Political ideas of King Chulalongkorn

Abstract

The reign of King Chulalongkorn (1868-1910) saw such vital changes in the social and political system of the country that, looking back, trends of political development of later times appear to have been conditioned largely by new concepts introduced during this period. King Chulalongkorn's position no less than his character and training enabled him to bridge the gap between old and new ideas, to link the older and the new generations in Thailand of his time. The remarkable thing about King Chulalongkorn was that while he was an extremely conscientious administrators - records show that he was perhaps the most hard-working of the contemporaries he had not allowed himself to be bogged downnby details but managed to remain all through his life a man of ideas, who always looked ahead and ready to accept changes. This has not always been apparat because his ideas were often paradoxical. There were times when the King appeared old fashioned, or to some even reactionary. His reform measures, as we shall see, while progressive in nature, resulted nevertheless in the strengthening of royal authority at the time when the world was moving towards a wider base of political power. His personal supervision of the day to day administration made King Chulalongkorn a realist and enabled him to gauge the pulse of his country so correctly.