A Short History

Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, is one of the biggest and busiest cities in the world today. The town had been established as a minute trading center and port on the western banks of the Chao Phraya River. After the fall of the Ayutthaya Kingdom in 1767 at the hands of the Burmese army, the Thai army established a new capital, Thonburi. In 1782, the new king, Chakri built the Wat Phra Kaew (The Temple of the Emerald Buddha) in Bangkok. He also rechristened the title of the capital as ‘Krung Thep’ or the ‘City of Angels’. Bangkok comes from the Thai version of “island” or Bang Koh, which literally means the island. This is due to the landscape of the city that is carved and veined by canals and rivers all through. A major credit of the rise of Bangkok as a vibrant and developed city goes to these rovers and canals, and hence we understand the logic and importance behind the name of the city.  Slowly, right from the beginning of later 17th century, foreigners and merchants travelled and settled into Bangkok. By the late 19th century, numerous European and North American nations had trade treaties and merchant trades with the city of Bangkok.
 

The city, under the reigns of King Mongkut and his son King Chulalongkorn, underwent vast changes and infrastructure upheavals. The transport system and the basic amenities and services in the city also improved on a vast scale. The transport system, consisting of paved roads was built by the former king and his son rigorously bettered it. He constructed the railways to the north and also gave the city a tram line to make intra city transport easier. The 20th century saw more modernization procedures applied to the city of Bangkok. Filing up of waterways and canals to provide land to build modern areas and introduction to formal market areas and shopping stalls were the revolutionary changed to sweep Bangkok in those times.
 

While the World War II put a negative effect on Bangkok, as it was bombed by the allies in the later part of the war, the Vietnam War was more profiting. With the money that poured into the city during the war, the city saw pivotal changes and modernization that made it effectively presentable to other nations and cities around the globe.
 

The population explosion and modernization though have produced a set of new problems for the city. Deplorable conditions of housing in the poorer sections of the city as well as poverty has denigrated to unthinkable levels in Bangkok. The stark contrast among the luxuriously rich and the poor in the city is more than an eye-sore. Traffic congestion is also such a major problem in Bangkok. Crime is also on the rise here.
 

But all in all, Bangkok has grown into one of the most modern and busiest cities of the world today. The shopping malls and the cultural and exotic locales is a treat to every visitor to this platinum city of the South Eastern World.