A drawing of two royal galleys of Siam.

A drawing of two royal galleys of Siam.

Presumably drawn in the 17th century when the Siamese capital was located in Ayutthaya, the lower illustration represents the king's barge while the upper galley was an escort for the French embassy. The Siamese, or Thais, moved from their ancestral home in southern China into mainland Southeast Asia around the 10th century CE. Prior to this, Indianized kingdoms such as the Mon, Khmer and Malay kingdoms ruled the region. The Thais established their own states starting with Sukhothai, Chiang Saen, Chiang Mai and Lanna Kingdom, before the founding of the Ayutthaya kingdom. These states fought each other and were under constant threat from the Khmers, Burma and Vietnam. Much later, the European colonial powers threatened in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but Thailand survived as the only Southeast Asian state to avoid colonial rule. After the end of the absolute monarchy in 1932, Thailand endured 60 years of almost permanent military rule before the establishment of a democratic elected-government system.

Album / Pictures From History/Universal Images Group

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39.3 x 32.2 cm | 15.5 x 12.7 in (300 dpi)