Suphan Buri, town, west-central Thailand. Suphan Buri is located at the head of navigation of the Nakhon Chai Si River, 55 miles (88 km) northwest of Bangkok. An ancient walled city, it became part of the Angkor-based Khmer empire in the 11th century, the Sukhothai state in the 13th, and the Ayutthaya kingdom in the 14th. The modern town is a commercial centre for an agricultural region that produces rice, corn (maize), and oil seeds. Pop. (2000) 52,666.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Melissa Albert.
Thailand, country located in the centre of mainland Southeast Asia. Located wholly within the tropics, Thailand encompassesdiverse ecosystems, including the hilly forested areas of the northern frontier, the fertile rice fields of the central plains, the broad plateau of the northeast, and the rugged coasts along the narrow southern peninsula.
Until the second half of the 20th century, Thailand was primarily an agricultural country, but since the 1960s increasing numbers of people have moved to Bangkok, the capital, and to other cities. Although the greater Bangkok metropolitan area remains the preeminent urban centre in the country, there are other sizable cities, such as Chiang Mai in the north, Nakhon Ratchasima (Khorat), Khon Kaen, and Udon Thani in the northeast, Pattaya in the southeast, and Hat Yai in the far south.
Siam, as Thailand was officially called until 1939, was never brought under European colonial domination. Independent Siam was ruled by an absolute monarchy until a revolution there in 1932. Since that time, Thailand has been a constitutional monarchy, and all subsequent constitutions have provided for an elected parliament. Political authority, however, has often been held by the military, which has taken power through coups. During the last two decades of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st, parliamentary democracy steadily gained wider popular support. Although a crisis emerged in 2006, when the military, aligned with the monarchy, overthrew an elected government, new parliamentary elections were held—as promised by the interim government—in 2007.
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