Overview
The kingdom rose directly from the catastrophe of 1767. Taksin, a former governor of Tak, escaped the siege of Ayutthaya, built a base at Chanthaburi on the southeast coast, and retook the Ayutthaya area within months of the city’s fall. He was crowned at Thonburi on December 28, 1767, as conventionally dated — the date his memorial day commemorates — though some chronicle datings run into 1768.
Key developments
Taksin subdued the rival regional power centers and repelled renewed Burmese attacks. With northern allies he took Chiang Mai in 1775, ending Burmese rule in Lan Na, and he campaigned into Cambodia and Laos: his general Chao Phraya Chakri captured Vientiane (1779, as commonly dated) and brought the Emerald Buddha to Thonburi. Chinese (Teochew) merchant networks — the community of Taksin’s father — helped revive trade and the rice supply.
End and transition
In 1782, amid a rebellion and a court crisis, Taksin was deposed and executed; the chronicles portray the king’s behavior in his last years as increasingly erratic, an account some historians read cautiously. General Chao Phraya Chakri took the throne as Rama I and moved the capital across the river to Bangkok, opening the Rattanakosin era.