When Siam became Thailand

Brief History Siam Thailand Passport

Around a thousand years ago, people who spoke a language from the Tai group settled in what is now Thailand. The Sanskrit word syam is where the name Siam originated. The Portuguese used it starting in the sixteenth century, and it eventually became a widely used geographical term. Kingdoms came and went, but starting in the 1780s, the Bangkok-based Chakri dynasty reigned over all of Siam. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they expanded their dominion into portions of current Laos, Cambodia, and Malaya, but they were compelled to cede those lands to the French. Siam Thailand Passport

A radical People’s Party was founded in 1927. One of its founders was an army officer by the name of Phibun (full name Luang Phibunsongkhram), who in 1932 assisted in leading a coup against the Chakri King and installed a government with a parliament that was more like western democracy. The monarchy continued, but Phibun became the dictator in 1938. He renamed the nation Thailand and was a fervent nationalist and modernizer.

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