ABSTRACT
Thailand is a nation wedged like a keystone into the heart of south-east Asia. It is the only nation in the region that was not colonised by a European power in the nineteenth century. Since 1932, when its absolutist monarchy was overthrown, Thailand has been a constitutional monarchy with a representative legislature. In 1939 its official name was changed from Siam to Prathet Thai, or Thailand – literally, the ‘open land of the free’.
