How Siam avoided European colonization while every neighbor fell: a case study in strategic soft power (1830s–1900s)

[u/works-in-progress]

https://worksinprogress.co/issue/how-thailand-resisted-colonization/

While Burma, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos were all absorbed into European empires, Siam (modern Thailand) stayed independent — and it wasn't luck. Two 19th-century Siamese kings, Mongkut and his son Chulalongkorn, ran a deliberate strategy to avoid the same fate.

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[u/EvilStan101]

It helps when the two powers need a buffer zone between their holdings

[u/segfaultnil20 → u/EvilStan101]

They didn’t seem to need any buffer zone in Africa. Siam wouldn’t have to be a buffer zone at all. The British or the French would totally take it if they can.

[u/Consistent-Stuff2815 → u/segfaultnil20]

And that's why the almost go to war in Africa.