Thonburi Kingdom

The Thonburi Kingdom was the Siamese state that rose from Ayutthaya's ashes, lasting only from 1767 to 1782. When Burmese armies destroyed Ayutthaya in 1767, the country split into five warring pieces; Taksin, a half-Chinese general, gathered a fleet on the southeastern coast, drove the occupiers out, and, finding the old capital a ruin, planted his own at Thonburi on the Chao Phraya. In fourteen furious years his armies reunited Siam and carried its power further than ever before: Lan Na, Luang Phrabang, Vientiane, Champasak and Cambodia all entered Thonburi's orbit, while Chinese junks brought trade and kinsmen to a king who shared their blood. Taksin's last years darkened into cruelty and religious delusion, and in 1782 his general Chao Phraya Chakri, returning from Cambodia, deposed and executed him and took the throne as Rama I, moving the capital across the river to Bangkok. Fourteen years, one king, and the bridge between Ayutthaya and modern Thailand.