Self-Colonising the City as a Project

Self-Colonising the City as a Project

Although Siam is the only Southeast Asian country that has never been formally colonised by any European Empire, the apparatus of colonial trade had a similar impact on the politicoeconomic system, as well as on the urban transformation, as on other colonised countries. King Rama V (King Chulalongkorn), the first king under the Absolute Monarchy system8, shifted administrative power to the central bureaucratic institutions in Bangkok. The centralisation of power allowed him to implement various policies across the entire territory of Siam. The quest of the King to modernise the city and civilise the entire political system, or in Thai, Siwilai9, demanded a government, institutional transformation as a major power assertion system and the transformation of the city scape and its socio-economic regime. The project to modernise Bangkok city and bring it in line with other colonial port-cities in Southeast Asia was implemented through the appropriation of European styles of city development. The Siamese King took the protagonist’s role in initiating such a project himself. This could be called a self-colonisation10: when the local leader himself plays an active role in initiating economic, political and legal reforms. The reforms favoured the Colonial powers more than the subjects of the Siamese state, and the government put forward public policies which served Imperialist Officers. This included special rights under law and urban transformation. This can be illustrated by the provision of the first street, constructed in 1861, Charoen Krung Road, which mainly served the European diplomats who preferred to travel by horse rather than in the traditional way: by boat, via the canal. The road also served as a connection between the main palace and the consulate and port in the southern part of the city. King Rama V was also a great admirer of western-style architecture, which can be seen from the increasing number of European architects who were hired to design major institutions’ central offices, as well as his new palace in the northern part of the city and many large infrastructural projects such as the first central railway station in Hua Lam Pong. The mid-nineteenth century was a critical moment for Bangkok as a colonial-influenced city, as it saw a large expansion due to an influx of immigrant traders. As I have previously mentioned, the conventional narrative of Thai history claims that the country was never colonised by any Imperial power. As such, studies of its urban transformation that link to the effect of colonialism are limited. It is also useful to note that the Siamese rulers themselves took on a role in the Colonial Empire, making an effort to conquer the territory around it and shaping Thailand as it is shown on a map today. Another conventional narrative is that the city was generally claimed as an imitation of a European city. One of the most prominent examples of this claim takes as its evidence the construction of Ratchadamnoen Road, which could be seen as a copycat of the Champs-Élysées in Paris; however, recent research in Thai Studies has claimed that much of the transformation of the city was largely influenced by other colonial cities in the region11 .

Fig. 4 8 The Thai Absolute Monarchy is a way the government centralised the governing power, in contrast to the pre-modern state in which each landlord had his own power Kesboonchoo Mead, Kullada, [The Rise and Decline of Thai Absolutism] 9 In Thai, the word is a modified English Word Siwilai which does not have a certain or absolute meaning; however, it is generally the term used by the Siam elite to represent ‘modern, modernity’. 10 This term has been used by a small number of scholars including Sidh Sintusingha and Morteza Mirgholami. Some scholars use the term ‘semicolony’ or ‘informal empire’. I prefer to use the term ‘self-colonise’ to describe the active role of the Siamese elite themselves, who subjected various policies on their own state and subject in favour of the Imperialists. 11 King Rama V visited Batavia and Singapore in 1870 and was impressed by the landscape of the city. See further, Teeraviriyakul, Udomporn, “Bangkok modern”: the transformation of Bangkok with Singapore and Batavia as models [Thesis (Ph.D. ) Chulalongkorn University, 2012]

Boundary of Old Town China Town European and Chinese Port

Fig. 4 Map of City of Bangkok in 1870 Sternstein, Larry, Portrait of Bangkok (Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, 1982) p.22 / Hatch by author

Fig. 5 King Rama V, his royal family and British Engineer together on the opening ceremony of the first railway connecting Bangkok to Nakorn Sri Tammarat Province in 1886 Nana, Krairerk, The Blueprint of Siam-China raiway connection, Is it real?, Who is behind? < https://www.silpa-mag.com/history/article_8421 > accessed 15 April 2021 Krailerk Nana’s collection, Black and White News Paper, 2 May 1896