Editing History of Thailand (section)

== Etymology ==
The name ''Siam'' ({{langx|th|[[wikt:สยาม|สยาม]]}} {{RTGS|Sayam}}) may have originated from [[Pali]] (''suvaṇṇabhūmi'', "land of gold"), [[Sanskrit]] श्याम (''śyāma'', "dark"), or [[Mon language|Mon]] ရာမည (''rhmañña'', "stranger"), with likely the same root as [[Shan people|Shan]] and [[Ahom people|Ahom]]. The Thai country name has mostly been [[Mueang#Thailand|''Mueang Thai'']].<ref name="JSS_033_2c_Campos">{{Harvnb|Campos|1941|p=119}}</ref> The country's designation as Siam by Westerners likely came from the [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]]. Portuguese chronicles noted that [[Borommatrailokkanat]], king of Ayutthaya, [[Borommatrailokkanat#Expedition to Malacca|sent an expedition]] to the [[Malacca Sultanate]], at the southern tip of the [[Malay Peninsula]], in 1455. Following their [[Portuguese Malacca|conquest of Malacca]] in 1511, the Portuguese sent a diplomatic mission to the [[Ayutthaya Kingdom]]. The explorer [[Duarte Fernandes]] was the first European to arrive in Ayutthaya in 1511.<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |last=Lourido |first=Rui D' Avila |date=1996 |title=European Trade Between Macao and Siam, from Its Beginnings to 1663 |url=https://thesiamsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/1996/03/JSS_084_2f_Lourido_EuropeanTradeBetweenMacaoAndSiamTo1663.pdf |access-date=2 July 2024 |website=The Siam Society}}</ref> The [[Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin]] name for Siam is ''Xiān luó'' ({{zh|t=暹罗}}). A century later, on 15 August 1612, ''The Globe'', an [[East India Company]] merchantman bearing a letter from [[James VI and I|King James I]], arrived in "the [[Roadstead|Road]] of Syam".<ref>{{Harvnb|Wright|Breakspear|1908|p=18}}</ref> "By the end of the 19th century, ''Siam'' had become so enshrined in geographical nomenclature that it was believed that by this name and no other would it continue to be known and styled."<ref>{{Harvnb|Wright|Breakspear|1908|p=16}}</ref> The country was renamed to Thailand which means “Land of the Free” in 1939.<ref name=":22" />