Thonburi Kingdom

Origins

Taksin, a provincial governor of part-Chinese descent, broke out of besieged Ayutthaya in 1767, gathered forces in the south-east at Chanthaburi and drove the Burmese garrison from the Ayutthaya area later that year. He chose Thonburi, a fortified town downriver, as his capital and was crowned king.

Rule and society

Between 1768 and 1770 Taksin defeated the rival regimes of Phimai, Phitsanulok, Sawangkhaburi and Nakhon Si Thammarat. His generals, the brothers Chao Phraya Chakri and Surasi, expelled the Burmese from Lan Na and conquered the Kingdom of Vientiane in 1779, bringing back the Emerald Buddha. Taksin encouraged Chinese trade and settlement to rebuild the economy.

Decline and legacy

In his later years Taksin was said to have become religiously obsessive and erratic. A revolt in 1782 deposed him, and Chao Phraya Chakri returned from Cambodia, had Taksin executed and became Rama I, founding the Rattanakosin Kingdom and moving the capital across the river to Bangkok.