Chapter 127: Siam and Dai Viet in the Late 17th Century
The latter half of Siamese king Chaofa Chai’s reign was much more active than the former half in its foreign policy and other overseas activities. Like the Ming merchants did in the 1670s, Chaofa Chai took advantage of the weakening of Japanese mercantile and trade projection in the greater region and sought to expand Siam’s own maritime reach and influence. He accomplished this by supporting the native merchant class in Ayutthaya and other ports in his kingdom through the expansion of their privileges. As a result, Siamese merchants began to spread their reach beyond the immediate vicinity of their home realm like never before, especially into the Indian Ocean. The king would also grant these same privileges to many foreign merchants and groups, notably excluding the Dutch and Japanese from this particular development completely.
Chaofa Chai would also engage in a flurry of embassies and other diplomatic contacts with overseas powers. The most important of these were the one to Safavid Persia and France. Safavid Persia was a trade power of high interest for the newly enterprising Siamese merchant class, leading to an embassy to Isfahan in 1680 [1]. 1669 and 1680 respectively, both to spark interest in expanded trade relations and request naval support against . The latter proved to be more fruitful and led to the Persian embassy to Ayutthaya in 1685, led by Mohammed Rabi ibn Mohammed Ebrahim. This embassy would cement an increasingly strong relationship between the two countries, making the Siamese the favorite trading partner of the Safavid court east of the Indian subcontinent and thus a primary source for Persian goods in East and Southeast Asia.
The embassies to France, meanwhile, would establish the fledgling colonial trade power as the most important of Siam’s European trading partners. Formal contact between the two powers would originate when the Paris Foreign Missions Society landed in Ayutthaya in 1662, having chosen Siam as its first target country to convert due to Ayutthaya’s pre-existing Catholic minority. Chaofa Chai cordially accepted their presence, providing them with land to construct a church and a hospital. To further curry favor with the Siamese king, bishop Francois Pallu managed to obtain letters from both Louis XIV and Pope Alexander VII in 1666-1667 after sailing back to Europe, presenting them before Chaofa Chai in 1670 [2]. By then, the French East India Company had arrived onto the scene and were on the way to acquiring Phuket as a major trading depot especially over the tin trade, and Franco-Siamese relations were on the upswing. This culminated in the exchange of embassies between Paris and Ayuthhaya coinciding with Chaofa Chai’s big trade expansionism in the late 1670s. 1677 saw a first embassy by Siam to Paris, followed by one by Paris to Ayutthaya led by the Chevalier de Chaumont in 1678. Although the French ambassador was unsuccessful in his bid to convert the king to Catholicism, Chaumont managed to secure favorable trade agreements that also formally acknowledged French presence in Phuket and its tin monopoly. Additionally, Chaofa Chai would persuade Count Claude de Forbin to enter into his military service as the governor and commander-in-chief of Bangkok and hired the engineer Lamarre to help construct fortifications for the kingdom.
Depiction of the Chevalier de Chaumont paying his respects to king Chaofa Chai
The third and final embassy of this exchange was the 1680 Siamese embassy to Paris whose scale exceeded that of the first embassy in 1677. Led by diplomat and bureaucrat Kosa Pan, it became a sensation across Europe on the same level that the Azuchi embassy in 45 years earlier had been, the embassy’s journey to Versailles attracting crowds of onlookers. Kosa Pan brought many gifts to Louis XIV, including 1,500 pieces of porcelain, carpets, and tortoise shells, and in turn would order French products like telescopes, cannons, and other pieces of rare technology as well as 4,264 mirrors that were to decorate the Siamese royal palace. On a diplomatic level, the embassy would confirm the ratification of the trade agreements made by the Chevalier de Claumont. While in Versailles, the embassy would receive invitations from Sweden and Portugal. Lacking time, Kosa Pan would only manage to visit Lisbon for a few days on their way home before departing for Siam. Nevertheless, they would be back as this was only the beginning of Siam’s direct diplomacy with Europe.
Chaofa Chai’s interest in a more interconnected kingdom was even reflected in his territorial ambitions. In 1674 [3], he invaded the sultanate of Singora, which had broken away from Siam in 1642 under the directive of Sulaiman Shah. Until the new sultan, Singora had been modernized, its defenses strengthened through the construction of city walls and moats and its overseas trade expanded with European merchants. Prasat Thong had attempted to reincorporate Singora thrice but the wily sultan successfully warded off Siam each time. Sulaiman’s son and successor Mustapha, however, proved less capable and would ultimately fail in protecting his sultanate from the clutches of Chaofa Chai, who sought to extinguish what he perceived as competition, after a siege that lasted for 6 months. It would subsequently be razed to the ground although the former sultan’s family would be pardoned and integrated into the Siamese nobility.
For his many accomplishments on the domestic and overseas fronts that strengthened the kingdom and its already significant presence within the region, Chaofa Chai would be remembered as a great king, one of a few to earn the epithet “the Great”. However, the king’s death in 1686 would provide an opening for the dissatisfied and opportunistic within the realm. The latter came in the form of a revolt by a Makassar prince who had fled to the court of Chaofa Chai after driven from his homeland by the VOC, with the prince hoping to install one of his brother as the new Siamese king and establish Islam as the new state religion. Before a serious attempt could be made, however, the plot was uncovered and the new king Phra Pi crushed it with ease. The dissatisfied, meanwhile, came in the form of councilor and commander Phetracha who led a faction of conservative nobles and Buddhist clergy opposed to further foreign influence and engagement by the king. They particularly hated the appointment of Greek adventurer and interpreter Constantine Phaulkon to the post of foreign minister in the Ayutthayan court [4]. Phetracha would attempt to take advantage of this festering opposition and launch a coup in 1688, only for it to be suppressed relatively quickly by the king. He, along with his son Luang Prasak who happened to be a biological son of Chaofa Chai with a concubine given to Phetracha as an infant, would be executed. Phra Pi would subsequently weaken the power of the Buddhist clergy and even begin to toy with the idea of converting to Catholicism. Under him, Chaofa Chai’s policies would be continued and progressed which saw Siam continue on its path of trade expansionism and diplomatic engagement.
Statue of Chaofa Chai “the Great”
Changes were also occurring in the Trinh-dominated Dai Viet kingdom in the late 17th century. After the final defeat of the Mac dynasty in 1667, Trinh Tac turned to domestic affairs, reviving the civil bureaucratic apparatus set up by the Dai Viet king Le Thanh Tong in the 15th century [5] and reinstituting Confucianism within the government. As a result, power would shift from the military to the literati within Dai Viet. This conservative turn also affected the regime’s outlook on foreigners with European traders increasingly viewed with suspicion and Jesuits and other missionaries expelled from the kingdom in 1663. Nevertheless, Trinh Tac continued Hanoi’s relatively cordial relationship with the Dutch particularly, with the English even managing to open a factory in Tonkin in 1672. The Portuguese continued to be marginalized in comparison while the French would prove unsuccessful in establishing a foothold as both European powers had too friendly of relations with rival powers like the Nguyen lords and Siam. On the other hand, Chinese and Japanese merchants would increase their activity with the Trinh-controlled north, with relations with the latter improving as Siamese-Japanese political and economic rivalries became ever more entrenched. Trinh Tac died in 1682 and was succeeded by his son Trinh Can who would continue his father’s reforms and policies.
The Nguyen-controlled Vietnamese south was also making its own strides. Having been thoroughly humbled by the Trinh lords and come down extensive Siamese economic and political influence, this autonomous piece of the Dai Viet kingdom under Phuc Tan nevertheless sought to strengthen itself and prepare for any future confrontations with the Trinh lords, Siam, or Cambodia if the latter ever managed to break free from Siamese vassalage. Thus, Nguyen Phuc Tan would first embark upon the invasion and annexation of the Champa principalities of Panduranga and Kauthara between 1660 and 1670. This campaign not only expanded the coastal territorial extent of the Nguyen realm but also removed potential Trinh allies that could pincer the Nguyen from behind. Phuc Tan would also focus his energy on building up his new capital of Quy Nhon [6] which had been founded not far from the battlefield of Vijaya after the Nguyen-Trinh war. Quy Nhon would quickly grow and attract trade as the Trinh lords’ greater hostility towards merchants drove longtime traders to the new home of their old collaborators, especially the Portuguese. The English and French would also come to be important trading partners, and they along with the Portuguese would also being crucial to Phuc Tran’s military reforms in terms of knowledge and technology.
[1]: No Siamese embassy to Isfahan in 1669 ITTL.
[2]: Happens in 1670 and 1673 respectively IOTL.
[3]: Happens in 1679 ITTL.
[4]: He doesn’t rise up the ranks as quickly due to time and Siam having greater foreign exposure compared to OTL, making the kingdom less willing to appoint foreigners to important government posts (with exceptions obviously). This also is the reason why the Anglo-Siamese War doesn’t happen IOTL.
[5]: Happens a few years earlier IOTL.
[6]: This city was not founded for at least another century IOTL.
