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Thailand's Quarrel with France in Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Kenneth Perry Landon
Kenneth Perry Landon
Affiliation:
Earlham College
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Extract

The colonialism of Richelieu first brought the French to the Indo-Malayan peninsula in the seventeenth century. Ayuthia, which was then the capital of Siam, was the chief entrepôt of the area and as such naturally attracted the French. But their efforts to establish diplomatic and commercial relations were terminated abruptly by two revolutions half a world apart. In Siam the Revolution of 1688 placed an antiforeign king on the throne. In England the Revolution of 1688 established William of Orange, implacable enemy of Louis XIV, as king of England. The former event dislodged the French from the favorable position they had won in Siam. The latter was the signal for the outbreak of general war in Europe, which so engaged French attention that the venture in Siam was forgotten.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , November 1941 , pp. 25 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1941

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References

1 Adams, G. B., The growth of the French nation (New York: Macmillan, 1928), p. 221Google Scholar. Wood, W. A. R., A history of Siam from the earliest times to 1781 (London: T. Fisher Unwin, Ltd., 1926), pp. 212–14.Google Scholar

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22 A contemporary account of this event, which so stirred Siam that it became an effectual deterrent for fifty years to any proposition to dredge the bar at the mouth of the river in order to admit large ocean-going vessels, was given in a letter to friends in America. by an American missionary then living in Bangkok, who wrote:

“It is with public excitement at white heat that I begin our bi-monthly station letter to you. Last Thursday evening while we were quietly assembled at one of our preaching places in the. City, two French gunboats were forcing their way into the river and under fire passed uninjured the forts that were the pride and boasted stronghold of this people. We heard the booming of the cannon and on our way home passed through many companies of soldiers hastening to the palace to protect the King, if need be. It was not until the next morning, however, that we learned that three French warships stood before the French consulate ready at order to storm the palace and destroy the City. … All hope, and the hope makes the future seem brighter, that at the last moment England will step in and demand that France change her policy.

Through the whole difficulty, which has lasted several months already, France has basely deceived the Siamese. It is said by those in high authority that the bringing of these gunboats was by breaking a promise made by the French Consul to the King that the French would respect the wishes of the King and not allow these “men of war,” then in the Gulf, to enter the river. Siam may have broken her treaty with France in a few minor particulars, but certainly she has done nothing that could warrant such inconsiderate treatment from France. It is said that Siam has acted more like a civilized nation than France throughout all these negotiations. …’

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