The dual character of the settlement geography ofthe capital and its surrounding mosaic of ban and bang persisted until at least a decade after the Second World War (and in Thonburi much longer), and this waterway network outside the rings of the old city canals exercised a major influence on the pattern of physical expansion thereafter Neither King Chulalongkorn or his successors to the absolute monarchy (Rama VI and VID translated their fascination with modernism into an overall plan for the metropolis. Nor were the municipal administrations they introduced equipped to control urban development under the impact of economic, social and population change.