Country-specific analysis and characteristics

Thailand

History as defined in Thailand concentrates more on the Thai people, and not on the history of people living in the present day area defined as being Thailand. This history can be divided into two parts - before Sukhothai and after Sukhothai. Sukhothai is considered to be the first time that the present Thai people were considered a separate entity, and there are written records available from that time. The history of people in Thailand starts with Ban Chiang group of people in the northeast of Thailand. This was a well developed culture with agriculture and bronze metallurgy about the period of 3000 BC. Artifacts from this period are stored in a museum at Wang Suan Phakkat. Similar races were then scattered all over South East Asia and that includes parts of south and south west China. This relationship is seen through the languages that are spoken in these areas. Thus it may be assumed that the people in Thailand have slowly moved south from China, and the movement was in a large way with the Mongol movement. In this area, different cultures had existed earlier, and the Dvaravati culture lasted up to the 11th century AD. The concerned people were of Mon origin and their descendents used to live in present day Thailand and Myanmar and over time have been absorbed in the other cultures who live in that area. (Thai history before the Sukhothai kingdom)

In terms of Thai kingdoms, Sukhothai is supposed to be the first Thai kingdom and their behavior is supposed to reflect the first true Thai behavior. They were followed by the Ayudhaya kings and their kingdom and culture were finally destroyed by the invading armies from Myanmar. The people of the two nations have always been great rivals. The kingdom of Ayudhaya and its capital city was very imposing in the period and also impressed the Portuguese, Dutch, and Japanese who visited that kingdom, and those people also built up their own settlements. The kings were very powerful and the ordinary citizens were not permitted to even look at the king directly. At the same time, they had good diplomatic skills and that stopped Thailand from being captured by Britain or France, though they lost the areas of present day Laos and Cambodia to France and some of the Malay states to Britain. This period of absolute monarchy ended in 1935 and the present king, the longest serving monarch in the world is ruling from 1946. Direct power is being controlled alternately by the military and elected prime ministers. Last elections were held in September 1992 and from that time elected ministers have held sway. (Thai history before the Sukhothai kingdom)

The country is more than double the size of Wyoming with an area of 514,000 sq. miles and has a water area of 2,230 sq. miles. The total population is over 64 million and speaks Thai, English, and ethnic and regional dialects. This is a feature of many parts of Asia where the elite speak a European language in addition to their mother tongue, and it may be said that this feature has been developed due to the influence of the European over the home country over a period of time. The main religion of the country is Buddhism with less that 5% professing other faiths like Islam, Christianity and Hinduism. The life expectancy of the people is about 72 and about half the people engaged in agriculture and the rest in industry and services. (Thailand -- Quick Facts)

The concerned industries are tourism, textiles and garments, agricultural processing, beverages, tobacco, cement, and manufacturing of other items like jewelry, electric appliances, computer parts, integrated circuits, furniture, plastics, and preparation of tungsten metal and tin. These manufactured items are again exported mainly in the areas where they are required by the world's industry. At the same time the country imports its requirement of capital goods, intermediate goods and raw materials for the manufacture of consumer goods and fuels which are not available. It can thus be seen that in terms of industry, Thailand has become a part of the international industry, and help it by supplying labor at low cost as also materials. For helping industry develop the languages spoken by the people have also changed. Would Americans speak Chinese unless the country was colonized by China? (Thailand -- Quick Facts)

The country has its own variety of weather, similar to many parts of Asia. There are two monsoon seasons - one of them from June to October and that is also full of rains. The other monsoon from November to February is relatively dry and cool. In between, from March to May is the hot season. Comparatively, all three seasons have a high temperature than America or Europe. (Thailand has a tropical climate with three seasons) the country has had a relatively fast rate of growth from 1986 to 1996 but this led to a severe economic crisis in 1997 and this led to the floating of their currency named "baht." The baht has been slowly declining against the dollar since that time onwards. However, the economists are of the opinion that the country has been recovering from its declining trend in the last couple of years, under the leadership of the present government. (Thailand Culture: Economic Policy Analysis) at the time when the Thai economy Thailand was declining, there was an all over decline throughout the region as well as in several parts of the world. An important reason for such a trend was that was the developed countries were not interested in the products from Thailand. The relationship of these currencies to the dollar is also confusing, as the dollar also has been declining significantly over the past couple of years in contrast to the Euro and other strong currencies.

At this stage, it is important to understand the particular nature of the country, and who can best talk about it, other than the people of that country. According to the Thais, they are very proud of the culture that they had developed over the years, and are not willing to accept the domination of other cultures. At the same time, they are friendly to foreigners, and welcome them with warmly with open arms. The official language of the country is Thai and the people mainly speak Thai which includes a majority -- as many as 99%. (Thailand: Economic Policy Analysis) the recent crisis in the economy of the country has also had a tremendous effect on the country. This was mainly due to the unemployment it created which led to several millions losing their job. This had a major impact on the younger generation as children had to leave school as parents were not being able to pay the tuition fees. Everybody was trying to make easy money which unfortunately brought about a massive increase in the crime levels and several citizens turned tried to make easy money by involving themselves in the drug business.