Today in History: 1932 Siamese Revolution

On June 24, 1932, something remarkable happened in the country now known as Thailand: a bloodless coup was carried out by 102 people (many of them students) which overthrew nearly 700 years of rule by an absolute monarchy and led to Thailand’s first constitution.

The seeds of the revolution started growing in 1927 when Pridi Phanomyong was sent on a government scholarship to study politics at a university in Paris, where he began to admire the system of constitutional monarchy in France. Indeed, it was at a hotel in Paris where seven students from Siam met to found a party, the Promoters, to bring about change in their homeland. Understanding the difficulty in bringing about a mass revolution for democracy, they went home and focused their efforts on recruiting key influential and powerful people, including those in the military.

The revolution was underway before the sun rose on June 24th, and when tanks were outside the royal palace in Bangkok, the Promoters declared victory and arrested the princes. The king was away from the capital playing golf when he heard the news. Not wanting any bloodshed, he surrendered and within days he returned to the capital to help draft the constitution. It took mere hours for an absolute monarchy to be toppled. In 1933, Siam held its first elections.

Alas, democracy has been slow-going in Thailand and coups have remained a semi-regular occurrence. What happened in 1932 shows us the influence that even a small group can wield. In the fight for freedom, liberty is rarely won overnight and is often secured in small steps. Siam became a little bit freer on this day in 1932.