after China recognised the Nguyen dynasty that came to power after
the Tayson were defeated in 1802), Siam, Luang Phrabang, and Burma
all responded to news of the death of the Taokuang emperor in 1850
by dispatching embassies to China. Despite some delay, missions from
all four were recorded as arriving in 1853, though the Lao delegation
never actually reached Beijing. These were the last tribute missions
sent by Siam and Luang Phrabang. Burma sent one more in 1875,
while Vietnam sent its last mission in 1883 in a desperate appeal for
Chinese assistance against the French.^13 All were received in the trad-
itional way, as if nothing had changed since the accession of the Qing
dynasty more than two centuries before.
After Burma was annexed by Britain, and Vietnam by France,
only Siam retained its independence as a buffer state between the
expanding British Indian and French Indochinese empires. It is
instructive, therefore, to follow the course of Chinese–Siamese rela-
tions during the declining years of the Qing dynasty to gauge the only
independent Southeast Asian reaction to Chinese weakness and Euro-
pean dominance.
In 1862, Chinese envoys to Siam chided King Mongkut for
neglecting to send regular tribute missions. The Siamese, however,
were well aware of the outcome of the opium wars and why they had
been fought. More specifically, they were aware of the shift in the
balance of power in the region. The junk trade between Siam and
China, so valuable still in the early nineteenth century, had all but col-
lapsed and Britain had become Siam’s principal trading partner.
Mongkut understood better than any of his fellow monarchs in main-
land Southeast Asia how Europeans viewed the world. It would not
help Siam to be seen as a tributary of China.
What the court wanted was continued friendship with China
(especially in view of the large numbers of Chinese in Bangkok), but
on the same basis as the Western powers. Since how to obtain this
seemed impossibly difficult, Mongkut made excuses and played for
time. Not so his son. As soon as Chulalongkorn came to the throne,
Enter the Europeans