Conventional perspectives[edit]
Unlike other modern Southeast Asian states, Thailand was never formally colonised by any colonial powers. Conventional perspectives attribute this achievement to the efforts made by the monarchs of the Chakri Dynasty, particularly Rama IV and Rama V, to 'modernise' the Siamese polity, and also to the relative cultural and ethnic homogeneity of the Thai nation.[1] Rama IV (King Mongkut) was credited with opening up Siam to European trade and starting the process of 'modernisation'. Rama V (King Chulalongkorn) consolidated state control over his vassal states and created an absolute monarchy and a centralised state. The success of the Chakri monarchs, however, also sowed the seeds for the 1932 Revolution and the end of absolute monarchy. The 'modernisation' from above created in the early 20th century a class of Western-educated elite (not necessarily rooted in democratic values, with some leaning toward authoritarian) in the Thai commoner and lower nobility classes, who were influenced by the ideals of the French and Russian Revolutions and staffed the middle and lower ranks of the nascent Siamese bureaucracy.[2] This new elite would eventually form the People’s Party that was the nucleus of the 1932 Revolution.