Thailand

Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand, formerly known as Siam, is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered to Burma, Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia. It faces the Gulf of Thailand to its south and the Andaman Sea to its west. Its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast, and Indonesia in the Andaman Sea to the southwest.The country is a constitutional monarchy. The king of Thailand is titled Head of State, Head of the Armed Forces, the Upholder of the Buddhist religion, and the Defender of all Faiths.The primary religion is Buddhism, which is practiced by around 95% of the population.

The region known as Thailand has been inhabited by humans at least about 4,000 years ago. Similar to other regions in Southeast Asia, it was heavily influenced by the culture and religions of India, starting with the kingdom of Funan around the 1st century.

Despite European pressure, Thailand is the only Southeast Asian nation that has never been colonized. This has been ascribed to the long succession of able rulers in the past four centuries who exploited the rivalry and tension between French Indochina and the British Empire. As a result, the country remained a buffer state between parts of Southeast Asia that were colonized by the two colonizing powers, Great Britain and France. Western influence nevertheless led to many reforms in the 19th century and major concessions, most notably being the loss of a large territory on the east side of the Mekong to the French and the step-by-step absorption by Britain of the Malay Peninsula. During World War II, Thailand and Japan signed a military alliance with a secret protocol wherein Tokyo agreed to help Thailand regain territories lost to the British and French. Subsequently, Thailand declared war on the United States and the United Kingdom on 25 January 1942 and undertook to 'assist' Japan in its war against the Allies. After the war, Thailand went through decades of political instability characterized by coups d'état as one military regime replaced another, but eventually progressed towards a stable prosperity and democracy in the 1980s.

Thailand experienced rapid economic growth between 1985 and 1995, and is presently a newly industrialized country and a major exporter. Tourism also contributes significantly to the Thai economy, as the country is home to a number of well-known tourist destinations.