Thailand[a] 

(/ˈtaɪlænd, ˈtaɪlənd/ TY-land, TY-lənd), historically known as Siam[b][10][11] (/saɪ

ˈæm, ˈsaɪæm/) and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia,
located at the centre of Mainland Southeast Asia, spanning 513,120 square kilometres
(198,120 sq mi), with a population of almost 70 million.[5] The country is bordered to the
north by Myanmar and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf
of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and the extremity of
Myanmar. Thailand also shares maritime borders with Vietnam to the southeast,
and Indonesia and India to the southwest. Thailand has experienced
multiple coups and military dictatorships. Since 2019, it has been nominally
a parliamentary constitutional monarchy; in practice, however, structural advantages in
the constitution have ensured the military's hold on power.[12] Bangkok is the nation's
capital and largest city.
Tai peoples migrated from southwestern China to mainland Southeast Asia from the 11th
century. Indianised kingdoms such as the Mon, Khmer Empire and Malay states ruled the
region, competing with Thai states such as the Kingdoms of Ngoenyang, Sukhothai, Lan
Na and Ayutthaya, which also rivalled each other. European contact began in 1511 with
a Portuguese diplomatic mission to Ayutthaya, which became a regional power by the
end of the 15th century. Ayutthaya reached its peak during cosmopolitan Narai's reign,
gradually declining thereafter until being ultimately destroyed in the Burmese–Siamese
War. Taksin quickly reunified the fragmented territory and established the short-
lived Thonburi Kingdom. He was succeeded in 1782 by Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke, the
first monarch of the current Chakri dynasty.
Throughout the era of Western imperialism in Asia, Siam remained the only nation in the
region to avoid colonization by foreign powers, although it was often forced to cede both
territory, trade and legal concessions in unequal treaties.[13] The Siamese system of
government was centralised and transformed into a modern unitary absolute monarchy in
the reign of Chulalongkorn. In World War I, Siam sided with the Allies, a political
decision made in order to amend the unequal treaties. Following a bloodless revolution in
1932, it became a constitutional monarchy and changed its official name to Thailand,
becoming an ally of Japan in World War II. In the late 1950s, a military coup under Field
Marshal Sarit Thanarat revived the monarchy's historically influential role in politics.
Thailand became a major ally of the United States, and played an anti-communist role in
the region as a member of the failed SEATO, but from 1975 sought to improve relations
with Communist China and Thailand's neighbours.
Apart from a brief period of parliamentary democracy in the mid-1970s, Thailand has
periodically alternated between democracy and military rule. Since the 2000s the country
has been caught in continual bitter political conflict between supporters and opponents
of Thaksin Shinawatra, which resulted in two coups (in 2006 and 2014), along with the
establishment of its current constitution, a nominally democratic government after
the 2019 Thai general election, and ongoing pro-democracy protests that began in 2020.
Thailand is a middle power in global affairs and a founding member of ASEAN, and
ranks high in the Human Development Index. It has the second-largest economy in
Southeast Asia and the 22nd-largest in the world by PPP. Thailand is classified as
a newly industrialised economy, with manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism as leading
sectors
Thailand,[c] officially the Kingdom of Thailand,[d] was formerly known as
the exonym Siam[e] by outsiders prior to 1949. According to George Cœdès, the
word Thai (ไทย) means 'free man' in the Thai language, "differentiating the Thai from
the natives encompassed in Thai society as serfs".[17]: 197  According to Chit Phumisak,
Thai (ไท) simply means 'people' or 'human being', his investigation shows that some rural
areas used the word "Thai" instead of the usual Thai word khon (คน) for people.
[18]
 According to Michel Ferlus, the ethnonyms Thai-Tai (or Thay-Tay) would have
evolved from the etymon *k(ə)ri: 'human being'.[f][20]
Thais often refer to their country using the polite form prathet Thai (Thai: ประเทศไทย),
they also use the more colloquial term mueang Thai (Thai: เมืองไทย) or simply Thai; the
word mueang, archaically referring to a city-state, is commonly used to refer to a city or
town as the centre of a region. Ratcha Anachak Thai (Thai: ราชอาณาจักรไทย) means
'kingdom of Thailand' or 'kingdom of Thai'. Etymologically, its components
are: ratcha (Sanskrit: राजन्, rājan, 'king, royal, realm'); -ana- (Pali āṇā 'authority, command,
power', itself from the Sanskrit आज्ञा, ājñā, of the same meaning) -chak (from
Sanskrit चक्र cakra- 'wheel', a symbol of power and rule). The Thai National
Anthem (Thai: เพลงชาติ), written by Luang Saranupraphan during the patriotic 1930s,
refers to the Thai nation as prathet Thai (Thai: ประเทศไทย). The first line of the national
anthem is: prathet thai ruam lueat nuea chat chuea thai (Thai: ประเทศไทยรวมเลือดเนือ ้
ชาติเชอ ื้ ไทย), 'Thailand is the unity of Thai flesh and blood'.
The former name Siam may have originated from Sanskrit श्याम (śyāma, 'dark')
[18]
 or Mon ရာမည (rhmañña, 'stranger').[citation needed] The names Shan and A-hom seem to be
variants of the same word. The word Śyâma is possibly not its origin, but a learned and
artificial distortion.[clarification needed][21] Another theory is the name derives from the Chinese
calling this region 'Xian'[g][22]: 8  A further possibility is that Mon-speaking peoples
migrating south called themselves syem as do the autochthonous Mon-Khmer-speaking
inhabitants of the Malay Peninsula.[citation needed]

SPPM Mongkut Rex Siamensium, King Mongkut's signature

The signature of King Mongkut (r. 1851–1868) reads SPPM (Somdet Phra Poramenthra
Maha) Mongkut Rex Siamensium (Mongkut, King of the Siamese), and the usage of the
name in the first international Bowring Treaty giving the name Siam official status until
24 June 1939 when it was changed to "Thailand".[23] Thailand was renamed Siam from
1946 to 1948, after which it again reverted to "Thailand".