Siamese Revolution of 1932
On 24 June 1932 the Khana Ratsadon ('People's Party') — a small, tightly organised group of about seventy military officers and civilian officials who had studied in Europe and absorbed constitutional ideas — seized key installations in Bangkok in the early morning and issued an ultimatum to King Prajadhipok (Rama VII). The group demanded a constitution and an end to the absolute monarchy that had governed Siam since the Chakri dynasty's founding in 1782. The king, faced with military control of the capital and a proclamation that threatened to depose him, accepted. A constitutional monarchy was proclaimed with minimal bloodshed. The Promoters quickly split between a civilian faction led by Pridi Phanomyong, who favoured a social-democratic economic programme, and a military faction led by General Phraya Phahon and later the nationalist Plaek Phibunsongkhram. Power gradually gravitated to the military. Under Phibun, who became prime minister in 1938, Siam was renamed Thailand in 1939, a pan-Thai nationalism was cultivated, and the country moved toward alignment with Japan. The coup established the foundational pattern of Thai political life: formal constitutional structures maintained alongside recurring military intervention, with the monarchy providing legitimacy to both civilian and military governments across the century.
- Year: 1932 CE
- Category: Political
