodian throne. King Taksin ordered Phraya Yommaraj Thongduang (later King Rama I) to bring the army of 10,000 men to invade Cambodia by land, while King Taksin himself with Phraya Phiphit Chen Lian (陳聯, called Trần Liên in Vietnamese sources) Ang Ton resumed his rule in Cambodia. With the Vietnamese support dwindling due to the Tây Sơn uprising, however, Ang Ton decided to reconcile with his rival Ang Non and with Siam. Ang Ton abdicated in 1775 in favor of Ang Non, who became the new pro-Siamese King of Cambodia. or the ruler of Siam in 1777 in the Chinese tributary system. Conquest of Lanna After the Burmese conquest of Lanna (modern Northern Thailand) in 1763, Lanna including Chiang Mai returned to the Burmese rule. Thado Mindin the Burmese governor of Chiang Mai oppressed the local Lanna nobles. King Taksin marched against the Burmese-held Chiang Mai in 1771 but failed to take the city. In Chiang Mai, Thado Mindin faced opposition from Phaya Chaban Boonma, the native Lanna noble who led the resistance against Burmese domination. In 1772, King Hsinbyushin of the Burmese Konbaung dynasty realized that Siam had recovered and arose powerful under Thonburi regime. Hsinbyushin initiated a new campaign against Siam. He ordered troops to be gathered in Burmese Chiang Mai and the Mon town of Martaban in order to invade Siam from both the north and the west in two directions: a similar approach to the invasion of 1765-1767. of Lampang, vassal lord of Lampang to Taksin and the first two Chakri monarchs, helped to repopulate Lan Na in the late 18th-early 19th centuries The Burmese forces from Chiang Mai attacked the Northern Siamese border towns of Sawankhalok in 1771 and Phichai in 1772-1773. King Taksin marched to Tak where he received the Mon refugees. Taksin ordered Chaophraya Chakri to lead the vanguard to Lampang, where Kawila had earlier insurrected against the Burmese. Burmese captives from this battle. 's invasion of Siam in 1775–1776 was the largest and most intense Burmese-Siamese War in the Thonburi Period, King Ong Boun of Vientiane had been a Burmese ally, as he instigated the Burmese to invade his rival Luang Phrabang two times in 1765 and 1771. King Taksin had been suspicious about Ong Boun being in cooperation with Burma. In 1777, the governor of Nangrong rebelled against Thonburi with support from Champasak. King Taksin ordered Chaophraya Chakri to lead the Siamese armies to invade and retaliate against Champasak. After this expedition, Taksin rewarded Chakri with the rank and title of Somdet Chaophraya Maha Kasatsuk. The rank of Somdet Chaophraya was the highest possible a noble could attain with honors equal to a prince. In 1778, Phra Vo, All three Lao kingdoms of Luang Phrabang, Vientiane and Champasak became the tributary kingdoms of Siam on this occasion. In May 1781, Taksin dispatched his first and only official tributary mission to China. led by Chaophrayas Chakri and Surasi, to fight the Vietnamese forces of Nguyễn Phúc Ánh to restore Siamese influence in Cambodia and to install his own son Inthraphithak as new King of Cambodia. He burnt a court lady alive, suspecting that she had stolen from his treasury and falsely punished around three hundred people, for their alleged smuggling of rice and salt, at the instigation of two corrupted officials. Chinese merchants had to renounce almost all commerce, some were even killed. In March 1782, a rebellion broke out against Taksin in Ayutthaya due to conflicts over treasure digging rights. King Taksin sent Phraya San to quell the rebellion. However, Phraya San instead joined the rebels and returned to attack Thonburi. With most of his troops away in Cambodia, Taksin relied on Portuguese gunners to defend him, who would soon abandon the king. Taksin surrendered. Phraya San forced Taksin to abdicate and become a monk at Wat Arun with Phraya San taking control in Thonburi. Chaophraya Chakri in Cambodia, informed about the incidents, assigned his nephew Phra Suriya Aphai to lead armies from Nakhon Ratchasima to pacify Thonburi. Phraya San ordered Taksin's nephew Prince Anurak Songkhram to attack Phra Suriya Aphai at Bangkok Noi in the Battle of Bangkok Noi in April 1782. Phra Suriya Aphai was about to be overrun by Phraya San's forces when Siri Rochana, Lanna wife of Surasi, appealed to Binnya Sein the Mon leader to assault Prince Anurak Songkhram in the rear, allowing Phra Suriya Aphai to prevail with Phraya San's army retreated. Chaophraya Chakri, having brokered a truce with the Vietnamese, marched to return to Thonburi. He convened a judicial court to try Taksin and Phraya San of their wrongdoings. Taksin was executed for his "improper and unjust actions that caused great pain for the kingdom". Phraya San, his supporters and Thonburi loyalists, total number of 150 people, were also executed. Taksin's son Inthraphithak, Taksin's nephews Anurak Songkhram and Prince Ramphubet were executed but his other young children were spared and allowed to live. Chaophraya Chakri ascended the throne as King Rama I, founding the new and current-ruling Chakri dynasty of the Rattanakosin Kingdom in April 1782. ==Government==

and Guillaume Raynal, Siam (green) shown on the peninsula Thonburi government organization was centred on a loose-knit organization of city-states, whose provincial lords were appointed through 'personal ties' to the king, similar to Ayutthaya and, later, Rattanakosin administrations. Thonburi inherited most of the government apparatus from the Late Ayutthaya. Two prime ministers; Samuha Nayok the prime minister and Samuha Kalahom the minister of military, led the central government. In the early years of Thonburi, Chaophraya Chakri Mud the Muslim of Persian descent hold the position of Samuha Nayok until his death in 1774. Chakri Mut was succeeded as prime minister by Chaophraya Chakri Thongduang who later became King Rama I. Below the prime minister were the four ministers of Chatusadom. Like in Ayutthaya, the regional government was organized in the hierarchy of cities, in which smaller towns were under jurisdiction of larger cities. The provincial government was an association of local lords tied by personal ties to the king. while the central Chatusadom ministers were ranked lower as Phraya. Chaophraya Surasi Boonma was the governor of Phitsanulok during Thonburi times. Phitsanulok and other Northern Siamese towns were devastated by Maha Thiha Thura's invasion in 1775–1776. After his conquest of the Ligor regime in 1769, Taksin made his nephew Prince Nara Suriyawong the ruler of Nakhon Si Thammarat. Prince Nara Suriyawong of Ligor died in 1776 and King Taksin made Chaophraya Nakhon Nu, the former leader of the Ligor regime, an autonomous ruler of Nakhon Si Thammarat. Ligor would enjoy autonomy until the end of Thonburi Period in 1782 when King Rama I curbed the power of the Ligor by demoting the ruler of Ligor to be the 'governor' instead. With the exception of Bunma (later Chao Phraya Surisi and later Maha Sura Singhanat), a member of the old Ayutthaya artistocracy who had joined Taksin early on in his campaigns of reunification, and later Bunma's brother, Thongduang (later Chao Phraya Chakri and later King Rama I), high political positions and titles within the Thonburi Kingdom were mainly given to Taksin's early followers, instead of the already established Siamese nobility who survived after the fall of Ayutthaya, many of whom having supported Thepphiphit, the governor of Phitsanulok and an Ayutthaya aristocrat, during the Siamese civil war. In the Northern cities, centred on Sukhothai and Phitsanulok, Taksin installed early supporters of his who had distinguished themselves in battle, many of whom were allowed to establish their own local dynasties afterwards, but elsewhere, several noble families had kept their titles and positions within the new kingdom (Nakhon Si Thammarat, Lan Na), (the ruler of Nakhon Si Thammarat that Taksin defeated during the civil war was reinstated as its ruler) whose personal connections made them a formidable force within the Thonburi court. Kingship (Thonburi Palace), the former royal palace of Taksin, now used as the Royal Thai Navy's HQ, view from Phra Prang of Wat Arun, Thonburi, Bangkok. The Thonburi period saw the return of 'personal kingship', a style of ruling that was used by Naresuan but was abandoned by Naresuan's successors after his death. Taksin, similar to Naresuan, personally led armies into battle and often revealed himself to the common folk by partaking in public activities and traditional festivities, thereby abandoning the shroud of mysticism as adopted by many Ayutthaya monarchs. Also similar to Naresuan, Taksin was known for being a cruel and authoritarian monarch. Taksin reigned rather plainly, doing little to emphasize his new capital as the spiritual successor to Ayutthaya and adopted an existing wat besides his palace, Wat Jaeng (also spelled Wat Chaeng, later Wat Arun), as the principal temple of his kingdom. Taksin largely emphasized the building of moats and defensive walls in Thonburi, all while only building a modest Chinese-style residence and adding a pavilion to house the Emerald Buddha and Phra Bang images at Wat Jaeng, recently taken in 1778 from the Lao states (Vientiane and Luang Prabang, respectively). Territories After the Fall of Ayutthaya in 1767, the Siamese mandala system was in disarray and its former tributary states faced political uncertainties. The Malay sultanates that used to pay bunga mas tributes to Ayutthaya initially nullified their tributary ties and refused any further allegiance. and expanded Siam to its greatest territorial extent up to that point. During the Thonburi period, Siam acquired new Prathetsarats or tributary kingdoms. Thonburi took control of Lanna in 1775, ending the 200 years of Burmese vassalage, which became Northern Thailand today. Taksin appointed his supporters against the Burmese, Phaya Chaban and Kawila, as the governors of Chiang Mai and Lampang respectively in 1775. The princedom of Nan also came under the power of Thonburi in 1775. However, Burma pushed on an intensive campaign to reclaim lost Lanna territories, resulting in the abandonment of Chiang Mai in 1777 and Nan in 1775 due to Burmese threats. Only Lampang under Kawila stood as the forefront citadel against Burmese incursions. After the capture of Vientiane in 1779, all of the three Lao kingdoms of Luang Phrabang, Vientiane and Champasak became tributary kingdoms under Siamese suzerainty. Vassal (mandala) states of the Thonburi Kingdom at its height in 1782, to varying degrees of autonomy, included the Nakhon Si Thammarat Kingdom, the Northern Thai principalities of Chiang Mai, Lampang, Nan, Lamphun, and Phrae, and the Lao Kingdoms of Champasak, Luang Phrabang, and Vientiane. ==Economy==

In the Late Ayutthaya Period, Siam was a prominent rice exporter to Qing China. After the Fall of Ayutthaya in 1767, the Siamese economy collapsed. Rice production and economic activities ceased. Thonburi period was the time of economic crisis as people died from warfare and starvation and inflation was prevalent. Siam became a rice importer. In 1767, after his reconquest of Ayutthaya, King Taksin donated to over 1,000 desolate people. He also ordered an Ayutthayan bronze cannon to be broken down into pieces to buy rice and distribute to the starving populace, earning him a great popularity. The rice commodity price in Thonburi period was high, reaching apex in 1770 at the price of three Chang per one Kwian of rice. Thonburi court purchased imported rice and distribute it to ease the famine crisis. The port city-state of Hà Tiên was the major rice exporter into Siam before 1771. Qing China and the Dutch were the main trading partners of Siam in the Late Ayutthaya Period. The Ayutthayan court relied on trade with China under the Chinese tributary system as a source of revenue. The Dutch had earlier abandoned their factory in Ayutthaya and left Siam in 1765 due to the Burmese invasion. The Thonburi court sent a letter to the Supreme Government of Dutch East Indies Company at Batavia in 1769 in efforts to resume the trade but the Dutch were not interested. King Taksin, himself a Teochew Chinese, sought imperial recognition from the Qing Beijing court. However, the Qing court under Emperor Qianlong refused to accept Taksin as the rightful ruler of Siam because Mạc Thiên Tứ the ruler of Hà Tiên had told Beijing that remaining descendants of the fallen Ayutthayan dynasty were with him in Hà Tiên. (王満盛, a grandson of Ong Heng-Chuan 王興全 the Hokkien Chinese Phrakhlang of the Late Ayutthaya) and Phra Phichaiwari Lin Ngou (林伍). J. G. Koenig, the Danish botanist who visited Siam in 1779, observed that Siam "was amply provided with all sorts of articles from China" and that King Taksin made fortunes by "buying the best goods imported at a very low price and selling them again to the merchants of the town at 100 percent interest". During the early years of Thonburi, a Teochew Chinese Phraya Phiphit Chen Lian was the acting Phrakhlang or the Minister of Trade. Chen Lian was appointed as the governor of Hà Tiên in 1771 and was succeeded as Phrakhlang by another Chinese Phraya Phichai Aisawan Yang Jinzong (楊進宗). Siamese economic conditions improved over time as trade and production resumed. After the devastation of Central Siam by the Burmese invasion of 1775–1776, however, Siam was again plunged into another economic downturn. King Taksin ordered his high-ranking ministers to supervise the rice production in the outskirts of Thonburi and had to postpone tributary mission to China. During the Burmese Invasion of Ayutthaya, the elites of Ayutthaya found no way to protect their wealth and belongings other than by simply burying them in the grounds. However, not all of them returned to claim their wealth as they either died or were deported to Burma. Surviving owners and other hunters rushed to dig for treasures in the grounds of the former royal city. This Ayutthaya treasure rush was so widespread and lucrative that the Thonburi court intervened to tax. ==Demography==

on Chao Phraya River Population of Siam decades before the Fall of Ayutthaya in 1767 was estimated to be around two million people, with 200,000 people in the royal city of Ayutthaya. inhabitants of the Ayutthaya city were deported to Burma. No direct records exist about the demographic change post-1767 but it is clear that a great number of Siamese people died in the Burmese invasion war and the overall Siamese population plummeted. Central Siam was the most affected region due to its position in the centre of warfare. Large number of people also escaped chaos by living in the jungles unreached by any government authorities. The general shortage of manpower put Siam into economic and military disadvantages. In 1782, the newfound city of Bangkok had a population of around 50,000 people, presumably what Thonburi city had at the end of the period. Ineffective manpower control had been a problem since the Late Ayutthaya Period and was one of the factors that contributed to the Fall of Ayutthaya. In 1773, King Taksin introduced the Sak Lek Mai Mu or Conscription Tattooing, which had not been widely practiced before, to put stringent control over manpower. Able-bodied male Phrai commoners of eligible age were drafted and marked onto their wrists with small tattoos denoting their responsible departments – a form of universal conscription. Krom Suratsawadi or the Conscription Department would take the task of registering the recruits into Hangwow registers. This Sak Lek practice enabled more effective recruitment Thonburi Kingdom also acquired its population through forced ethnic immigrations in the course of military subjugation of neighboring polities. Two major population influx events occurred in 1773 with 10,000 Cambodians The Cambodian and the Lao people became the major labor force in the foundation of Bangkok in 1782. A decade later, during the Nine Armies' War in 1786, Northern Siam was so depopulated that it cannot raise an army to defend itself against the Burmese invasion. In 1833, only 5,000 men from Phitsanulok, 500 men from Sawankhalok and 600 men from Sukhothai were drafted into the Siamese–Vietnamese War, showing significant drop in population. ==Religion==

Theravada Buddhism in Bangkok Noi district, was the residence of Sangharaja Si who was the Sangharaja or Buddhist patriarch from 1770 to 1780 and again from 1782 to 1794. of the Chao Phraya River from Wat Arun, 1865 After the Fall of Ayutthaya, the Ayutthayan monastic order dissolved and Buddhist monks were left unsupported. King Taksin made efforts, in his reconstruction of Siam, to rehabilitate Theravada Buddhism. Taksin ordered his officials to search for remaining learned monks of knowledge to give them new robes and honor, inviting them to stay in Thonburi. In 1768, King Taksin had the monks assembled at Wat Bangwayai temple (modern Wat Rakhang), where Taksin appointed the new monastic hierarchy in order to restore Siamese ecclesiastic organization which mindfulness and meditations were the way to achieve. In late 1776, King Taksin began to actively pursue esoteric Borān Kammaṭṭhāna meditational practices. He seriously studied meditation methods with the monk Phra Wannarat Thongyu – Buddhist literature on cosmology. Upholding Buddhism had been considered royal duties but Taksin went beyond being Buddhist patron by taking the role of teacher and leader of the Sangha in the Sangha between those who complied with the king's rhetoric and those who rejected. Sangharaja Si insisted that monks were always superior to laymen. The angered king stripped Venerable Si of his Sangharaja position and made the monk Chuen of Wat Hong, who supported Taksin's assertion, the new Sangharaja instead. Five hundred monks who refused to obey royal orders were beaten as punishment. Portuguese Christian survivors from Ayutthaya to resettle in the Kudi Chin district on the west bank of Chao Phraya. Olivier-Simon Le Bon the Bishop of Metellopolis, a French bishop, arrived in Thonburi in 1772 in efforts to re-establish Christian mission in Siam. In 1772, dissidents who refused to accept the authority of the French mission moved to the east bank and founded the Holy Rosary Church. Taksin was angered by this argument and issued an edict in October 1774 forbidding the conversion of native Siamese and Mon people to Christianity and Islam. Le Bon retired to Goa where he died in 1780. Coudé went to Bangkok in 1783 where the new King Rama I pardoned Coudé and allowed the Siamese Christian officials to skip the drinking ceremony. ==Diplomacy==

China In September 1767, Li Shiyao (李侍堯), the viceroy of Liangguang, dispatched Xu Quan (許全) to either Hà Tiên or Chanthaburi to investigate the situation in Siam after the Fall of Ayutthaya. The new (Rattanakosin) court was officially recognized and invested title by the Qing in 1787 from the Danish at Tranquebar and presented them to King Taksin along with other goods as gifts. King Taksin was eager to acquire more flintlock muskets so he had his Phrakhlang write a letter to the Danish. In the letter dated to December 1776, the Siamese Phrakhlang requested for a ten thousand of flintlock muskets from David Brown the Danish governor at Tranquebar, through Francis Light, in possible exchange for Siamese tin. ==Military==

, situated in the complex of Wang Derm Palace, now part of the Royal Thai Navy HQ, as it appears today Much like Naresuan two centuries prior, Taksin often personally led his troops on campaign and into battle. Later on, Taksin would increasingly delegate his chief generals, Chao Phraya Chakri and Chao Phraya Surasi, on leading Thonburi military expeditions, such as the 1781 expedition to Cambodia, immediately prior to Taksin's deposition. Following the Burmese–Siamese War (1775–1776), the military balance of power within the kingdom shifted as Taksin took away troops from his old followers in the Northern Cities, who had performed disappointingly in the previous war, and concentrated these forces to protect the capital at Thonburi, also similar to Naresuan, placing more military power within the hands of two powerful brother-generals from the traditional aristocracy, Chao Phraya Chakri and Chao Phraya Surasi, who later overthrew Taksin in an elite-backed coup in 1782. ==See also==