Chiang Mai between Empire and Modern Thailand

A City in the Colonial Margins

Taylor M. Easum

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781040783825
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Colonialism & Post-Colonialism
• Index: History

Urban histories tend to be dominated by large, global cities. But what does the history of the modern, colonial era look like from the perspective of smaller cities? By shifting the focus from the metropolis to the secondary city of Chiang Mai, this study provides an alternative narrative of the formation of the modern Thai state that highlights the overlap between European, American, and Siamese interests. Through a detailed analysis of Chiang Mai's urban space, the power dynamics that shaped the city come into focus as an urban-scale manifestation of colonial forces—albeit an incomplete one that allowed sacred space to become a source of conflict that was only resolved in the years before WWII. Today, as the city confronts the challenge of overdevelopment, the legacy of the colonial era, and the opportunity of heritage preservation, this deep, multi-layered history of the power of (and over) urban space is vital.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Publications
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Note on Transliteration and Sources
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Reading Urban Space in the Colonial Margins
• 1 The City Founded A Deep Urban History of Chiang Mai
• 2 The City Stabilized The Kawila Restoration and Chiang Mai in the Nineteenth Century
• 3 The Region Transformed Forests and Foreigners and State Formation in Chiang Mai and “The North”
• 4 The City Reshaped Power and Urban Space in Micro-Colonial Chiang Mai
• 5 The New City and the New State Chiang Mai’s Sacred Space and Siam
• Conclusion: Writing Urban Space in the Heart of the City
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index