Is it possible the Siamese Empire could have industrialised more and have become a competing force like Japan? Siam did modernise, but it was not as extensive as Japan.
>>394112
Sure, anything is possible.
Why Siam and why not the Burmese Empire?
>>394195
Burmese was under british. Siam played both British and French against each other.
>>394112
They didn't really have anywhere to expand to, with Britain to the west and south and France to the east. China is to the north, but the border is very mountainous and not really somewhere you'd want to invade from.
This is in contrast to the Japanese, who had both Korea and China as prime targets for expansion. The only other power in the area they had to worry about would be Russia, but the fact that Siberia makes it difficult for Russia to get a strong army to their eastern possessions meant, combined with Russia's horrible navy, meant that Japan could feel safe attacking Russia.
>>394285
Upper Burma was still independent by the time of the Meji-Restoration, though they were constantly getting screwed by British outside of the valley, areas which the Burmese had previously controlled, but the Brits came in and claimed that those places had been independent and that they could lawfully operate there despite the treaty. In fact the revered king Mindon tried to modernise the country, at almost exactly the same time as the Meji-restoration, and Vietnamese modernisation attempts. The Burmese and the Viets obviously were.. interrupted in the process, lost their independence and got their society, resources, etc raped hard by the colonial powers.
>>394112
The argument could be made that they only really fell behind Japan until decades after ww2 when Japan had tons of USA bucks to cash in on and they had well.. nothing of the sort. As has been pointed out, previous to that the Siamese had no room for expansion in comparison to Japan.
>>394112
No, because Thais are lazy.
t. Thai
No. People act like Japan just woke up one morning and decided to westernize. It's not some hat trick.
Hell Vietnam was able to locally produce steamships and even they failed to westernize.
Japan was basically in the best possible position to westernize and even then it took absolute dedication for them to achieve it.
No, they're in a fucking jungle. They can never be truly powerful, but they can dupe enough tourists to fund a decent economy and living standard.
>>395991
This, not every country could modernize like Japan did. It's stupid to think that way and downplays the achievements of the Japanese.
>>396040
There arnt any jungles in Thailand retard. That's Cambodia
>>396051
Okay, sorry, I should have clarified: they live in a tropical hellhole where it gets so hot nobody wants to work.
>>395991
Yeah. Even prior to the Meiji Restoration Japan was by far the most developed non-European country. Just look at Seki Takakazu and Hanaoka Seishū. What other non-western country was inventing literally anything before Europeans during the 16 and 1700s?
