SIAM AND ANTI-ALLIED CONSPIRACIES Ayça Özkadif

Furkan Çakar
BEFORE WAR- SIAM’S
RELATIONSHIPS WİTH
ALLIED POWERS
Strategic importance of Siam for
Allied Powers:
Unique geography
BEFORE WAR – CHULALONGKORN ERA
❖1873-1910
❖Westernization period of Siam
❖Western involvement in economy and politics
❖ Flow of workers and anti-colonialists
WHY WESTERNIZATION?
❖ Maintaining Siamese independence
❖ But it couldn’t concieve Europen powers to leave Siam untouched.

Results :
➢ Given territories
➢ Trade agreements
➢ Involving power politics
PAKNAM INCIDENT - 1893

❖In 1983, French annexed a large piece of territory east of the Mekong River.
❖Chulalongkorn sent a military force against the French but finally he conceded the
territory.
❖French considered making all of Siam into protactorate.
❖But plan was abondened because of the British objections.
❖A bilateral Anglo-French Declaration about Siam
1907 AND 1908 TREATIES
❖ In the following years, King gave up more territory to French - Khmer provinces.
❖ In 1908, he gave up four provinces to British : Kedah, Kelantan, Trengganu and
Perlis.
❖ Siam remained independent with a strong European influence.
❖ Following years- Biritsh presence in economic and political life of Siam.
NEW COMPETİTORS
❖ By 1910, Russia and Germany sought to expand their influence in Siam.
❖ German advisers were second to British advisers and by 1914, German engineers
was dominating the Siamese railroad department.
VAJIRAVUDH ERA
❖ In 1910, King Vajiravudh took over the rule from his father Chulolongkorn.
❖ He inherited the reformist and western-oriented policies of Chulolongkorn.
❖ He read History and Law at Oxford, trained at Sandhurst Mlitary Academy.
❖ His era was vastly different from his father.
❖ He maintained his father’s strategy against European Powers.
SIAM IN WW1

❖Why Siam stayed neutral in WW1 in the first place

❖Central Power’s Plan for Siam

➢German and Austria support for revolutionary Vietnamese

➢More extensive German-Indian Schme
➢German and Indians set up a military camp in India and use it to make revolution in India via Burma
BRITISH RESPONSE TO THE SCHEME
❖Indian Language newspaper
❖Further inquiry about the newspaper
❖Detection of the Siamese Southern Railway Department
❖Assignment of secret agent
❖Revelation of the German plan about British
❖Finding out the leaders of the movement
FAILURE OF THE SIAMESE SCHEMES
Reasons of the failure
❖Both German and British underestimated the ability of British intelligence
❖They didn’t take into account the direct influence of Britons to the mechanism of
Siamese government and bureaucracy
❖Promised arms and German officers did not arrive to Siam
❖Cooperation between Siam Government and British
❖Siam Government actions directed to the Indians and Vietnamese , not to the Germans who funds
them.

As a result, German-Indian plan was over by the end of 1915

SIAM TOWARD THE WAR
❖ Siam Government actions that pass over the Germans encourage Germans to make
further plans
❖Preparation of a coup against Vajiravudh
❖King controlled the situation
❖This pushed the King toward Allies
❖Siam declared war against the cenral Powers
❖Siam entered the war in order to get more favourable international status for itself.
CONNECTIONS AND MOBILITIES
❖Reflection of the Dynamics of war in Siam in 1914-16 was shaped by international
connections and mobilities of all involved parties
❖Europeans felt the responsibility of the war
❖European Diplomat and Consul action that created a network of information
❖Indian and Vietnamese Revolutionaries
CONSEQUENCES
❖The efforts of Ghadar Party triggered furthers action in different forms
❖Organization of much more coherent British security apparatus in the region at the
local level
❖Establishment of Far East Intelligence Service