King Rama III sent Prince Sakdiphonlasep of the Front Palace to defeat Anouvong at Nong Bua Lamphu and Phraya Ratchasuphawadi[12] (later Chaophraya Bodindecha) to capture Raxabut Nyô.

In 1821, Sultan Ahmad Tajuddin Halim Shah II (known in Thai sources as Tuanku Pangeran) of Kedah was found forging an alliance with Burma – Siam's longtime rival.

[52] Si Suriyawong the Kalahom responded by having Norodom sign another opposing treaty that recognized Siamese suzerainty over Cambodia[53] and had it published in The Straits Times in 1864,[52] much to the embarrassment of Gabriel Aubaret of the French consul.

[34] However, these reforms upset Prince Wichaichan of the Front Palace who had inherited from his father Pinklao, a huge manpower in service with more than one-thirds of the kingdom's revenue accorded to him, he also had the support of Thomas George Knox the British consul.

After the defeat of the Taiping Rebellion in China in 1864, the remaining Chinese dissident forces entered Northern Vietnam in 1868, pillaging and occupying Tai princedoms of Sipsong Chuthai and Houaphanh that would normally send tributes to the Lao Kings of Luang Phrabang.

The multicultural Siamese empire had hosted a number of tributary states including Lanna Chiangmai, the Lao Kingdoms of Luang Phrabang and Champasak, minor Lao-Lanna chiefdoms and Muslim Malay sultanates of the south.

Prince Devawongse the Minister of Foreign Affairs went to 'congratulate' the French invaders[12] but Pavie presented an ultimatum, urging Siam to cede lands east of the Mekong, to pay an indemnity of three million francs and to punish Phra Yot Mueang Khwang.

Damrong introduced a modern bureaucracy and, in 1893, announced the establishment of the Monthon system that replaced the traditional tributary network of semi-independent rulers with numerous levels of territory-based administrative units with a centrally-appointed commissioner in charge.

Kulap who coined the Siamese term Prachathippatai (Sanskrit prajā "people" and Pali ādhipateyya "sovereignty") for "democracy" in 1894 and Thianwan who radically proposed for representative government and a parliament to limit royal powers in 1905.

Vajiravudh experimented democracy with a mock-democracy miniature town called Dusit Thani, founded in July 1918, as a city with a constitution, mock election and model parliament and as a theatrical play.

[77] After the Siam Electric tramline worker strike in 1922, the first labor struggle in Thai history,[79] Vajiravudh decided to curb press freedom and restore order through his Publication Act of January 1923, making editors liable to lèse-majesté criminal offense.

[12] Seow Hutseng (蕭佛成), head of Siamese branch of Kuomintang,[73] edited Chinosayam Warasap ("Sino–Siamese magazine") publications to propagate republican revolutionary ideas among the Chinese in Siam, who had numbered to 8.3 million people.

[84] King Vajiravudh spent a great amount of money on his many projects and personal expenditures,[12] totaling nine million baht accounting for about ten percent of annual state budget.

This policy had some positive effects as Siam's state finance shifted from deficit to surplus within three years[85] but these developments bred political resentments from the educated bureaucratic middle class, who found themselves suddenly unemployed, towards the royal government.

[86] By implication, this line of argument suggests the 1932 revolution was nothing more than a coup that simply replaced the absolute monarchy and its aristocracy with a commoner elite class made up of Western-educated generals and civilian bureaucrats and essentially that there was little that was revolutionary about this event.

In pre-modern Siamese law, acting or speaking against the king was subjected to punishments; either one of decapitation, fission of mouth to the ears, amputation of limbs, lashes of rattan strokes, imprisonment, forced corvée labor or simple monetary fines.

[102] By mid-nineteenth century, traditional Siamese central government structure became ineffective,[101] with blurred and overlapping administrative functions among the departments,[101] in the face of Western colonialist threats and sovereignty questions and reforms were needed.

After the Paknam Incident of 1893, Prince Damrong the Minister of the North proposed the Thesaphiban system in 1894 that would centralize and integrate regional governments and quasi-independent tributary polities into provincial territorial administrative units.

[12] King Rama I conducted his personal trade with Qing China through the Samphao Luang (สำเภาหลวง) or Royal Junks,[109] in joint venture with Chinese merchants who provided the crew.

[114] Facing geopolitical pressures, Siamese government under liberal-minded King Mongkut[43] and Chaophraya Si Suriyawong (Chuang Bunnag) gave in to British demands with the signing of Bowring Treaty in 1855.

[12] This put Siamese government in dire financial situation even in the time that Siam's economy was expanding[34] and led to creation of fourteen even more tax farms in the reign of King Mongkut for Chinese collectors to levy.

Sir John Bowring the Governor of Hong Kong, who was the delegate of Aberdeen government[45] in London rather than the East India Company,[12] arrived in Bangkok in March 1855 along with Harry Parkes in the ship Rattler.

However, Chaophraya Si Suriyawong the Kralahom had earlier secretly had Norodom sign another opposing treaty that recognized Siamese suzerainty over Cambodia, which was published in The Straits Times in August 1864.

Surasak Montri led his Siamese troops to the Black Tai town of Muang Thaeng or Điện Biên Phủ in 1887 but the wars to suppress the Haws had turned into Franco–Siamese conflicts over Sipsong Chuthai instead, in which surveys and mapmaking are crucial parts to territorial claims of each party on the region.

Royal court controlled the Buddhist Sangha to regulate and preserve traditions that were considered orthodox through the Krom Sankhakari (กรมสังฆการี) or Department of Monastic Affairs that had authorities to investigate Vinaya violations and to defrock monks.

[151] In 1849, during the Cholera epidemic, King Rama III ordered the Christian churches to release domesticated animals and feed them[151] to make merits to appease the diseases according to Buddhist beliefs.

The Mon regiment played crucial role in surveillance of the borders with Burma due to their familiarity with the area and would provide timely alerts of imminent Burmese incursion to the Bangkok court.

Central structures of Thai temples included ordination hall Ubosoth (อุโบสถ), which was wide rectangular in shape,[160] for monks to chant and perform ceremonies and Wiharn (วิหาร), which was for general public religious services.

His most important masterpiece was Phra Aphai Mani – a poetic work with more than 30,000 lines[59] telling stories of a rogue womanizer prince who left his kingdom to pursue gallant adventures in the seas.

[177] From the 1860s onward, Thai royals "selectively adopted Victorian corporeal and sartorial etiquette to fashion modern personas that were publicized domestically and internationally by means of mechanically reproduced images.