The history of Tarutao is tied to the history of democracy in Thailand. The need for an isolated and forbidding environment to lock away enemies of the state caused the Corrections Department to build a penal colony there in 1939.
Two important revolutionary groups were imprisoned here: the Bowondet coup group and the Petty Officers' coup group. Their coup attempts were unsuccessful, but ushered in change nonetheless, and soon a democratic constitution was drafted.