A 19th century Thai King, despite lacking the youth, embraced modernization and began the arduous process all in the name of his Kingdom's independence. But he did not act alone, across Asia and Africa, many countries, facing the same imperialist threat, undertook the painful decision. This wave of modernization, however, faced mixed results with some success and many failed.
Table of Contents
4. Summing Up
What Reforms did Mongkut Introduced?
From 1851 to 1868, King Mongkut ruled Thailand, then known as Siam. He reluctantly signed unequal treaties with the West to maintain peace and to protect his Kingdom's independence. He used it as a chance to buy time for his country to reform.
He then initiated gradual modernization of the country to do away the image of backwardness and to stand equal with the west. He then developed Siam's transportation and communication network. They planned and laid roads and erected telegraph cables across the country. They utilized Siam's vast river network to become a major transportation mode.
Educational reform also began. Modern subjects of science, math, and languages began to be taught. The Royal Family hired foreign tutors to teach Mongkut's numerous sons and daughters. This became the context of Anna Leonowen’s story and the King and I, which Thailand banned for its bias and disrespect of King Mongkut.
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| King Mongkut |
Wave of Modernization
Mongkut's reforms rooted not only from his personal curiosity since his time as a monk for fondness of everything new. Geopolitical situations required Siam to do so.
Imperial Playbook and Argument
China, Japan, Vietnam, and even Siam's neighbor Burma, faced the West's modus operandi starting with unequal treaties. These treaties then leveled up to political and economic interference ultimately leading to either the country being a sphere of influence or outright annexed. Siam faced this starting point back In 1855, with the Bowring Treaty.
The Bowring Treaty filled with the common western unequal treaties. They demanded lowering customs duty, direct commodities trading and notoriously humiliating British subjects the privillege of extraterritoriality, meaning local laws do not apply to them. Unequal treaties demanded trade and immunity
Such biases turned out from the Imperialist argument that non-western countries had backward societies and barbaric laws. Therefore, they must protect their citizens with immunity. The treaties and subsequent actions meant bringing and teaching civilization to these countries. This became the notorious troupe that led to the subjugation of most of the world under the West.
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| Sir John Bowring |
The Counter Argument and Movement
Asian and African countries who faced the West's unequal treaties, hence. counter this argument through modernization. Reforms born out of necessity and not out of the goodness of the heart or sudden eureka moment. It became modernized or perished.
Many countries did so with varying success rate.
Japan modernized after American Commodore Matthew Perry sailed into the Shogun's capital with modern black smoke belching ships and demanded access to ports and immunity to American citizens. Their modernization took a faster pace under the Meiji Restoration in 1868. They did not just modernize, but industrialized to become Asia's top economy for more than a century.
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| Meeting between Commodore Perry and Japanese officials |
China had it rough with the British dumping opium to them and when they banned the substance, they lost the war and signed more unequal treaties. A modernization and industrialization movement began in the 1880s under the Self-Strengthening Movement, but its nature remained localized and failed to grow nationally.
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| Hanyang Arsenal, one result of the Self-Strengthening Movement |
Attempts of sweeping radical reform turned up in the 1890s but it lasted only for about 100 days. Their failure to modernize led to the period being known as the Century of Humiliation.
Other smaller countries took the path of modernization as well.
In Africa, the Kingdom of Abyssinia (modern day Ethiopia) modernized under King Menelik II, who fortunately defeated the Italians in the Battle of Adwa in 1896.
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| Emperor Menelik II |
Closer to Siam, Vietnam already signed the unequal Treaty of Saigon in 1862. Emperor Tu Duc received a petition in the 1860s and 1870s urging for sweeping modernization. He, however, ignored these reform proposals. Vietnam fell to complete French control by the end of the 19th century.
Behind Successes and Failures
Modernization reforms shakes the status quo, vested interest, and traditions. In some countries, the conservatives overwhelmed reformist sentiment such as the case of China and Vietnam. Top Mandarins proud of their traditional Confucian traditions stifled reformist sentiments
Examples like Siam and Japan, underwent modernization with blessings from the top and supported also by influential factions. For Japan, the Meiji Emperor and samurais from Satsuma and Choshu Domains. For Siam, the King himself, Mongkut and his son Chulalongkorn and their Bunnag Clan drove modernization forward, albeit gradually.
Geography also played a key role. Japan stood farther away than China and their northern giant neighbor did not flex its muscles until the Trans-Siberian Railway began to be constructed. Siam had the luck that France and Britain did not want to be neighbors in mainland Southeast Asia. Hence, the Kingdom became the buffer that kept the French and British away,
Summing Up
King Mongkut reacted similarly with the rest of Asia and Africa facing growing Western Imperialism. He, fortunately, has the mindset, the officials, and the geopolitical situation to successfully protect Thailand's independence. The same ingredients allowed some to succeed, but lacking in some led others to fail. In the end, the mindset for adaptation and the stomach for risk of the heads of the countries dictated the fate of the countries, for Thailand, they had the luck of having Kings who had it.
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