Bangkok Fortresses survival ruins from Ayutthaya period
Figure 22 (left) Siege of the French fortress (A) by Siamese troops and batteries (C), in Bangkok, 1688. The enclosure of the village of Bangkok represented in the lower left corner (M) is today’s Thonburi source: 1690 French work. Reproduction in "Three military accounts of the 1688 revolution in Siam", Michael Smithies. Figure 23 (right) Map of 17th century Bangkok- by Simon de la Loubèr
In the early period - before the Ayutthaya kingdom, the settlements along the river comprised of many orchards and temples in which people were gathered. In the Ayutthaya period (1350-1767), international trades had grown, and Bangkok became a strategic area for trading. The shoreland had been converted to be a tax port. The city's walls and fortresses had been created on the Choa Phraya's riverbank. With the religious mission to introduce Christianity and the French influence in South Asia, the French military established two fortresses on both sides of the river. Still, during the Siege of Bangkok in 1688 (Smithies,2002) (Figure 22), the Siam militaries took over the western
side after the French soldiers regrouped at the larger fortress on the east side. After the retreat of French armies in the same year, both forts became Bangkok's strategic area. Subsequently, the city wall had been built expanded from the western fortress. On the contrary, the eastern fortress was presumably demolished later. In the Thonburi period (1768-1782), King Taksin Maharaj established Thonburi on the west island of Chao Phraya River as the new capital and built a new palace inside the existing city wall adjacent to the western fortress. At present, the fortress, called Pom Wichai Prasit, is in the Royal Thai Navy headquarter area and is open to the public (Figure 25). 25
