The Kingdom of Thailand, historically Siam, is a constitutional monarchy in Southeast Asia with a population of about 70,000,000. It is a devoutly Buddhist nation. It borders Myanmar (formerly Burma), Laos, Cambodia, and Malaysia, and has coasts on the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand.
Thailand holds the distinction of being the only Southeast Asian country never to have been ruled by a European power, although it was dominated by Japan during World War II and by Burma and Cambodia in centuries past. The country escaped colonization due to its central position in Southeast Asia, which delayed European contact until it was able to demonstrate its usefulness as a buffer state between the British Empire colony of India and the French colony of Indochina.
Siam exported horological demons, which were used to make alarm clocks. David Fisher found the demons' noises to be so aggravating that he suspected the purpose of this export was to be rid of them.[1]
Long angered and humiliated by Europe's colonial adventures, Siam allied itself with Japan when the latter began taking colonial possessions from Britain in the last years of the Second Great War.
