Shortly after King Ekatat assumed the throne in 1758, Ayutthaya was attacked once more by the Burmese under King Alaungpaya.  A second invasion led by Alaungpaya’s son, Hsinbyushin, succeeded in capturing Ayutthaya, after a siege lasting more than a year.  The city was burned and looted by the victors and more than [...]]]> The fall of Ayutthaya

Shortly after King Ekatat assumed the throne in 1758, Ayutthaya was attacked once more by the Burmese under King Alaungpaya.  A second invasion led by Alaungpaya’s son, Hsinbyushin, succeeded in capturing Ayutthaya, after a siege lasting more than a year.  The city was burned and looted by the victors and more than 30,000 of its inhabitants were taken to Burma.  Son of a Chinese father and a Thai mother, the future King Taksin was a military officer at the time of Ayutthaya’s fall.  Within seven months he managed to rally Thai forces, expel the Burmese from the ruins of the city, and establish a new capital at Thonburi, further down the Chao Phraya River.

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Avulthaya was founded on the Chao Phrava River by King Ramathibodi in 1350. Over the next four centuries, it grew from a small, fortified city into one of the great capitals of the region, its power reaching far beyond the fertile river valley. The capital fell to the Burmese in 1569, but [...]]]> The Rise of Ayutthaya.

Avulthaya was founded on the Chao Phrava River by King Ramathibodi in 1350. Over the next four centuries, it grew from a small, fortified city into one of the great capitals of the region, its power reaching far beyond the fertile river valley. The capital fell to the Burmese in 1569, but less than two decades later regained independence under lhe able leadership of the future King Naresuan, who proceeded to extend its rule over most of the southern peninsula, the north, and both Cambodia and Laos. Relations with Europe began with a treaty between Siam and Ponugal in 1516. The Dutch received permission to build a trading station in 1604, followed by the British in 1612.  By King Narai’s reign in 1656,  Ayutthaya already had a cosmopolitan populalion of nearly a million.

The first French Catholic missionary arrived in Ayutthaya in 1662, joined by others two years later. Given land on which to build churches and schools by King Narai, they became an important force in relations between the two countries. The first Thai embassy sent to France was lost at sea in 1681, but a second arrived safely in 1684 and formally requested a French mission to Ayutthaya. The first of these missions arrived in 1685, headed by the Chaumont; a second arrived two years later.  A Thai embassy accompanied the first on its return to France, and was received at the court of Louis XIV.  Following the death of King Narai in 1688, conservative elements assmed control and expelled many Europeans during the latter part of Ayutthaya’s rule.

Ayuthaya

The first Thai embassy sent to France

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It is thought that in the II th century AD Thais migrated in large numbers from Yunnan in southern China, driven by a desire for greater independence and better farmland. They formed two groups of kingdoms, in the north near the Mekong River and further south at the edge of the Chao Phraya River valley.

Migration of the Thai

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