The king expressed the hope that “ my visit could be a chance for our country’s survival“. Instead this trip was organised to allow the king to meet on equal terms with Europe’s rulers and so establish that Siam was a legitimate sovereign nation. The French gunboat Le Lutin that threatened Bangkok in 1893Īfter the shock of the 1893 clash with French forces and the ensuing loss of territory King Chulalongkorn and his advisors realised that Siam could never hope to rely on force of arms alone to defend itself against the Europeans.
Meanwhile Britain had massive commercial interests in the north in the teak industry and in the south in rubber and tin, interests that Siam feared would be used as a reason to annex the northern and southern provinces. In 1893 France had used gunboat diplomacy to force Siam to cede its claim on territories east of the Mekong River and France continued to push for further concessions. King Chulalongkorn’s motivation for this trip to Europe lay in the tense political situation in which Siam found itself in the closing decade of the nineteenth century. But one of the most important meetings seems also to be one of the least remembered, that being his meeting with Queen Victoria. In his own words, the purpose of this tour was “ First, to study how life in Europe is second, to study how wealth and goods originate third, to fathom their strength, were they to attack us fourth, to enjoy myself as well.” On this trip he was to meet with the ruling families and heads of state of Europe, meetings which are still widely remembered through popular magazine articles and photographs to this day. In 1897 King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) embarked upon his first grand tour of Europe.
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