Hey all,

I've always been interested in SEA history but my knowledge on it is not so great. I've been to Thailand numerous times now and I've seen many temples, palaces and cultural sites throughout my stay. From these experiences along with my own personal readings into SEA, I have learned a few things about the Thai culture and its history. At numerous stages, Thailand remained very wealthy and at one time it was the greatest superpower of the Indochina region. The Ayutthaya Kingdom was no doubt one of the most wealthiest countries/empires in the world. Bear in mind during this period the Ming Dynasty of China and the Arabs were the most powerful civilisations in the world and the Europeans were still too busy trying to kill each other.

If I am correct, Thailand was still a rich country even when Mongkut was in charge was it not? And Thailand was never colonised by a European superpower, it was never taken over by communism nor was it carpet bombed like Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Since Thailand didn't suffer as much as its neighbours and it had good relations with European powers, why didn't the country turn out like Japan or South Korea? My question is, how and when did Thailand suddenly become a poor country?

I think you should travel to the neighboring countries of Thailand too,
and you will see the difference. Thailand is not a poor country nor a rich country,

You should travel to the north like Chiangmai, the north-east like Ubon Ratchathani
and the southern of Thailand like Trang, Krabi and Phuket (to see the beach).

The development of the country usually flock in the big cities. In Hatyai where I live
, for example, there's no electric-wire pillar because they are all in underground.

Well, if you ask why Thailand hasn't developped like Japan and Korea.
First, you should consider the size of area and the population.
Much wider than Japan and Korea, I mean the factors of development still suck!
Moreover, Thailand always encounters political crisis so many times.
Such as the killing field of Thai student in 4 Oct, and so many more.

The main reason is corruption!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you look at the neighboring country like Cambodia and Laos
also face the same problem. that's why Thailand is still Thailand now.

But the prediction of CIA told that Thailand will be fully-developped
in 2040. Right now, Thailand is in the status of newly industrialised country.
Now I can see the possibility, such as the construction of electric Sky train
and metro, many skycrapers in construction and Thai people are in a high level
of education such as literacy. This year there will be many students who graduate
in the level of master degree like never before (including me too). Thailand will
have a new social standard that students in the new era must graduate
the master degree at very least (in the upcoming future).

From your perspective, you might consider Thailand a poor country,
that is not wrong. But you should see it overall before jumping into conclusion.
Anyway thank you for your question, I will use it as my research
for the outsider's perspectives.

Thailand is not poor or rich country like modernthai said. Thailand is good at protecting themselves from outsiders but we are not good solving our own problem, politics, corruption, elite people and institutions abuse and claim monarchy power to gain their own benefit and so on.

I have question too Japan was nuked by the US and 30 years later they become rich country. Comparing to 30 years already end of wars in Lao, Cambodia and Vietnam, these countries should be rich like Japan now?

nhoona, you cannot compare japan to cambodia.

japan has only two cities that was bombed, but cambodia has almost the whole country bombed by US and the whole country of cambodia went into war and anarchy for more than 40 years until 1997. how can you compare?

that was a stupid comparison.

they are poor because they are dumb, period.

Thailand is the first modern country in SEA and Asia itself.

I don't see any countries in SEA as modern countries but they are still in development progress except Brunei and Singapore. Both of them are considered as rich countries. Even Malaysia herself is a developed countries, and I agree with K. ModernThai, corruption is the main and core problem of every SEA countries.

Based on her writing, i am not even sure if this jek chick even graduated from Chula or not. Japan was already well developed society way before WWII started. Japan was part of the Axis power comprised of Germany and Italy. The only Asian country during the WWII that can go head to head with any western power. US nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but of course carpet bombing destroyed other cities as well. Just admit it many Japanese are genius and able to pull off in a short period, while Thailand is still struggling and focusing to build bangkock mainly. Bangkock is developed but the world look at you as a whole country, and thailand is still considered a third world country, even though there was no major war for centuries.

feutralism mentality is still existed in the central thai people, many well paying jobs are still inherited. they deny that garlee/ beggars are not thai, even though they're thai citizen, and love to say those are your brothers Lao, khmer or Burmese citizens. By doing so you portrait a trait of looking down on your own country man/woman and doesn't affect Laos. Fact is fact and can easily be proven. Separating between regions like issan, lanna, muslim south, khmer surin is visible.

There are too many factors contribute to why it take forever for one country to develop than others. It could be because of mis-management, wars, young/uneducated population, lack of innovative brain, lack of resource, over population, discrimination/racism, religion conflicts or maybe too many jek that like push other people down so they can live off people back.

Bangkok is a primate city. Just like Paris, Copenhagen or London. All the important functions, investments, educational institutions etc. of a country are concentrated here. I guess you will never see other big cities like Bangkok in Thailand. In this case it is normal when the developments first takes place in just one place in the whole country and spread the wealth over the whole country later. But unlike Paris or London, Bangkok is still in the beginning. Thailand is in progress to become a modern country. If I a not wrong my Mom's hometown Chiang Rai gets a new hospital, shoppingcenter and is going to take the function as a transit city for the trade with China. Okay that don't make a place modern but we have good streets, two hospitals, two universities, a shoppingcenter, wellmentained green sapces, electricity, clean water, pubs, clubs etc. No need to worry. Bangkok cares of Lanna Thai people. From what I experienced they adore us. Unlike you Lao they don't look down on us because we don't make Thailand look bad.

Thai people don't deny that some of them are Thai citizens. They are mostly from Isaan. That makes them Lao as well. We also know that more and more prostitutes come from Laos and Cambodia. I think that's sad. I don't support sex toursim and the exploitation of women at all. It doesn't matter where the prostitutes are from.

I think there are other reasons why Thailand is not as far developed as S. Korea or Japan. S. Korea and Japan got big financial investments from America. America's intention was to strengthen the relationship with these countries to have base in East Asia where they can spread their capitalism. To show the big enemies N. Korea, China and Russia how great capitalism is. How rich the capitalist countries S. Korea and Japan are. Thailand got much less development aid though. We aren't strategical important for America nowadays. Another reasons are the corruption, the political riots and the lazy mentality of Thai and Southeast Asian people. Yes, most are lazy. You might be one of them. Except Vietnamese and Chinese SE Asians we are not Confucian. You have to admit that these people are way more hardworking. I admire that.

All in all I don't view Thailand as a modern or poor country but a country that moves towards a modern country. That's fact.

Thailand may be poor but it's still the richest SE Asian country. Plus you guys have the honor of not having to deal with whities colonize your land. Be proud of that!

Old colonialism was fading away, the trace of colonialism can be found in the history book, old building.....etc. But nowaday we can find a trace of colonialism in pattaya, pathong and other thai red light district. true is true. Thailand got a lot of help from the US during the cold war, not to mention the world bank and IMF and were in peace for century. Jek PingLing can be right, "Another reasons are the corruption, the political riots and the lazy mentality of Thai and Southeast Asian people. Yes, most are lazy." Blaming on the poor without supporting in easy way to do and jek thai just love to do that. More like swept under the carpet and happy with it.

I was thinking that Thailand should be like Japan and South Korean, since they like to claim that they never been colonized by anybody and RAMA 9 knows everything.

All interesting replies. Note: I do apologize if I have offended anyone as it is not my intention to do so.

I'm not really talking about mid 20th century rapid industrialization, e.g. Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea (although what happened in SK is pretty much nothing short of a miracle). I'm sure there are more obvious reasons, e.g. the Bangkok elite wanting the wealth to remain within the city. There doesn't seem to be a real second city in Thailand as the gap between Bangkok and its closest rival Chonburi is quite staggering. So it's easy to understand why there is such a huge political problem there.
It's also not really fair to compare Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia with Japan and South Korea. For one, the Americans lost their war against these SEA nations and also the Americans devastated them by completely bombing them to smithereens and walking away without helping them (unlike Japan and SK).

But in terms of the mid 19th - 20th century period, it seemed that Thailand had the perfect opportunity to industrialize like Japan. Japan industrialized during the 1850's because they felt the need to be able to defend themselves not only against the Qing Dynasty of China but also against European powers. The Japanese were also expansionists at the time, going into Korea, Manchuria, China (mainland) and so on. From my understandings it seemed as if Mongkut (Rama IV) wanted to take this path and industrialize Thailand but the people, royals and officials were reluctant to do so. Maybe it's because the British had already defeated Burma and hence Thailand had no real threat anymore. Therefore, there was no real pressure to industrialize rapidly.

And you really can't say that SE Asians have always been lazy, you just got to look back in time :P When I went to Angkor I was just absolutely amazed at how brilliant the ancestors of the Cambodian (SEA) people really were. The Khmer Empire during its golden era was seriously an advanced and intelligent civilization well beyond its time.

All in all, I believe prosperity will return to Thailand and Asia as a whole. As an economist who has studied under the Austrian school of thought, it's quite obvious now that the 21st century will undoubtedly belong to Asia, not Europe or America. Even right now, we are seeing the potential collapse of the US as a global superpower and the re-emergence of previous superpowers like China and India, the rest of E and SE Asia will surely benefit from trade as a result.

Possible that their elite class was too busy looking pretty.

its called rich ? i dont think so, China have many great empire, it may be rich in palace but not whole country, just like Thailand. Ayuthaya the old kingdom was compleately destroyed by Burma. This is not even call country just like your great Angor. The Thai started to build Bangkok, a small town fulled of Makok trees along Chao Phraya river, from zero, till its present day Bangkok. When did Thailand suddently become a poor country? If you think Ayuthaya is rich befor it was destroyed thats not wrong but i think Thailand was just upgraded to developing country a few decades ago.




It seemed like you Think Thai did nothing to archive what we are today. It exchaged with so much much effort and pain to keep independent, freedom is our motto since in the beginning of Siame/Thai history. You said the British had already defeated Burma and hence Thailand had no real threat anymore? not true, its called colonization if you dont know. Thai did wars with them, British and France, got unfair threat and suffer fortunately with strong monarchy and exellent diplomatic, so we are what we are today. And please dont say that British and France want Thailand as thier buffer state that neighborings countries like to say. Why dont want Siam, the most importnat location in SE.

Indonesia is the richest SE Asian country...however, if per capita then Singapore is the winner.

In SEA, Singapore is the only country that is marked as rich and already developped country.

You need to eat more pig. Indonesia 2008 GDP was over $ 500 billion, that would be the highest than any country in SE. Besides from Singapore, Brunei is considered a developed county with $53,100 per capital. Brunei has a small well-to-do economy that encompasses a mixture of foreign and domestic entrepreneurship, government regulation, welfare measures, and village tradition..

Thailand

Total area : 514,000 sq km
Population : 65,905,410
GDP : $553.4 billion
Per Capita : $8,500


Laos

Total area : 236,800 sq km
Population : 6,834,942
GDP : $13.99 billion
Per Capita : $2,100


Merged Country

Total area : 750,800 sq km
Population : 72,740,352
GDP : $567.39 billion
Per Capita : $7,800

I think Brunei is quite a rich country too in SEA, luckily they don't join Malaysian Federation so they can manage their own oil reservation area. Last time, Philippines too was a rich country when it was administrated by the US.

Concerning Singapore, my father had once living and worked there, he said that they weren't rich like today once they were expelled from Malaysian Federation. Their currency is just like 0.10 cents or 0.20 cents higher than our currency around 70's but nowadays it is twice our currency. I prefer Brunei than Singapore but people from both countries can sometimes being arrogant, just my experience when I was treated badly at the Singaporean Immigration Center when they see our passport and my father's niece is a Singaporean. If you go to Arab countries, they worship people from their passport, if you say you are from Brunei, they will treat you like a god, lolzzzzzzz.

Indonesia is quite rich but their leaders do not know how to manage well their natural resources and vast bribery acts can't be avoided. I don't say that my country is free from bribery but it is still in control. Most of the natural sources like Petroleum in Indonesia is in Kalimantan and Sumatera Island. Also vast farms and plantation areas in all the Islands. They also had borrowed money from IMF during the economy down-turn in 1997. Malaysia passed the economic downturn when our PM had restricted our currency flow abroad and had tied our currency to American Dollar at the fixed rate without borrowing from IMF.

For Malaysia, if Muang Terengganu becoming an Independent country on its own, I guess that it will be just like Brunei because they have oil reservation in their sea plus their King now is our current Jai Jing.

Merge with Jek.

Thailand is dirt poor, considering it was never bombed, colonised, communized ect....
But the King in the other hand is whe Worlds richest monarch. The king wears rocks, his people eat rocks.

^
That sound so jealous
American is a rich country where offer more opportunity to every one equally. However ,some refugee and or son of refugee waste those chance and act like low life gangster tried to bring other country which share the same ancestry as him down.What the waste of an American tax to pay to educate this idiot.

^The purpose of my post was to piss thai people off.

Mission accomplished

Gangsters? LOL! Don't be jealous because we live in the U.S. and make more money than you.

I'm glad you realize that Singapore is a rich nation. Thailand, on the other hand, is not at the level of Singapore or Indonesia.

ai lao ngo! thailand is ahead of indonesia mate!! s'pore, brunei and malaysia are the three nations that are richer than thailand atm (SEA).
Thailand has never been rich, we have always been poor. kinda flattered for thread owner to think thailand was rich.
hahaha thai king wears rock, his people eat rock. very true indeed!!!

Too many jek riding on hardworking thai. need to get rid of them so thai become rich. make sense to me.

learn from the history dumb arse. look at what the black zimbabwians r doing to the white zimbabwians, does getting of rich white farmers make the black any richer?
they are poor because they are dumb, its in their blood. kicking jeks out will result in a total collapse of the thai economy. dont worry, it will never happen, thai king needs jeks money to buy rocks, the military needs jeks money for their 'weapons'.
without jeks, thailand is just another laos

Here is the fact jek. Thai are not black okie. all jek go back to mainland will be good for both thai and jek. Jek get to join their brother/sister, happy family again and thai don't have to deal with prejudice jek.

Make sense to me, let do it man. jek back to mainland, yeahhhahhaahha.

No Chinese No Thailand.

Hmm and how about Laos?
mind your own business first, wouldn't you?

No I guess he wouldn't. He doesn't care about Laos at all. He is just talking and putting other countries down to make Laos look good though nothing has changed positively in Laos. Let him dream.

Thailand has always been a country of progress. They are always moving toward a better life for their citizens, but are always a few steps behind.

I think thailand can be like Malaysia and South Korean, since they never have major conflict or colonized by the west. If they can get rid of jek, and get away from the mentality that Thailand is doing better than Africa or her neighbors.

Thailand GDP : $8,500

Thai merged with Lao : $7,800

too bad.

corruption
people
education
etc...

oh 1 more thing weather
if u guys notice countries that have cold weather will pretty much develop maybe it makes ppl to be able to think lot of stuff. idk

จริงหรือครับถ้าไทยถูกปกครองจากตะวันตกแล้วจะเจริญเหมือน มาเลเซีย เกาหลีใต้ แล้วมันจะไม่เหมือนบางประเทศเพื่อนบ้านประเทศไทยบ้างประเทศ

ก็คงต้องโทษฝรั่งเศานะครับสำหรับ ฝรั่งเศษมันยึดแล้วสูบอย่างเดียวสังเกตได้จาก ประเทศที่มันยึดๆไว้
แต่เด้วก่อนลองหันกลับมมามองประเทศที่อังกิดยึดไว้สิครับ
Malaysia, Singapore,South Africa,Egypt,India etc... ยกเว้น Burma อันนี้มันทำร้ายตัวเอง ทหารยึดอำนาจ ที่จริงโอกาสที่จะเจรินก้อมีแต่น่าเสียดาย คงทำกรรมไว้ตอนสมัยอยุดทยาไว้เยอะ