Would Britain and France have allowed a third power to colonize Siam?

In OTL, Siam managed to avoid colonization because it acted as a convenient buffer state between British Burma and Malaya on one side and French Indochina on the other. The Siamese rulership recognized this need and deftly negotiated this role for the country.

However, is it possible that a third power could have initiated a colonization program in Siam, provided that it also pledged to London and Paris that it would continue to hold the country as a buffer state? If so, what power would be the most likely candidate?
 

Delta Force

Banned
I don't think so. The British and French wanted to protect their colonies from foreign invasion, and allowing a foreign power in would make the threat of land attack more potent. In any case, until well into the 1890s the British and French were the only powers with major power projection capabilities, so it's not like anyone else could have really taken it in the modern era. Since the British and French wanted a buffer between them and no one else could even really take Siam, the only real option was to leave it as an neutral and independent state.
 
The answer to the question will not lie in its location or its importance but in events elsewhere. All other things being equal, the answer is no. But all other things being equal, nobody has the wherewithal to BE this third power in Siam. So, something else has to change, and that change may make surrendering Siam a sensible choice.

Cat!
 
A nearby and expanding power was Netherlands. Much of Indonesia was not under effective control of Batavia until very end of 19th century.
 
Netherlands worked mainly via soft power and trade to keep control over their east indian territories, which runs face first into a wall against an as unified and organized country (such as it was) such as Siam. So i don't think it would fit them, neither in Modus operandi nor in ability
 
A nearby and expanding power was Netherlands. Much of Indonesia was not under effective control of Batavia until very end of 19th century.

Yes and no. The Dutch East Indies, like other colonial powers did establish themselves more firmly in the 19th century, France and the UK weren't any different in that regard.

Still the Dutch sphere of influence there was established by trading influence elsewhere with the UK. Dutch possessions on the Malay peninsula and Dutch India were traded for British possessions in the East Indies.
 

SunDeep

Banned
Well, if either Austro-Hungary or Italy had decided to take Baron von Overbeck up on his offer to purchase the territory of North Borneo, it'd be a good way to add either of them to the mix of colonial powers who might take an interest in colonising Thailand; and of these two, Italy would probably have the best chance of pulling it off, as an Italian Thailand would still be considered by both the French and the British to be a useful buffer state between their own colonial territories in the region.
 
Well, if either Austro-Hungary or Italy had decided to take Baron von Overbeck up on his offer to purchase the territory of North Borneo, it'd be a good way to add either of them to the mix of colonial powers who might take an interest in colonising Thailand; and of these two, Italy would probably have the best chance of pulling it off, as an Italian Thailand would still be considered by both the French and the British to be a useful buffer state between their own colonial territories in the region.

But could the Italy of that period actually have managed to take over Siam? They failed in Abyssinia, after all...
 
But could the Italy of that period actually have managed to take over Siam? They failed in Abyssinia, after all...

This is a big point.

Its not just a question of Britain and France "allowing" someone to take Siam. You will need Britain and France providing some minor aid, at the least in the form of naval resupplies.
 

SunDeep

Banned
This is a big point.

Its not just a question of Britain and France "allowing" someone to take Siam. You will need Britain and France providing some minor aid, at the least in the form of naval resupplies.

If they have selfish motives, with the goal of carving out larger portions of Siam for themselves to leave a rump Thailand for the Italians, there's no reason why the British and the French wouldn't provide aid to the Italian would-be colonial conquerors, or even form a military alliance to divide Thailand up between them.
 
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