Greater Siam

This time line will attempt to explore the aftermath of the death of Auguste Pavie in 1887, before he successfully led the French efforts to seize Laos from the Siamese. So without further ado...

What if the August Pavie died in the sack of Luang Prabang?



In 1887 the region now known as Laos was a dangerous place for a Frenchman, it was a dangerous place for anyone really. The Haw Wars had been raging sporadically around northern Laos and Tonking since 1865, with the different 'Flag Gangs' attacking the French imperialists in Tonking, the peasants and temples in Laos, the Thai military that hunted them, and each other. It was not unusual to see an isolated village nearly destroyed after a raid. People would be slaughtered, mutilated or carried into captivity, and any wealth would be taken as well. The Monks and temples of the north were not spared either from the raids by these Chinese bandits from Yunnan. Where most saw death, despair and depravity, one enterprising Frenchman saw opportunity.


Auguste Pavie had spent years in Indochina, he had learned Cambodian and had led several successful expeditions including laying a telegraph line from Phnom Phen to Bangkok and another to Saigon. His successes were rewarded with growing influence and postings, finally rising to become the First Vice Consul in Luang Prabang in 1886. The future looked incredibly bright for this ambitious man, and his vision for expanding French suzerainty across Indochina seemed to finally have found a path to fruition when the Flag bandits attacked Luang Prabang in 1887. As the city began to burn, Auguste rescued Oun Kham from certain death by ferrying him across the river away from the city. However, this also proved to be his undoing. As the ferry moved slowly across the water, a skilled shot or an unlucky stray bullet caught Auguste in the side. The wound seemed minor at first, but quickly became infected. By the time they reached skilled physicians with the proper medicine to treat him, it was too late. Auguste and his dreams passed away quietly a few days later*.


(*In our time line he was not shot, lived and used the influence he gained in the successful rescue to start winning the hearts and minds of Laotian rulers and people. At the same time he helped manipulate events so that Thai and Lao forces were never quite able to subdue the Chinese and T'ai bandits.)
 
Le Petit Parisien

Vice-Consul Slain!

French Vice Consul to Luang Prabang Auguste Pavie was slain a week prior while bravely leading the heroic resistance against bandit forces that viciously attacked the Royal Lao capital. While Thai and Lao leaders fled, abandoning their positions, Auguste rallied what troops he could in a desperate action to save the royal family. Only after they had been safely escorted to a waiting ferry did this brave Frenchman fall back, having done his utmost to prevent the horrific sacking of this beautiful and exotic city. In these final moments as he guided his remaining men to safety a bullet from a cowardly assassin struck him. Only after all his remaining men were aboard ship would he seek medical treatment and by then it was unfortunately too late. All French today can look with pride upon their fallen countryman, knowing that with his last actions he brought glory to his name and to his flag.


Bandits Kill with Impunity!

It is reported that the bandits that raided Luang Prabang originated from the Yunnan region of China. Despite efforts of local troops, there has been no cessation to the raids and many hundreds if not thousands of people have been killed, savagely mutilated, or taken prisoner and left to fates better unimagined. French troops have valiantly fought against these forces in the Tonkin Region, and with superior training, firepower, and of course the elan of our proud French troops, in Tonkin at least, these butchers have been for the most part, brought to heel. However so long as these forces continue to have safe havens in China, we fear these raids, and the lives of our fellow countrymen in Indochina will continue to be at stake.


Chinese Must Act!

China must act to ensure that its territory is not being used to harbor dangerous bandits that raid and kill French citizens with impunity. If the Chinese are unable or unwilling to act, then it falls upon France to rise up to this challenge and once again act to defend her people and others who suffer under the heel of oriental barbarism. We call upon all Frenchmen to insist that our government demand that China immediatly destroy the bases of these bandits, deny them succor and protection, and bring them to the justice they deserve before god!



The New York Times



China Moves, War Averted


After consultations with foreign repesentatives and serious rattling of French sabers, including the arrival of several gunboats in Chinese waters during the meetings between French and Chinese diplomats. As the threat war loomed between the French and Chinese neutral nations such as Britain and the United States moved to ensure the safety of their own citizens. Fortunately wiser heads in China, remembersing their defeat at the hands of the French only a few short years earlier, decided to acede to French demands, a summary of which follows:


  1. China will grant no safe harbor to any member of the “Flag Gangs”.
  2. Captured members of the gangs or similar groups will face trial in China with at least one French judge on the presiding panel.
  3. All leaders of the Flag Gangs will be turned over to French military forces for trial.
  4. China will take immediate military and police steps to destroy the safe havens of these bandits.
  5. If raids continue, French forces will have liberty to make reprisal attacks into Chinese territory to hunt down and destroy bandit bases.
 
Modernization in Siam to 1897

With the accession of King Chulalongkorn in 1873, his Father’s dreams of modernizing Siam continued. Chulalongkorn was an adamant believer in modernization, knowing the only way to survive in an age of western imperialism was to become powerful enough to resist western pressure. Firstly, Chulalongkorn reformed the collection of taxes, forming an Auditory Office that would manage the collection of taxes and removing corrupt collectors who skimmed for the Siamese nobles of power. While this created discontent among the nobility, none dared to act at this point.

With the added revenues, the King continued his modernization policies, creating paved roads and digging canals to construct the infrastructure his nation so clearly needed. When approached by foreign investors seeking to offer loans to speed the growth of the country, the monarch flatly refused. He would not be tied to foreign banks thus indebting his people and nation to outside interests and inviting further foreign intervention within his nation.

In 1874, the King created a Council of State, surrounding the monarch with the best western trained minds available in Siam to help the modernization efforts. Alarmed, members of the Front Palace (controlled by the ‘Viceroy’ a cousin of the King and leading noble) staged a fire at the King’s court and attempted to rush troops into the Palace in order to “fight the fire”. Wisely, the King’s forces refused the noble’s troops entry and extinguished the fire themselves, ending the attempted coup. Behind the scenes, the King and his cousin entered a stalemate politically, which was not resolved until a British official, Sir Andrew Clarke, an admirer of the Kings, was sent in to mediate. This would help end the perception of the British as an enemy of Siam, at least in the mind of the monarch.

Also in this year, the King signed into law a decree that lowered the price paid by Siamese slaves to purchase their freedom and would free all those born since his accession once they reached the age of 21. Though it did not abolish slavery outright, it was an important step towards the ending of the Siamese slave tradition.

Modernization continued slowly, with model units being formed within the Siamese military, hoping to turn it from untrained levees into a truly professional army based on Western military ideas. Chulalongkorn continued to push ideas such as railroads connecting the major centers of his nation, and welcomed the telegraph links to Phnom Phem and other western controlled cities. Using the technology himself to begin linking the disparate areas of his own realm and further extending his control and minimizing reliance on untrustworthy nobles.

Finally in 1885 the leader of the Front Palace, Prince Yingyot passed away. While everyone assumed The king would name a successor, he did not, and instead abolished the office, removing a focal point of noble resistance. In addition as conservative government officials retired or passed away, they were replaced with younger men, western educated and with modern ideas, regardless of whether they were noble or not.

In 1885 Siamese forces were also winding down military operations against certain Chinese insurgent forces in the north, the old style Siamese troops having proven ineffective, the King sent in partially trained western style forces which were able to push out the Chinese forces and reestablish some security. The king clearly concerned with the poor performance of the troops that made up the majority of his army was in no position to offer military assistance to the British in their war against Burma. Instead he sent food and medical supplies to the British troops, abiding by the letter of the treaty the two nations had signed.

Freed from the interference of the Front Palace and struggles with the Chinese, Chulalongkorn began to reform the military in earnest, and in 1887 opened the Royal Military Academy to train troops in proper western fashion.



(All of these events are per OTL as they occur pre-POD)
 
Thank you!

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In late February of 1890 the French had sent a fairly substantial new exploration up the Mekong with much fanfare. Despite claims to the contrary by the French government, there is no indication in any surviving documents, French or Siamese that the Siamese government was made at all aware of this expedition, despite treaty obligations to do so on the part of the French. The expedition, lacking any Siamese guides or escorts, was ill-received in many places that had a Siamese or Lao garrison. In one instance, according to journals from Captain Muset who led the expedition, Lao soldiers even took shots at the passing craft.

Things finally came to a head when the expedition reached a point approximately 50 miles south of Luang Prabang, then capital of the Lao kingdom, a tributary of Siam. Though there are conflicting accounts of what happened, it appears that after being refused trade (the villagers would not accept French script) members of the expedition took liberties with at least one of the native women in a riverside village. Lao troops were called up, and a firefight broke out. Most of the expedition, save for a doctor and translator who were not present when troops arrived, a two other civilians who were lightly injured but otherwise unharmed, were killed.

The French reaction was immediate and outraged. The press in France was calling for war, annexation, demands for French police forces to take jurisdiction on Laotian territory. Several gunships were dispatched to Siamese waters to push the Siamese into capitulation, however the British, desiring a buffer territory between French colonies and their own holdings in ‘India’ backed Siam and British and American press began to circulate Siamese reports of events leading up to the massacre. Eventually the Lao commander was cashiered and given a short prison sentence to soothe French feelings. Though tensions eased somewhat, they remained high, and French incursions into Laos continued, and would directly lead to the short War Along the Mekong in less than a year.


Hopkins, Franklin J. A History of the Age of Imperialism: Anglo-French Rivalry, San Francisco: California University Press, 1997. Print.
 
The Seeds of the War

Though tensions had temporarily eased by the start of 1891, French troops continued to violate the territory of Laos and Siam. This led to numerous small exchanges of gunfire between the opposing forces. Britain, concerned about her heavy investments in Siam and not wishing to see a serious conflict occur near important colonies of hers (as well as wanting to deprive the French of any special access to southern China – the so called “backdoor”) dispatched a pair of her own gunboats and several British 'observers' to travel with Siamese forces, see what really was happening, and examining French claims.

As heat along the frontier began to rise once more, French ambassadors approached the Germans and received assurances they would remain neutral in any colonial dispute. As far as the Germans were concerned, they'd rather the French distract themselves overseas than have them focusing on recovering Alsace-Lorraine. The French also approached the British and assured them they had no intentions of annexing Siam, they only sought to bring into their fold those territories that had been tributaries to the Vietnamese kingdoms now controlled by France namely Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina. The fact that Siamese claims were just as valid and in some cases stronger did not factor into French diplomacy. The basis of French claims was that Vientaine once owed a rather unclear allegiance to Hue based Annam as much as it did to Bangkok, and Luang Prabang, the largest Lao kingdom, paid tribute to Beijing and Burma as well as Siam, while a few of the muangs of Luang Prabang paid tribute to Hue as well.

The British wanting to end the simmering conflict put pressure on Siam to allow the French access to areas they claimed, finally convincing the Siamese King to sign a treaty ceding much of the land on the Eastern bank of the Mekong to the French in return for guarantees the British would protect the Siamese from any further territorial ambitions. The French however used the deliberately ambiguous nature of the treaty to try and push their frontiers to the entirety of the east bank of the Mekong. The British, keeping a close eye on French expansion and having done extensive mapping of their own in response to French aggression spotted immediately the threat this would place on British colonies, most notably to the Shan states. British officials lodged immediate and vociferous protests against this reinterpretation of the treaty and threatened to repudiate it.

Siamese forces, largely unaware of French movements began to encounter the foreign troops in areas they had not ceded. With communication to Bangkok being slow in some of the more distant areas of the north, commanders used their own judgement which often led to bloody clashes between Thai and French troops. In response to these clashes and despite British protests, the French now demanded reparations for the violence and also the cessation of Battambang and Siam Reap in Cambodia. The Siamese government appealed to the British to intervene on their behalf, and in response the British dispatched a pair of gunboats and a regiment of troops to Siam. The French, citing the reciprocity treaty regarding access to Bangkok's Chao Phraya river attempted to sail two of their own gunboats upstream without waiting for permission from the Siamese government. In response, Siamese batteries fired upon the French vessels. Returning fire the French ships forced their way into the river where they were confronted by the British ships. The French commander demanded the British give way, but the British refused and the French then anchored opposite the British, establishing a blockade. Since British trade made up 90% of Siamese external trade the blockade seemed mostly aimed at their colonial rivals. French newspaperes called for the full annexation of Siam to 'round off' their Asian empire, however cooler heads in Paris prevailed and the blockade was broken off.

Only a month later though the next crisis would see the official start of the war.

(From a student report on South East Asia)

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Most of this is still heavily based on similar events in OTL though the French are being less sneaky and underhanded than they were in OTL. That's made the Brits pay a little more attention here and be more vocal in their response to the French threat.
 
The War Along the Mekong, 1891


The British, not wishing to share a border with France had sent a small number of troops eastwards from the borders of the Shan States, in order to create a buffer zone that straddled the Mekong, planning to cede a piece to China and another to Siam despite French claims on the whole of the eastern bank. The French press even went so far as ridiculing the planned British zone as “le tampon”*. Before the British could enact their plan, a party which had raised the flag at Mong Sing on the east bank of the Mekong encountered a French force intent on occupying the same ground.** As diplomats met in Europe, the situation on the ground became more tense. Small skirmishes between Siamese and French forces, and between Lao and Vietnamese resistance against the French happened nearly daily. When a small band of Lao fighters tried sniping at the French positions in early morning, half awake and hungry French troops failed to realize just where the shots came from, leading several to shoot at the British. The British, thinking the French had decided to attack quickly rallied and returned fire, thus beginning what would be known as the War Along the Mekong; the last colonial war between British and French forces.

After a several long hour firefight, the French retired from their positions meeting with reinforcements dispatched from other areas. As reports of the battle spread among French forces, firefights broke out in earnest with Siamese forces while a larger force was assembled to force the British from Mong Sing. While the French moved light artillery into position, the barely passable roads made the use of heavy artillery impossible, another battle brewed further south around Ban Sieou.

There, Lao rebels fled across the Mekong to seek refuge from the Siamese, the French demanded they be turned over, and the Siamese general flatly refused French demands. This refusal led to a severe battle as French troops forced a crossing, suffering heavy casualties at the hands of the Siamese troops who, though not well trained, had fought in this territory against bandits and insurgents for years and had become adept at ambush and sniping. Though the French took the area, they had lost 89 wounded of killed in exchange for less than a dozen enemy casualties and had failed to seize the fugitives who fled and crossed back over the river to harass French supply lines. While there were battles like this up and down the Mekong, with the Siamese fighting rather well against the better equipped and trained French, the French still were able to cross in several places. In the end, the short war was resolved by two land battles and one desperate naval action which led to the formation of the Royal Siamese Navy.

In the north, the French had laid the foundation for the taking of Mong Sing over the course of a few weeks, and finally they were ready for the hammer to fall. Their artillery pounded the prepared British positions for hours, then the French advanced, and were cut to pieces by British forces. The positions, though damaged by French artillery were not obliterated they way they might have been by heavier rounds, and an encircling attack by the French had been stymied by British reserves. It should have served as a lesson of what to expect in the Great War, but neither side learned the lessons of this battle, instead focusing on the more major battle at Battambang.


*Which is how it was actually referred to in OTL when this occurred in 1893.
** This occurred in OTL but with much different results. OTL the French could prove that according to treaty all this land (though it took several years), much to British surprise had been ceded to them by the terms of the treaty the Brits urged the Siamese to accept. In TTL the Brits urged Siam to accede to a much less extensive treaty and now actively back Siam against greater French pressure.
 
I had planned to take it to at least the 50/60s and era of decolonization. Not sure if I'll push past that, but who knows, anything's possible.

And thank you.
 
The Clash of Navies and an Affair at Kham Muon

While fighting took place in the north, at sea little had happened. British and French ships continued to sail the oceans peacefully, the governments having come to a “Gentleman’s Agreement” to keep their disagreement confined to South East Asia. That of course did not stop Siamese vessels from sortieing when the French again moved to blockade their coast. A small squadron of French vessels took up position in the Gulf of Siam, and Siamese ships emerged to battle them while the commander of the British Squadron that had steamed up from Singapore kept his ships away, being under orders only to intervene if the French tried to force the rivers. The small Siamese vessels swarmed around the larger French gunboats and were cut to ribbons by the relatively accurate cannonfire. Despite this, at least a few ships closed enough to attempt boarding the French vessels although all such attempts were unsuccesful. A few French marines, their blood up, took to shooting at Siamese survivors who clung to debris or tried to swim for the French ships and hopeful rescue. The British, shortly thereafter moved in and began conducting rescue operations, their commander informing the French that should a single shot be fired in the direction of his ships, he would blow their ships to kindling and allow them to swim back to Paris.

Siamese King Culalongkorn would learn from this balltle, realizing that in addition to a professional Army, Siam needed a small but professional Navy as well to defend her shores. Within a year he would form the Royal Siamese Navy, with a new academy staffed by former British and American naval officers and would be a separate and respected branch of the Siamese military.


The Affair at Kham Muon
Kham Muon is a mostly mountainous and forested area of central Laos, and in 1891, though it also hosted some rice and even tobacco farming. The French however, wanted to add this territory to their planned ‘French Indochina’, and rapidly pushed Siamese forces west across the Mekong before settling in at the provincial capital of Thakhek. For many of the French troops in this region, the biggest danger wasn’t Siamese or Lao forces, it was disease. Malaria and other illnesses hit the French hard, reducing their active forces by half. Out of a listed one thousand effectives that were stationed in Thakhek, less than 400 were in fighting condition, including the commander of French forces who was confined to a sickbed.

According to reports by the French, the Siamese struck on June 7th, ambushing outlying sentries and keeping the French from raising an alarm until they had troops within the city. The fighting was confused and brutal and no clear concise account of the fighting survived. What is known is that once the initial shock worse off, the French began a fighting withdrawal, trying to give time for their wounded and sick to flee. While many escaped, over 200 French, including the commander were killed in the hospitals, while at least another hundred were wounded or killed trying to protect them. The savagery of the fighting here would come to represent how much of the second half of the war would be fought, with the French often times refusing to take captives.
 
"should a single shot be fired in the direction of his ships, he would blow their ships to kindling and allow them to swim back to Paris."

I love it, consider me interested. Siam is a gap in my knowledge that I'd like to fill.
 
The Battle of Battambang

This battle in Cambodia would prove to be the largest single battle of the war. It also harkened back to the battles of movement and encirclement that defined the decisive battle doctrine of the 19th century. A doctrine the French and other great powers would carry through to the Great War, failing to adjust their military tactics for changes in technology. It would also see the last time the Siamese used elephant mounted artillery in battle.
elephantartillery_zps179f9f1b.jpg

The Battle of Battambang began when the French Army of Indo-China advanced upon the camp of the Siamese Royal Army. The Siamese drew themselves into a classical defensive position, a bow shape to maintain strong interior lines and prevent the French from outflanking them. Calling upon the classical maneuvers of Napoleon the French commanding general began by pushing back the Siamese skirmishers then, bringing up heavier cannon which, unlike in the northern jungles, were able to be of use here, he began shelling Siamese positions. The Siamese with less cannon then the French responded as best they could, but their batteries were quickly put out of action and their elephant artillery driven off.

The second half of the battle began as the French engaged the center of the Siamese, pressing them hard while a second force moved around the left flank in a wide sweeping envelopment. Despite hard fighting the levied troops that held the flank began to crumple, then fall into a complete route as the French swept through the supply camp to take them in the rear. The center held by the professional troops would have been trapped had not a few brigades of troops highly trained and armed with Austrian M1888 repeating rifles turned from the right flank and slammed into the flank of the encircling French troops. While the levied troops panicked and ran, many throwing down their weapons and attempting to surrender only to be, in the words of a British observer, “Cut down in the most barbaric fashion.” An American medical officer who was working with the Siamese reported that French colonial troops swept into his field hospital and began to “bayonet and shoot any Siamese or Lao wounded they could get their hands on. I saw two Siamese doctors killed before my eyes, and I'd probably have ended the same way if a French officer hadn't shown up to restore order.”

The Siamese troops began a fighting withdrawal, falling back more than twenty miles, engaged by pursuing French troops the entire time. There were reports of Siamese machine gun elephants charging headlong into pursuing french units, causing horrific casualties before they were cut down. On at least one instance a pair of the magnificent beasts had fallen together and enterprising Siamese troops set up machine gun positions behind the fallen bodies to delay the French further. The chase finally only stopped when the armies couldn't see each other anymore to continue the fight.

The next day the battle resumed, the French advancing on the Siamese rear guard who fought brief delaying actions intended to slow the advance of their enemy, while the Siamese Army retreated out of their Cambodian provinces and into Siam proper. There, the Siamese troops encountered the British brigade which had landed in Bangkok and marched to the border. The British general, under orders from the British Consul in Bangkok the British troops took up positions within the Siamese army itself. When the French noticed the British colors they withheld attacking while the French commanders sought direction from their political leaders.


Using the reprieve from French attacks, the Siamese began to reinforce their position, bringing more reinforcements from their capital, as well as another regiment of British troops that had been sent from Singapore. The French continued to report the developments to their government who wouldthen call for an immediate ceasefire between all belligerents and a return to negotiations.



Though fighting in the north, where communications were difficult at best, continued, including frequent reprisal raids between both sides of the conflict, the war would wind down with the next week while negotiators returned to the tables. Though a few incidents would occur during negotiations, the presence of the British largely forced the French to stand down or face a serious escalation of the conflict, which was, by and large supported by large portions of the British press who were delighted to see their traditional colonial rival humiliated once more and which castigated the French for attacking a nation so much weaker than themselves*.
The_French_Wolf_and_The_Siamese_Lamb_zpsc9d00831.jpg


*Ignoring of course the hypocrisy in criticizing the French when they had done the same thing to Burma and other states not so very long ago
 
This is a great timeline and it is not surprising that the Siamese Army retreated from the Cambodian provinces. It will be interesting to see how the Siamese Navy develops in TL.

This is making me want to dust off my plans for my TL where Burma remains independent.
 

U.S David

Banned
For Siam to be much larger, get them to take over French Indo-China and British Burma.

Of course they would need a couple of nukes......
 
Thanks for the comments. Honestly, I'm starting to feel bad for the French.



The Treaty of Singapore


Diplomats of all three belligerents met in the port city of Singapore to negotiate a treaty that would be amenable to all parties. The French first demanded the immediate cessation of all territory they had claimed plus the Cambodian provinces of Siam. The Siamese delegate was outraged and bluntly refused, the British too indicated that would be a non-starter. They would, under no circumstance allow the French to share a border with territory claimed by the British crown. When the French delegation threatened to walk out, the British warned them that if they abandoned negotiations, the British navy would blockade Indochina and a leading colonial officer remarked the her armies “should not rest until every one of you devious little frogs had been given the boot from Asia.”

Faced with Siamese obstinacy and threats of all out war with Britain, France was forced to limit her claims. Cambodia would return to status quo ante bellum, which in essence meant a return of the three provinces from which the French had not so long ago ousted the Siamese. Laos however was a much more difficult area to partition. In the end, the Siamese were awarded the west bank of the Nam-Ou river northward to the Chinese border in order to for “le tampon” a neutral territory between the French and British, while the French were given the Luang Prabang area and territory running north to the Chinese border. For central Laos it was decided that Siam would keep a majority of the territory, in general she would keep her protectorate over the vast majority of the Mekong drainage basin and in return pay an indemnity to France.

Though the outcome satisfied none but the British, the French and Siamese both agreed to the treaty which also included British and French guarantees of Siamese sovereignty and territorial integrity, the French having agreed to abandon claims on Laos in return for the indemnification.

The announcement of the Treaty sent a shock wave around the world. A small nation in Asia had stood up to, and fought to a standstill a great power (of course these tellings often overlooked the large role the British played). The German press was ecstatic, mocking the French for their failure to defeat the Siamese. Tales of French troops panicking when confronted by elephants spread in taverns, and for the season, incorporating Siamese design into dresses and hats became the height of fashion. In an interview the Kaiser remarked that “Such an outcome is hardly surprising. The Siamese have a history of being a martial people much like our own. The French, though of gallant spirit can not stand against such a people.”

In France the mood was quite different. After the humiliation of the treaty, the French government fell, replaced by new ministers who swore restore French pride. After the Kaiser's interview, a flurry of telegrams shot between the nations and the French press called for war on the German Empire for the insult. Cooler heads of course prevailed and within a few weeks the press was distracted by the next big story, giving a chance for sanity and peace to once again be the order of the day.

The result of the war did have one other major effect, a number of enterprising Germans, now having heard tales of Siam, headed for this South Eastern nation looking for new opportunities; within two years the first brewery would open in Bangkok.
 
Don't worry, the Italians get to be humiliated too.


The Aftermath of War and Major World Events to 1898

The war brought about a sense of national pride in Siam. Though her armies had fared poorly in the sort of open warfare practiced for centuries by European armies, in the jungles and forests, Siam had held her own against one of the greatest powers in the world. What's more, the core of her army, the western trained and equipped battalions had held up in battle against the French. The King and his advisers, acknowledging the lessons of the war stepped up the training and equipping of her military, for the first time taking small loans from Great Britain and the United States to properly outfit a small but highly trained military.

The king also realized the necessity for a professional and modern navy. Though he had no imperial ambitions that would necessitate large “battleships” he realized that Siam could not allow an enemy to close the gulf or blockade her rivers. Especially when there was no rail link to friendly ports such as those in Burma or Singapore which made the movement of goods overland difficult at best. To remedy this, work on the Singapore-Bangkok railroad commenced in 1892, though it would be seven years before it was complete. Another line to Burma had been considered, but was abandoned as the terrain was rather difficult and too costly to navigate.

The Siamese Navy itself was given plans to modernize. The Siamese naval plan called for a fleet of 15 modern torpedo boats, eight destroyer type ships, and two heavily armored coastal cruisers along with a number of smaller patrol and training craft to be completed by 1900. It was not a large navy, but King Chulalongkorn only sought to protect his borders, not present a threat to either of her vastly more powerful neighbors.

By late 1892 Vietnamese and Lao rebels began to seriously trouble French administrative regions while the Siamese were happy to have their neighbor distracted by the constant small attacks. When Lao rebels began attacking Siamese forces as well, the two powers began to set aside their differences and cooperate and soon Siamese and French troops were actively working together to hunt down and drive out rebel groups and camps along their respective border.

In 1893 the two nations would sign L'entente Oriental, a similar treaty to one Siam had with Britain. In actuality the treaty did nothing more than reiterate the already established borders, pledge to seek international arbitration in case of future disputes, and establish a non-aggression pact between both nations in southeast Asia; though the Siamese included exemptions in case of a war between France and Siam's British allies.

While the United States fell into depression following the Panic of 1893 and her Supreme Court declared the tomato a vegetable; British, French, and German investors sought opportunities in Siam while their governments continued to wrangle over Africa. Chinese immigration into Siam increased at this time as well, the migrants seeking work on the expanding railways that had begun to connect disparate parts of the real with the capital, this would lead to a series of laws proclaimed by the King limiting the number of Chinese immigrants while promoting the continued influx of highly skilled Westerners.

In 1894 the French and Russian Empire would announce the conclusion of an alliance that announced an end to French isolation amongst the Great Powers. In Korea, the peasant rebellion would grow until China sent in troops to help quell the uprising. This would lead to the Sino-Japanese war and Japanese control over Korea. It would also demonstrate that Japan was rapidly becoming a regional power of note. It would also see the beginnings of the Dreyfus affair which would come to haunt French politics in the next few years.

1895 marked the beginnings of the United States' first modern interventionism under the Monroe Doctrine as it intervened in the British-Venezuela Dispute. The Treaty of Shimoneski is signed, with China ceding territory to Japan. In Siam, reforms continued, and the first Association Football match would take place between Siamese and British Troops. Regular play between British, Siamese, and French soldiers would lead to the establishment of the Southeast Asian Football Association in 1905 as football grew in popularity in the region.

1896 saw the beginning of Italian attempts to invade Ethiopia. Unfortunately for the Italians, the Ethiopians were supplied with French, British, and Russian arms, the King of Ethiopia successfully having played off the Europeans desires to limit one anothers colonial aspirations. The end for the Italians came in July, when their force, exhausted from weeks of chasing the Ethipoian forces in the summer heat were ambushed in a morning attack and nearly wiped out to a man. The war itself was brutal and the Italians lost nearly 20,000 men while the Ethiopians lost only a few thousand more. This would cause the disgust with foreign aspirations to cause the collapse of the Italian government and the recognition of her borders by Italy, France, and Britain, the powers that lay around her.

Also in this year, the first Olympic games would be held and included a small delegation from Siam, who failed to medal in any of the three events in which they participated. Also in the year, King Chulalongkorn would travel to Britain, the first reigning Siamese monarch to travel abroad in honor of Queen Victoria's birthday and formal acknowledgment of her reign as the longest of any British monarch to that date. The trip also included stops in France, Germany, and a brief trip to New York in the United States.

In 1898, the USS Maine explodes in Manilla harbor. She had been making her way back from Siam after an official visit to show the colors. The United States would use this as a pretext for declaring war on Spain a few months later.

In Italy, the government would fire on strikers killing over a hundred and wounding nearly 500 more. The King decorates the general who gave the order to fire and the monarch, less than two years later the Italian monarch would be assassinated by an anarchist who claimed revenge for the massacre.
In China both France and Britain would lease territory.
The United States annexes Hawaii, and the Spanish-American war would end.

Meanwhile, the British and French would confront each other once again. This time in Africa at a little spot known as Fashoda.
 
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