Thailand
The country's official name was Siam (Thai : สยาม; IPA : sa'ja:m RTGS : Sayam origin unknown) until 24 June 1939, and between 1945 and 11 May 1949, when it was changed to Thailand. The word Thai (ไทย) is not, as commonly believed to be, derived from the word Tai (ไท) meaning "Free" in the Thai language; it is however, the name of an ethnic group from the central plains (the Thai people). A famous Thai scholar argued that Tai (ไท) simply means "people" or "human being" since his investigation shows that in some rural areas the word "Tai" was used instead of the usual Thai word "khon" (คน) for people. With taht mind the locals seemed to have also accepted the alternative meaning and will verbally state that it means "Land of free". This might be due to languge barriers and avoidance of long difficult explanations. (http://en.wikipedia.org/) The region known today as Thailand has been inhabited by humans since the paleolithic period (about 500,000-10,000 years ago). Prior to the fall of the khmer Empire in the 13th century, various states thrived there, such as the various Tai, Mon, Khmer and Malay kingdoms, as seen through the numerous archaeological sites and artifacts that are scattered throughout the Siamese landscape. Prior to the 12th century however, the first Thai or Siamese state is traditionally considered to be the Buddhist kingdom of Sukhothai, which was founded in 1238, following the decline and fall of the Khmer empire in the 13th-15th century AD.
A century later, Sukhothai's power was overshadowed by the larger Siamese Kingdom of Autthaya, established in the mid-14th century. After Ayuttha fell in 1767 to the Burmese, Thonburi was the capital of Thailand for a brief period under King Taksin the Great. The current (Rattanakosin) era of Thai history began in 1782 following the establishment of Bangkok as a capital of the Chakri dynasty under King Rama I the Great.
European powers began traveling to Thailand in the 16th century. Despite European pressure, Thailand is the only Southeast Asian nation never been colonised by a European country. Two main reason for this were that Thailand had a long succession of very able rulers in the 1800s and that it was able to exploit the rivalry and tension between the French and the British. As a result, the country remained as a buffer state between parts of Southeast Asia that were colonised by two colonial powers. Despite this, Western influence led to many reforms in the 19th century and major concessions, most notably being the loss of large territory on the east side of the Mekong to the French and the step by step absorption by Britain of the Shan (Thai Yai) States (now in Myanmar) and the Malay Penisula. The loss initially included Penang and Tumasik and eventually culmnated in the loss of three predominantly ethnic-Malay southern provinces, which later became Malaysia's three northern states, under the Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909.
