The Kingdom of Thailand, formerly known as Siam, has been one of the major countries in Southeast Asia that was influenced by Westerners during and after the imperialism period despite the fact that the country itself has never been under European colonial rule. Western technology and education were integrated into Siam’s business and tecnology, leading to a new era of modernization. Due to the increasing demand for foreign goods and workforce of the royal family, Chinese merchants and labors gathered themselves into Siam to serve the palace as well as to seek better job opportunities. This paper aims to argue that throughout the late 19th century to the 20th century, Chinese people had made a significant impact on Siam industrial economy and its technology adaptation from the Western countries.
April 18, 1855 marked an important date in the history of Siam and its people. It was the day in which the Bowring Treaty was signed by King Mongkut (Rama IV) and Sir John Bowring, Governor of Hong Kong and Britain’s envoy.[1] In exchange of the independence of Siam from Britain, the treaty allowed Englishmen to own land in Siam. It gave the extraterritorial rights to foreign citizens especially the right to be tried by their consuls rather than Siamese courts, and it also allowed free trade by foreigners in Bangkok as foreign trade had been previously heavily taxed by the royal government.[2] As the latter two conditions announced, hundreds of thousands Chinese merchants secured protégé status to avoid laws and taxes by migrating into Siam, which seemed to be the perfect market for their businesses.[2] The Chinese immigrants, then, formed their own self-defense societies in Siam. The government called these organizations “angyi”
or “...
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...hinese workers blended in Thai society by adapting various Thai cultures, and contributing their own culture to the Siamese people. As shown in the following figure, a part of Chinese novel was published in the Siam daily newspaper in 1932. [7] Intermarriages with Thai women also became very common when their occupations and financial permitted. [4]
In conclusion, Chinese artisans that migrated into Siam during the 18th century to the 19th century had made a largely significant impact on Siam industrialization, economy, and culture. This was demonstrated by mainly the Chinese workforces in numerous areas of constructions and productions during Siam industrialization period although those new forms of technology were adapted from the Western countries. Therefore, it is apparent that Chinese were responsible for much of Thailand’s present day technology and economy.
Fairbank, John King, and Edwin O. Reischauer. China: Tradition and Transformation. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1979. Print.
Vietnam’s economic improvement over the three decades from 1945 was therefore modest, particularly in comparison to the Asian Tigers (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan) that enjoyed a golden period of high economic growth in these
All trade in China was channeled through the city of Canton and was regulated by a group of Chinese merchants known as the “cohong” who imposed irregular taxes. No direct contact between the foreigners and Chinese were allowed. Such limitations and conditions caused dissatisfaction among the foreign merchants, in particular the British, who ...
The Chinese empire had once been one of the greatest and most powerful empires in the world. Before the 19th century, China had a large population and was ruled by families or dynasties. It was considered technologically advanced as China had a history of many miraculous inventions, such as: writing, magnetic compasses, movable sails, porcelain, abacus and paper money. Although China was isolated from the rest of the world, it coped well on its own, and saw no need to begin trading with the west, (as Lord McCartney proposed in 1793), since it was a self-sufficient nation. At that particular time, the Chinese empire was still able to exclude the ‘barbarians’, thus forcing them to only trade at one port. However, China soon took a turn for the worst as important ...
Kenneth Pomeranz‘s The Great Divergence tries to examine the classic question of ‘How do we account for the economic divergence between Europe and Asia? He acknowledged that ‘a surge in European technological inventiveness was a necessary condition of the Industrial Revolution’, but stressed on the crucial role of ‘coal and colonies’ and their critical geographic location, in lifting the constraints for sustained growth of per capita income. First the local coal deposits in Europe were closer to the cities than in China and this gave Europe a clear advantage. Second, the off-shore colonies, in particular, the closeness of Europe to the New World resources (Jones 1981, Wrigley 1988, Allen 2009) helped Europeans to overcome the difficulties
Li, K., & Mengyan, F. (2013). A historical survey on modernization of Chinese culture. Asian Social Science, 9(4), 129-132. doi:10.5539/ass.v9n4p129
Greenberg, Michael. British Trade and the Opening of China 1800 - 42. New York: Monthly Review, 1979. Print.
The imperial realms of East Asia before the 19th century were largely based on the theory that Asian countries were far better than their neighbors in the West. The nonchalant manner portrayed by East Asian countries towards western technology and culture led China to become unknowledgeable of the Western empires. As a result, China was astonishingly impacted by imperialism from Great Britain during the 1800’s. During the 18th century Great Britain had set up trade off the coast of the Chinese borders to trade British silver for China’s soft silks, fine porcelain, and strong teas. During this period Qing officials overlooked the foreign brokers. By the early 1800’s, however, Great Britain b...
Today we can look around ourselves and see thousands of technical innovations that make life easier; But if we take a step back and ask ourselves “How?” we will soon realize that most often, these technological advancements did not just “poof” into existence, but are usually the outcome of building upon yesterday’s technology. If we follow this cycle back into time, we can attribute almost any modern day invention to an ancient civilization during its golden age. China was no exception. China’s Song and Tang dynasties fostered scientific advances comparable to Rome’s during its Pax Romana. The most significant and impacting of these were the development of primitive gunpowder and porcelain of the Tang and paper money, and the magnetic compass of the Song Dynasties. Although these may seem very far off, if you look hard enough, you can see traces of their impacts in society today because most of the advancements today we owe to them.
Thailand or also known as the Kingdom of Thailand is located at the center of the Indochina peninsula in Southeast Asia. Its surrounding countries are Burma, Laos, and Cambodia. The capital city of Thailand is Bangkok, and the country predominantly follows the Buddhist faith. As of 2011 Thailand was the 21st most populous country in the world, with around 64 million people.
Unlike many other European countries that sought out the territory in Southeast Asia merely for increasing their power through trade, the French first began interactions with the region as early as the 17th century. Alexandre De Rhodes began an expedition to the Southeast Asia region with the desire to expand the Jesuit missionaries throughout the region to further their belief. For many years until the 18th century, the Jesuits expanded and created many missionaries throughout the region. The 18th century had brought an astronomical expansion in the trading markets throughout Europe and Asia as all the European superpowers began colonizing all of Southeast Asia to further their trading “empires.” The French would also begin to participate, not at the same level as countries such as the Netherlands or Great Britain, but more in moderation. At that time the French believed to confine their participation in Southeast Asia to religious advancement and moderate trading. It wasn’t until the 19th century until things would begin to take a turn and the French would become a major participant in Vietnam’s history.
China has also expanded their trading industries with countries such as South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, ASEAN, India, Russia and Hong Kong. This has not satisfied the Chinese greed for income as they also export and import goods to American countries, name...
During the twentieth century, the world began to develop the idea of economic trade. Beginning in the 1960’s, the four Asian Tigers, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, demonstrated that a global economy, which was fueled by an import and export system with other countries, allowed the economy of the home country itself to flourish. Th...
From covering Japan’s perilous imperial rule to analyzing Korea’s ambivalent adoption of democratic governance, Modern East Asia explored a broad range of subjects important for one who aspires to understand Asia holistically. Much time was even spent examining China’s horrid history at the hands of foreign meddling, giving insight into a nation feared as the future #1 economic power of the world. Although we covered a broad range of topics, each was given particular attention, never skipping major events or characters which shaped Asia’s history over the last several hundred years. Essentially, this class provided an open atmosphere for students to learn the intricate history of major Asian countries in addition to sharing ideas on the effectiveness of their pre-modern governance.
The topic that I will be discussing is Thai culture. In this, it will include areas that influence this culture. First, I will give you the geographical information of the country of Thailand. The second area that I will look at will be language. Language is an extremely important part of culture and some say that one cannot be found without the other. After that I will inform you about customs, traditions and taboos in Thai culture. This is a very important part of culture and is what shows the differences between cultures. Then I briefly tell you about the government and some national symbols, such as the flag, the symbol, colors, anthem, dress, and national day. Next, I will explain about religion in Thailand. In most cultures there is religion, but in Thailand it is interwoven into its whole culture and it is hard to separate the two. One other thing that I will include in this paper is a link to a page with pictures from my trip to Thailand.