Siam as a ‘tributary state’ of imperial China and the age of empire

When considering the fortunes of the Thai monarchy in the age of empire, scholarly attention tends to focus on Siam’s relations with the European colonial powers, especially Britain and France. But prior to the coming of the colonial powers to East Asia, Siam, along with mainland Southeast Asia’s other monarchies, was a tributary state of an older, powerful empire: China. Among the most important effects of the European colonial penetration of Southeast Asia was to draw Siam out of the economic and geopolitical orbit of the Chinese empire. The historic 1855 Bowring Treaty, which granted the British Empire most favoured nation status, marks the beginning of Siam’s integration into a global economy dominated by the Europeans. Yet despite this, Siam’s rulers continued to be concerned about the country’s relationship with China. This article considers the nature of Siam’s tributary relationship with China and how this relationship changed in the era of European imperialism. It argues that contrary to Sinocentric views of the tributary system, for much of its history Siam was the main driver and beneficiary of this relationship

Ancient history · Archaeology · Cartography · China · Colonialism · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Empire · Geography · Geopolitics · Monarchy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science · Treaty · Tributary · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · History · Law · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies