Historia - History / Siam - Tailandia

Historia de Siam - Thailand

First contacts with Europe

ns were the first people in Europe to interact directly with Siam. Centuries elapsed between the time the first information about Siam was received in the Iberian Peninsula and the period when its rulers perceived this Asian territory in a more or less coherent framework. This work studies the changes in perceptions of the Kingdom of Siam as it evolved from the earliest mythical references, in a long process that was neither uniform nor reliant merely on the receipt of data. Focusing on these early perceptions, this study notes the Iberians’ different reactions to this new knowledge, the roles of individuals, and how the parallel processes of their own budding national identities affected the outcome. Despite Lisbon and Madrid's different strategies for their presence in Asia, the wilful cooperation of individuals provided a chance to join forces in a common target resulting in the, albeit failed, expeditions of conquest to Cambodia in the 1590’s. Learning who the Siamese, Burmese or Malays were and how they differed from each other also helped to further expansionism.