Historical Time Frames

Historical Time Frames

1782 –The inauguration of the Chakris, the coronation of King Rama I. New capital, Bangkok, has established.
1868-1910 – The reformation of Thai tradition, legal, and administrative realm, The revolution of education, public health, and transportation.
1925-1935 – The political revolution
1941 – World War II, Japanese expansion into Thailand

On April6, 1782, The Chakris, the family of Kings of Thailand, were inaugurated together with the coronation of King Rama I. Due to the limited size of Thonburi, the old capital of Thailand or Siam at that time, The King decided to move the capital from those to Bangkok. The History of Bangkok as a capital of Thailand has started since then.

Between 1868 and 1910, in the period of Rama V or King Chulalongkorn, Thai society and quality of life had been significantly improved in all aspects such as education system, public health, and even transportation. Those resulted from the influence of western countries’ expansion especially England’s and France’s. The western tradition had been initially conducted in the King’s palace and after that this trends expanded to all part throughout Thailand. About education system, the king established many schools and the first University in Thailand, Chulalongkorn University named after the King who founded. This could be considered as the most critical change in Thai education system because in the past Thai people usually studied in a temple and regarded monks as teachers. The establishment of schools and university at that time was the first time that allowed everyone to study in higher degree outside temples and gained more knowledge from any field of expertise.

Furthermore, he also promoted Thai public health by establishing Siriraj Hospital founded in 1900 that is the first hospital in Thailand. This led to the vast improvement of Thai public health. Doctors who had in-depth knowledge and experience in medication from Europe were the key factor contributing to an improvement of life quality of Thai people. Although there was a large amount of Thai development in several aspects, the political format of government still was the absolute monarchy, the format that kings had rights to do everything and were beyond any laws.

Until 1932, Rama VII decided to change the form of government from absolute monarchy into democracy. As a result, any kings would be under the laws and people have rights to govern themselves. Thai democratic history has started since then.

In 1941, the Second World War began. Japanese military invaded into every part throughout Southeast Asia, including Thailand. The Japanese expansion brought Thailand into a crisis. They generated curfews to forbid Thai people going outside at nights and forced Thai government to support them in every way. The price of goods rose to the highest point in Thai history. A large number of Thai soldiers and civil were brought into the death without any mistakes. After World War II ended and Japan became the loser in the war, Thailand tried to develop country in every aspect. King Bhumibol has played important role in recovery not only in the physical aspects such as economy or politic, but he has also improved Thailand in emotional aspect. Therefore, there can be no doubt that he has been placed in every hearts of Thai and regarded as a father of the country.