A History of Ayutthaya
Siam in the Early Modern World

The first full history of a great commercial and political center that rose in Asia over almost five centuries.

Chris Baker (Author), Pasuk Phongpaichit (Author)

9781316641132, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 11 May 2017

342 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.57 kg

'… this is a book that can be recommended, nay urged, to read for anyone who is or should be interested in Ayutthaya and the larger region … an excellent book.' Wolfgang Drechsler, Asian Affairs

Early European visitors placed Ayutthaya alongside China and India as the great powers of Asia. Yet in 1767 the city was destroyed and its history has been neglected. This book is the first study of Ayutthaya from its emergence in the thirteenth century until its fall. It offers a wide-ranging view of social, political, and cultural history with focus on commerce, kingship, Buddhism, and war. By drawing on a wide range of sources including chronicles, accounts by Europeans, Chinese, Persians, and Japanese, law, literature, art, landscape, and language, the book presents early Siam as a 'commercial' society, not the peasant society usually assumed. Baker and Phongpaichit attribute the fall of the city not to internal conflict or dynastic decline but failure to manage the social and political consequences of prosperity. This book is essential reading for all those interested in the history of Southeast Asia and the early modern world.

List of maps
List of illustrations
Preface: Ayutthaya in history
1. Before Ayutthaya
2. Ayutthaya rising
3. An age of warfare
4. Peace and commerce
5. An urban and commercial society
6. Ayutthaya falling
7. To Bangkok
Appendix: lists of kings
Glossary
Notes on some major sources
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], Asian history [HBJF], General & world history [HBG]