Thailand's Relations with the Neighbors

Thailand's relations with its immediate neighbors comprised commercial intercourse, cultural exchange, as well as frequent political and military conflict. Towards them, Thai policy was relatively “hard” when compared with that towards the dominant external powers in the region.

CHINA

The early foreign relations of the Thai kingdom before the coming of Europeans to Southeast Asia were guided by policies of subjugating the Khmer Empire, of avoiding domination by the Chinese and the Burmese, and of competing with the Burmese and the Vietnamese to expand control over weaker states in the region. The ways and means employed in achieving these goals varied according to prevailing circumstances.

China was the first dominant outside power with which the Thais made an attempt to seek accommodation. Thai perception of the threat from China had historical roots. The fear of Chinese domination was ingrained in the Thais, who emigrated from Southern China in order to escape it. The Thais believed in a legend that they came from the ancient kingdom of Nanchao, in China’s southern province of Yunnan. As China’s pressure on Nanchao increased immigration was accelerated until it extended to the whole of Thailand and into Burma, Laos and Assam as well. According to some account the final impetus was provided by the capture of the Nanchao capital, Talifu, by Kublai Khan’s armies in 1253.

From the Thai point of view, there was then no other great power comparable to China in Asia which might have been used to offset or balance the power of China. China was in fact as well as in name the “Middle Kingdom.” Because of the existence of only one single dominant power, the Thai rulers tried to make a rapprochement with it. From the Sukhothai period in the Thirteenth Century until the reign of King Mongkut(Rama IV) in the Nineteenth Cencury, the Thais had acknowledged China as the strongest power in South-East Asia, and accordingly maintained a friendly relationship with it. A tributary relationship was entered into with the Chinese court. Many diplomatic missions were sent to China bearing suitable gifts for presentation at the Chinese court. While the Chinese regarded gifts irregularly given by the Thai kingdom as a “tribute”, the Thais considered them in accordance with their own tradition, i.e. merely as gifts offered in return for goodwill and friendship. While China regarded the Thai ambassadors as symbol of submission, Thailand, on the contrary, viewed them as engaged in courtesy visits in order to win economic privileges.

The tributary relationship served an important political purpose. China never attacked Thailand, although its army campaigned in Burma and Vietnam. The Thai rulers, such as Ramkhamhaeng of the Kingdom of Sukhothai, were permitted by China to continue an expansionist policy in South-East Asia. Of course one factor which helped to keep Thailand from being threatened by China was its geographical situation. Unlike Burma, Vietnam and Korea, Thailand did not share a common boundary with China.

The tributary relationship came to an end when the dominance of China declined. The defeat of China in the Opium War led King Mungkut (Rama IV) to the conclusion that the power of the Middle Kingdom was finished, that new powers were emerging as dominant, and that Thailand had no further need to seek accommodation with the Middle Kingdom. From the reign of King Mongkut (1851-1868) until after World War 11} formal diplomatic relations between Thailand and China were not maintained.

CAMBODIA

Thailand and Cambodia were foes rather than friends. The Thais engaged in a long struggle for freedom from the Cambodians who were at first their overlords. About the year 1238 the Thais seized the northern capital of Cambodia, Sukhothai, where they established an independent state, and gradually overran the Chao Phraya River plain. The emergence of the Kingdom of Sukhothai eventually replaced the mighty Khmer Empire, with its capital at Angkor.

From the outset, the Thai rulers exploited to the full the existence of tributary relations with China for the benefit of their own expansionist policy, at the expense of the Khmer Empire. While King Ramkhamhaeng of Sukhothai established close relations with Kublai Khan, Jayavaraman VIII, the king of Khmer Empire, was too proud to accommodate China. Jayavaraman rejected Mongol demand for homage, and even went so far as to imprison Kublai Khan’s envoy. With this episode in strained relations between China and the Khmer Empire, King Ramkhamhaeng was encouraged by Kublai Khan to weaken the Khmer Empire. By the early 1300’s Sukhothai is believed to have enjoyed suzerainty over territory westward to the Bay of Bengal, over the entire Malay Peninsula including the island presently called Singapore to the south, and northeast to the Laotian State of Vientiane.

However, the emergence of another Thai state in 1350 in the middle of modern Thailand marked the end of the powerful kingdom of Sukhothai, after an existence of 132 years. This newly emerged Thai kingdom had its capital at the city of Ayutthaya, on the Chao Phraya River, forty-five miles north of the modern capital, Bangkok. The Thai rulers in the Ayutthata period(1350-1767) continued their policy of subjugating the Khmer Empire. They fought a series of wars against the Cambodians, and finally forced them to abandon Angkor in the Fifteenth Century. For the time therefore the Khmer Empire was itself a dependency of the Thais. In the early Sixteenth Century, the Thais found it difficult to conduct an expansionist policy in Cambodia. Thailand found itself at a disadvantage, obliged to face two fronts. On one side was Cambodia, which was behaving like Scotland towards England, taking every opportunity to revolt. On the other side was Burma, whose interest was to challenge the dominant position of Thailand.  

BURMA

If the Chinese domination over Thailand could be avoided through such factors as geographical advantage and the Thai rulers’ skillful diplomacy, that was not the case with Thailand’s relations with Burma. A common border and the lack of an interposing buffer zone contributed to unavoidable confrontation between the two countries. Burma was regarded as the traditional enemy of Thailand. Throughout the Ayutthaya period, the Burmese posed the most serious threat to Thailand’s independence. Towards them, Thai policy was one of almost constant warfare over territory and hegemony. From the Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries the two nations waged frequent and bitter warfare, a pattern which changed after the Burmese came under British rule during Nineteenth Century. Twice in history the Burmese defeated the Thai forces; in 1568 the Burmese captured Ayutthaya, and again in 1767 they defeated the Thais and destroyed their capital city.

For a brief  time Thailand was subject to the Burmese King, but a leader of mixed Thai and Chinese blood, Phraya Tak Sin, raised a revolt and recovered much of the country in the year 1768. King Tak Sin moved Thailand’s capital city from Ayutthaya to, Thonburi, opposite Bangkok. Upon his assassination, in 1782} one of his generals, Rama I, assumed the throne which his descendants known as the Chakri dynasty, have occupied till the present time. It was Rama I who established Bangkok as the capital city of Thailand. After the founding of the Chakri  dynasty,however, the Burmese never constituted a serious threat to Thailand. Despite the termination of threat from Burma the memories of this era have continued to hamper friendly relations between the two countries.

VIETNAM
During the early Chakri dynasty, Thailand’s practice in external relations was determined by its pre-occupation with the affairs of the Laotian States and Cambodia. And its traditional rival, Burma, was replaced by Vietnam. Vietnam, advancing southward along the coast from its original source in the Red River Delta, had subdued the Kingdom of Champa in the Fifteen Century and established its power in Cochin-China. Thailand’s relations with  Vietnam started with a means of co-operation and ended with hostility. Thai relationship can be divided into three periods: 1782-1802, when Nguyen Anh was a dependent of the Thais during his fight for Vietnam’s unification; 1802-1813, a period of cordial relationship between two equally strong and wealthy kingdoms; 1813-1833, a period of growing alienation as a result of increasing Vietnamese influence in Cambodia and the Laotian States.

During the first period, Thailand’s interest in Vietnam was either prevent any possible alliance between Burma and Vietnam directed against itself or to prevent Vietnam from dominating Thailand’s vassal states, Cambodia and the Laotian States. Thailand was able to achieve this priority because of the presence of civil war in Vietnam. The Tay-son rebellion in Tongkin dad driven the ruling Nguyen family of Annam from the capital at Hue. To reinforce the division of the Vietnamese into two groups who would fight against each other, King Rama I of the Chakri dynasty, during the years 1983 and 1784, had whole-heartedly supported the ruling Nguyen  family against the Tay-son rebels. In 1785, Nguyen Anh of the Nguyen family, who had been defeated by the Tayson rebels, was given political asylum in Bangkok. Nguyen Anh persuaded the Thai king to lend him assistance in an attempt to regain the throne of Annam. The Thais sent two military expeditions to accomplish this, but both were unsuccessful. From this episode, a close and friendly relationship developed between Anh and King Rama I. During his stay in Bangkok from 1785-1787, Anh had used Bangkok as headquarters for political and military activities in Vietnam. Bangkok became a place whereby he could make contact with his military officers and civil servants in Vietnam and those fleeing to Cambodia. He could send his agents to conduct espionage and sabotage in Vietnam, and send shipbuilders to build warships and deploy around islands near to Phut Thai Mat(Hatien). He could also send arms and supplies to Vietnam via Thailand and sent his agents to persuade the Cambodians and the Vietnamese to co-operate with him in fighting against the Tay-son group.

A new threat of attack on Thailand by Burma persuaded Anh that no further help would be forthcoming as long as Thailand was engaged with its traditional enemy. Consequently, he was willing to listen to the counsel of a French missionary living in Bangkok who persuaded him to appeal to the French for assistance. In 1790, Nguyen Anh had, with French help, regained his country. And in 1802 he was crowned Emperor Gia Long.

During the years 1802-1813, a cordial relationship between Thailand and a unified Vietnam under the Emperor Gia Long was maintained. In this period Gia Long expressed his consideration and gratitude to the Thais and an alliance between Vietnam and Burma against Thailand was prevented. But this did not mean that Gia Long was under Thai influence. He stopped sending the gold and silver trees (which the Thais considered to be a symbol of submission) to the Thai royal court as soon as he had unified Vietnam.

During the period (1813-1833) and thereafter, both Laotian states and Cambodia were subject to competitive intervention from Thailand and Vietnam. In their competition with Vietnam for regional hegemony, the Thais attached importance to the Laotian States and Cambodia particularly in view of their geographic location. They hoped these vassal states would perform two main functions; first to help the Thai army in times of war, and, secondly, to serve as buffers between Thailand and Vietnam. Historical evidence indicates that Laos and Cambodia had for a long time served as effective buffer states to prevent Vietnamese forces from setting foot on purely Thai soil. Although the Thais waged wars with the Vietnamese, such battles always took place on Cambodian soil.

In attempts to deny Laos and Cambodia to Vietnam’s influence, the Thais got the upper hand vis-à-vis the Vietnamese in the region. The Laotians were closely allied ethically, linguistically, and culturally to the Thais. This kinship made for greater political understanding. The Laotians were of the same T’ai race as the Thais in Thailand. They had acquired a separate name because the land they came to hold had been formerly occupied by the Lawa. Of the T’ai immigrants from Yunnan in the Thirteenth Century, some pushed down into the Chao Phraya River Valley and became the Thais in Thailand; other remained in the valleys of the middle Mekong basin. Here they founded various petty States, of which the kingdoms of Luang Phrabang and Vientian were the most important. Like the Thais in Thailand, the Laotians took Hinayana Buddhism as their religion, which differed from Mahayana Buddhism professed by the Vietnamese.

The Thais also got the upper hand vis-à-vis the Vietnamese in Cambodia. This is simply because the Thais shared the same religion with the Khmers. When Cambodia became a vassal kingdom of Thailand in the Fifteenth Century, it adopted Hinayana Buddhism instead of old Hindu faith. But the fact that Thais had destroyed the ancient Khmer Empire could be employed by the Vietnamese as a political asset to win the Khmers to Vietnam’s side. Wedged in between two great and aggressive kingdoms, Cambodia tried to conciliated both. It had played Vietnam off against Thailand, always trimming its sails depending on the power dominant at the moment. On several occasions identical letters of fealty were written simultaneously to both powers. This practice was continued when Cambodia attempted to placate both the Thais and the French.

In addition to war, both Thailand and Vietnam also used political means to achieve their respective goals. Such political practices included strong support for their clients to maintain their spheres of influence within Laos and Cambodia. In 1826, Thailand’s victory over Vietnam in Laos was decisive. The Thais succeeded in suppressing a Laotian revolt by Prince Anu of Vientiane, with backing from Vietnam. In 1829, the Thai army was ordered by the government in Bangkok to destroy the Kingdom of Vientiane. This decision was prompted by more than a simple desire for a revenge. In fact, the motivation for this Thai decision was “a defensive measure directed against Vietnam...(for) by emptying the country beyond the Mekong, (the Thais) secured the river as a possible defense line for(themselves), denied it to Laotian rebels of the future and made the return of Vietnamese more difficult.” Both Luang Phrabang and Vientiane remained dependencies of Thailand until they became a French protectorate. In the period prior to the coming of France to Indo-China, Thailand achieved a buffer state policy in Cambodia. In 1846, Vietnam’s occupation of Cambodia was withdrawn, and King Ang Duong of Cambodia was crowned by representatives of both Thailand and Vietnam. Although King Ang Duong recognized the suzerainty of both Vietnam and Thailand, the influence of Thailand in Cambodia had become preponderant. The growth of its influence had been facilitated by the fact that cultures of Cambodia and Thailand were akin, and King Norodom, who was restored by Thailand in 1862, was educated in Bangkok.