---
node: rattanakosin
type: period
slug: rattanakosin_kingdom
title: "Rattanakosin Kingdom"
lead: "The Rattanakosin Kingdom (1782–1932) is the Bangkok era of Siam, from Rama I's founding of the new capital to the revolution of 1932. It was the absolute-monarchy chapter of the Chakri dynasty, which still reigns today."
published: 2026-07-10
updated: 2026-07-10
image_file: rattanakosin_kingdom.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_roof_of_a_building_at_the_Grand_Palace,_Bangkok,_sunrise,_2017.jpg"
image_author: "Bjørn Erik Pedersen"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

## Overview

In 1782 Rama I founded a new capital at Bangkok, opening the era named for Rattanakosin Island. The name Rattanakosin also denotes the kingdom beyond 1932; this page covers 1782–1932, with the constitutional era treated as its own period.

## Key developments

Rama I rebuilt state, law and court culture on the Ayutthayan model — the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew, the Three Seals Law Code (1805) and a complete Ramakien — and his reign repelled the great Burmese invasion known as the Nine Armies War (1785–86, under Bodawpaya).

From the mid-19th century, Western pressure mounted. Mongkut (r. 1851–1868) chose engagement: the Bowring Treaty (1855) opened trade with Britain and became the model for treaties with other powers. Chulalongkorn (r. 1868–1910) transformed the state — the gradual abolition of slavery and corvée (completed 1905), centralized monthon administration, modern ministries (1892), schools, railways and telegraphs. Territories were ceded to French Indochina (1893, 1904, 1907 — Lao and western Cambodian lands) and to Britain (1909 — four Malay states), preserving the core's independence: Siam remained the only Southeast Asian state never colonized.

## End and transition

The fiscal strain of the Great Depression and a foreign-educated new elite culminated in the bloodless revolution of June 24, 1932, which ended absolute monarchy under Prajadhipok (Rama VII) and opened the constitutional era.