History of Thailand

The Kingdom of Thailand is a country in Southeast Asia, contiguous Laos and Cambodia to the east, the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia to the south, and the Andaman Sea and Myanmar to the west. Thailand is also well-known as Siam, which was the country's official name until May 11, 1949. The word Thai means "free" in the Thai language. It is also the name of the Thai people - foremost some inhabitants, mainly the sizeable Chinese minority, to continue to use the name Siam.
Thailand's origin is usually tied to the short-lived kingdom of Sukhothai founded in 1238, after which the larger kingdom of Ayutthaya was established in the mid-14th century. Thai culture was very much influenced by both China and India. Contact with various European powers began in the 16th century but, despite sustained pressure, Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country never to have been taken over by a European power, though Western influence, with the threat of force, led to many reforms in the 19th century and major concessions to British mercantile interests (as such many historians include Thailand in the "informal British Empire").
A mostly bloodless revolution in 1932 led to a constitutional monarchy. Known before as Siam, the country first changed its name to Thailand in 1939, and definitively in 1949 after reverting to the old name post-World War II. During that conflict Thailand was in a loose alliance with Japan; following its conclusion Thailand became an ally of the United States. Thailand then saw a series of military coups d'état, but progressed towards democracy from the 1980s onward.
The official calendar in Thailand is based on the Buddhist Era, which is 543 years ahead of the western calendar. For example, the year 2000 AD is equal to the year 2543 BE.
On 26 December 2004 the west coast of Thailand was devastated by a 10 metre high tsunami following the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, claiming more than 5,000 casualties in Thailand, half of them tourists.