Siam, (Rattanakosin) Kingdom of
Years: 1782 - 1932
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Siamese King Rama I, a facile administrator who ascends the throne in 1782 after deposing Taksin, spearheads a Thai literary renaissance, personally rewriting and revising classic literary works.
Ayutthaya's king, Taksin, in going north to suppress the Phra Fang faction, had seen that monks in the north were lax and undisciplined.
He invites ecclesiastical dignitaries from the capital to teach those monks and bring them back in line with the main teachings of Buddhism.
Taksin has applied himself to reforming the Buddhist religion after its period of decline following the loss of Ayutthaya to Burma, gradually bringing it back to the normality it had enjoyed during the Ayutthaya kingdom.
He is unable to do very much, however, since his reign is so brief.
The administration of the Sangha during the Thonburi period follows the model established in Ayutthaya: Taksin allows French missionaries to enter Thailand, and, like a previous Thai king, helps them build a church in 1780.
Thai historians indicate that the strain on Taksin had taken a heavy toll, and that the king had started to become a religious fanatic.
Taksin shows increasing signs of mental trouble from 1781, believing himself to be a future Buddha and expecting to change the color of his blood from red to white.
He begins practicing meditation, even lecturing the monks and, at times, flogging monks who refuse to worship him.
Economic tension caused by war grows increasingly serious.
Looting and other crime is rampant as famine spreads.
King Taksin visits harsh punishment upon officials reported to be abusive or oppressive, torturing and executing high officials.
A faction led by Phraya San finally seizes the capital and forces the king to step down, although Taksin requests to be allowed to become a monk.
General Chao Phraya Chakri is away fighting in Cambodia when the coup occurs, but he quickly returns to the Thai capital on being informed of the coup.
Arriving at the capital, the General extinguishes the coup through arrests, investigations and punishments, restoring peace in the capital.
General Chao Phraya Chakri decides to put the deposed Taksin to death, according to the Royal Thai Chronicles, which state that, while being taken to the executing venue, Taksin asks for an audience with the General but is turned down.
Taksin is beheaded in front of Wichai Prasit fortress on Wednesday, April 10, 1782, and his body is buried at Wat Bang Yi Ruea Tai.
General Chao Phraya Chakri then seizes control of the capital and declares himself king, together with establishing the House of Chakri.
The Official Annamese Chronicles states that General Chao Phraya Chakri ordered Taksin to be executed at Wat Chaeng by being sealed in a velvet sack; he was then beaten to death with a scented sandalwood club.
One account claims that Taksin was secretly sent to a palace located in the remote mountains of Nakhon Si Thammarat where he lived until 1825, and that a substitute was beaten to death in his place.
King Taksin’s ashes and that of his wife are located at Wat Intharam (located in Thonburi).
They have been placed in two lotus bud-shaped stupas that stand before the old hall.
Another contradicting view of the events is that General Chakri actually wanted to be King and had accused King Taksin of being Chinese.
The later history was aimed at legitimizing the new monarch, Phraya Chakri or Rama I of Rattanakosin.
According to Nidhi Eoseewong, a prominent Thai historian, writer, and political commentator, Taksin could be seen as the originator of the new style of leader, promoting the 'decentralized' kingdom and a new generation of the nobles of Chinese merchant origin, his major helpers in the wars.
On the other hand, Phraya Chakri and his supporters were of the 'old' generation of the Ayutthaya nobles, discontent with the changes.
This theory, however, overlooks the fact that Chao Phraya Chakri was himself of partly Chinese origin as well as being married to one of Taksin's daughters.
No previous conflicts between them were mentioned in histories.
Reports on the conflicts between the king and the Chinese merchants were seen as having been caused by the control of the price of rice in the time of famine.
Chao Phraya Chakri had had Taksin's son summoned to Cambodia and executed, however, prior to the general's return to Thonburi.
Phraya Chakri was, in fact, the highest noble in the kingdom, charging the state affairs as the Chancellor, and therefore had the greatest potential to be the new leader.
Yet another view of the events is that Thailand owed China for millions of baht, and King Taksin, in order to cancel the agreement between China and Thailand, decided to become ordained and pretend to die in an execution.
Several historians have suggested that the tale of Taksin’s 'insanity' may have been reconstructed as an excuse for his overthrow.
The letters of a French priest who was in Thonburi at the time, however, support the accounts of the monarch's peculiar behavior.
Thus the terms 'insanity' or 'madness' possibly were the contemporary definition describing the monarch's actions.
When he ascends to the throne in 1782, he takes the name Ramathibodi, just like the founder of the Ayutthaya Kingdom.
His full title is much longer (Phra Borommarachathirat Ramathibodi Sisin Borommaha Chakkraphat Rachathibodin etc.), intended to demonstrate his universal claim to power like of earlier Siamese kings.
A Lak Mueang (city pillar) is erected on Rattanakosin Island, located on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya River, by order of King Rama I, an act considered the founding of the capital city of Bangkok.
After adopting the title Rama I and shifting his capital across the Menam Chao Phra river to its present location in Bangkok, the king had constructed the new Grand Palace including Wat Phra Kaew within its compound.
Wat Phra Kaew is consecrated in 1784, and the Emerald Buddha is moved with great pomp and pageantry to its current home in the Ubosoth of the Wat Phra Kaew temple complex on March 22, 1784.
While in exile, Nguyễn Ánh wishes to retake Gia Định and push the Tây-Sơn rebels out.
One of Anh's generals, Chau Van Tiep, had persuaded the King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke of Siam to provide Nguyen Anh with support troops and a small invasion force.
In mid-1784 Nguyễn Ánh, with twenty thousand to fifty thousand Siamese troops and three hundred warships, had moved through Cambodia, then east of Tonle Sap (Toh Lay Sap in Thai) and penetrated the recently annexed provinces of Annam.
Twenty thousand Siamese troops had reached Kiên Giang and another thirty thousand had landed in Chap Lap, as the Siamese advanced towards Cần Thơ.
Later that year the Siamese captured the former Cambodian province of Gia Định, where they committed atrocities against Việt settlers; this made some locals turn their support to Tây Sơn.
Hue avoids a direct attack on a strong Siamese force at Sa Dec and tries to set up a trap.
Nguyễn Huệ, anticipating a move from the Siamese, has secretly positioned his infantry and artillery along the Mekong River (Rạch Gầm-Xoài Mút area of present-day Tiền Giang province), and on some islands in the middle, facing other troops on the northern banks with naval reinforcements on both sides of the infantry positions.
On the morning of January 20, 1785, Nguyễn Huệ sends a small naval force, under a banner of truce, to offer to parley with the Siamese.
After so many victories, the Siamese army and naval forces are overconfident.
They go to the parley unaware of the trap.
Nguyễn Huệ's ships dash into the unprepared Siamese troops, preventing their advance or retreat.
In the meanwhile, Tay Son artillery open fire.
The battle ends with a near annihilation of the Siamese force, at least according to Vietnamese sources reporting that all the ships of the Siamese navy were destroyed and only two thousand to three thousand of the original expedition survived to escape back across the river into Siam.
Nguyễn Ánh and his family members escape and will later go to Siam.
Ethnic Minangkabaus from Sumatra had founded a settlement on Penang Island in the early eighteenth century.
Haji Muhammad Salleh, known as Nakhoda Intan, anchored at Batu Uban and built a seaside settlement in 1734.
Later, the Arabs arrived and settled mainly at Jelutong.
The Arabs then intermarried with the Minangkabau; this gave rise to the Arab-Minangkabau admixture now described as Malay, as they have assimilated into the local Malay community.
The modern history of Penang begins in 1786.
On July 17 of this year, Captain Francis Light, an English trader-adventurer of the British East India Company, lands on Penang Island, at this time part of Kedah.
Fort Cornwallis will later be built at the site where he first set foot.
For Light, Penang Island, situated in the middle of the maritime trade route along the Malacca Straits between China and India, is a an ideal trading location from which to curtail French and Dutch territorial expansion in Southeast Asia.
The British East India Company is also seeking a naval base in the region for the maintenance of Royal Navy ships.
Meanwhile, Kedah is facing threats from its stronger northern rivals, Siam and Burma.
Thus, Light endeavors to negotiate with Sultan Abdullah Mukarram Shah of Kedah regarding the cession of Penang Island to the British East India Company, in exchange for military assistance against Kedah's foes.
He now renames the island the Prince of Wales Island in honor of the heir to the British throne, and establishes the settlement of George Town at the northeastern tip of the island in honor of King George III.
George Town is Britain's first settlement in Southeast Asia, and is one of the first establishments of the British Empire after the loss of its North American colonies.
In Malaysian history, the occasion marks the beginning of more than a century of British involvement in Malaya.