of all the Axis powers or their allies Thailand is one of the least disgusted it's a country which prior to the war had little contact with the rest of the axis and were surrounded by Allied colonies which given the risks raises the question why did Thailand help the axis so Thailand was famously a nation that avoided colonization by European powers and whilst it was never a part of anybody's Empire there were still territorial losses these came at the hands of two Powers the British who in the late 19th and early 20th centuries took these lands
and the French who during the same period robbed Thailand of all of this it won't surprise you to know that as a result the Tai held quite a grudge against the British and the French although mostly the French in the 1930s Thailand found itself ruled by a military dictatorship headed by PL fibon zram who wanted to get these lands back the only way that the new government figured it could do that was by growing the economy modernizing the armed forces and waiting for a moment of weakness and this moment came in 1940 when Britain was
on the back foot and France was in a spot of surrender the ties realized that paris's hold over Indochina wasn't that strong anymore and so now was the time the Bangkok Government tried to negotiate with vishy France for the return of these territories and the French said no as such it was time to try and make friends and the best candidate was Japan the Japanese government was eyeing up French Indo China and if Japan took all of it then Thailand would struggle to get anything back at all fortunately the Japanese had been sending delegates to
Bangkok to entice the Thai to join them in a future war against the British because Japan needed to cross Thailand to get to India and Singapore and as such the Thai government told the Japanese that they would give the military access to their lands in return for this territory the Japanese said yes and so sent weapons to Thailand who began to prepare for an invasion which they telegraphed to the world Japan Germany and Italy were all for it whereas Britain made it clear that they weren't going to defend France's Asian territories it just wanted assurances
that Thailand wasn't going to attack India or Malaya the Americans were opposed but they weren't involved in the war so nobody cared what they thought Thai forces invaded French Indochina in late 1940 and whilst the did well at first the Japanese were concerned that the French could eventually hold them off and as such they intervened and negotiated it was decided that French Indochina soon to become Japanese Indochina would seed this territory to Thailand in return for them aiding the Japanese now this wasn't Thailand formerly joining the axis Berlin and Rome didn't care about Bangkok but
it was useful to Tokyo which was enough however when the time came to help FIB SRAM refused he declared neutrality and hoped that the Japanese would just go around they did not knowing that he was going to lose he quickly made an agreement with the Japanese and alongside them declared war on the United States and the United Kingdom Now Thailand didn't enjoy its position as an ally of Japan and when Tokyo's Fortune started to change Thailand's rulers looked for a way out to keep them sweet the Japanese seeded these territories but it still wasn't enough
fibms Crown was removed from office in 1944 and the new government secretly tried to get the Allies on board the British reluctantly agreed so long as the territory that Thailand had taken from it was returned however the British didn't care if the French got theirs back or not and with that Thailand role in World War II was over and in 1948 fibon SRAM would be back in charge because he didn't like Communists and that was good enough in the Cold War I hope you enjoyed this episode with a special thanks to my patrons James Bizet
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