History of Bangkok in brief
With its tales of kingdoms that have risen and fallen, and vast riches and lands won and lost, Thailand ’s history reads like an epic adventure novel and the comparatively recent history of its modern day capital Bangkok is no less intriguing.
Bangkok grew to become the capital of Thailand in the tumultuous years following the Burmese sacking of the former Thai capital of Ayutthaya in 1767. With that victory, most of the country’s riches at that time were plundered and many of the citizens who remained, including members of the royal family of that time, were enslaved by Burma .
Still reeling from this defeat, General Phraya Taksin along with General Chakri managed to drive back the Burmese and Taksin became the new king of Thailand establishing Thonburi, on the western bank of the Chao Phraya river, as the country’s new capital. Wat Arun or The Temple of the Dawn, which was Taksin’s royal temple, is one of the few sites remaining from this period which was a precursor to the history of Bangkok .
Taksin’s reign and Thonburi’s status as the capital of Thailand were destined to be short-lived as, according to Thai historians, he went mad with imagined divine power, was declared insane and overthrown. General Chakri, who had fought alongside Taksin in securing the country from foreign invasion, was chosen to be the new king and the royal line of the Chakri Dynasty continues to Thailand ’s present-day monarch.
Phaya Chakri, or Rama I (as he was posthumously known), moved the capital of Siam to the eastern side of the river and gave the former Chinese trading port of ‘Bang Makok’ (place of olive plums), which had served Ayutthaya, a royal title which is so long that Thais simply refer to their capital by it’s first two names ‘Kreng Thep’ – City of Angels. The full name has 66 syllables and is acknowledged as the longest city name in the world. Throughout its history the city has been known internationally as Bangkok.
Rama I built the Temple of the Emerald Buddha or Wat Phra Kaew as it is also known during that time and it is now one of the most revered sites in the history of Bangkok . The history of Bangkok was further shaped by Rama I’s refurbishing of Wat Pho and the building of the Grand Palace , two of Bangkok ’s most important historical sites.
The first paved street in the history of Bangkok was built during the reign of King Mongkut (Rama IV) and this move towards modernisation was carried on by his son King Chulalongkorn (Rama V). Rama V continues to be revered to this day and though the geographic size of Thailand actually shrunk during his reign, the capital was undeniably strengthened with more roads, a rail line going north and a tram line constructed under his reign. It was during this time that the city began emerging as one of the largest and most important in Asia , as it’s infrastructure improved rapidly.
A distinctive difference can be seen between the narrow lanes of the Rattanakosin isle (which is not really an island but occupies a bend in the river) where the original seeds of the city began around the Grand Palace area, and the newer grand boulevards and tree lined blocks in the Dusit area to the North (c. 1880s). Over the decades development has sprung up in several clusters, notably the Siam square area and modern business centre near Silom, with the ex-pat area of Sukhumwit road emerging after the arrival of American GIs and tourists from the 1960s onwards.
The construction of the Memorial Bridge in 1932 marks an important step in Bangkok history as it opened up major development on the Thonburi side of the Chao Phraya . Bangkok , at one time in its history was known as “’The Venice of the East’ for the many canals and interlocking waterways that ran throughout the city and made it a city more easily traversed by water than any other method. As Bangkok grew in size canals were filled in to accommodate development and few of them remain, certainly not in any romantic state of upkeep either!
Although the seat of the Monarchy has been in Bangkok for two centuries or more, they haven’t always been present. One of many coups to be launched in the city was the 1932 overthrown of absolute monarchy by a group of Paris-based students who had brought democratic ideas back with them. Although a constitutional monarchy was permitted, King Prajadhipok (Rama VII) later resigned and left a vacuum from 1935 to the end of WWII.
During the Second World War, a puppet government under military ruler Phibul Sonkhram ruled Thailand from Bangkok , having sided with the Japanese early in the war in order to maintain their own personal grip on power. This was to cost the country dearly at the end of the war, when the Allies demanded war compensation.
The Vietnam War marked a major period of change in the history of Bangkok as money poured into the country from abroad and improvements were made to the city’s infrastructure. Since that time Bangkok has grown into a thriving metropolis, spreading over 1,568 square kilometres, consisting of some 50 districts and is home to one-tenth of the total population of Thailand – some seven million people.
Mass migration from the declining agro-based heartland, resulted in a massive urbanisation of the city and a lot of haphazard town planning which has resulted in many of the city’s poorer characteristics today. This migration however brought with it cultural diversity and many suburbs of the city now have distinctive characters, such as from the Isaan region of the Northeast of the country.
The history of Bangkok continues to be shaped with each successive governor and political parties holding power and promising to alleviate some of the urban ills of the city such as the traffic and pollution. Efforts have been made to ‘greenify’ Bangkok and, in what can perhaps be considered one of the most welcomed moves from the perspective of commuters, the BTS Skytrain was established in 1999 and the MRT Subway in 2004, cutting down on city traffic considerably. Plans are underway to expand both train lines as are other methods of easing the city’s congestion and dealing with the hot pace of modernisation in a sustainable way.
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