This part covers early history on what roughly is now Thai territory.
Last decades B.C. - Thais who want to preserve their independence migrate from their settlement areas in today’s southern China towards the Indo-Chinese peninsula and settle in an area that is now northern Thailand. As the number of Thais settling in an area that roughly compares with the territory of present-day Thailand swells, the whole ethnic Thai group somehow splits, with each of the two groups developing independently in the following centuries. Those in the north (the areas of present-day Yunnan and neighboring Chinese provinces) develop their culture and language with Chinese and Annamese (Vietnamese) influences and more and more are assimilated into Chinese and Vietnamese societies. Only the Thais in the south (an area roughly identical with the one of today’s Thailand) are the direct ancestors of the present-day Thais - but also of the Laotians, Shans and several smaller groups today considered ethnic minorities in Thailand.
First centuries A.D. - The migration of proto-Thai groups who want to avoid Chinese rule into areas that now form Thai territory continues.
Around 100 - A first major kingdom, Funan, develops in Indochina. It has it’s center in an area that now is part of Cambodia. Though not certain, it is likely that ethnically, it was a kingdom of predecessors of the Khmers (present-day Cambodians). Funan reaches its widest extent in the fifth century under King Jayavarman. At that time, it encompasses not only the area of today’s Cambodia but part of present-day Vietnam and Laos and parts of today’s Thailand, reaching well into the Maenam Chao Phaya Valley. While the monarchy and ruling class of Funan was likely ethnically related to present-day Khmers (Cambodians), the empire they ruled contained many different ethnic groups. There had also been a fairly constant migration into southeast Asia from the Indian Sub-Continent. Buddhism was therefore already widespread in the region. The alternative term for southeast Asia, Indochina reflects the Chinese as well as Indian influence. The administrative structure of the Funan as well as later empires in the region is not as centralized as for example in China. It’s rather an order with a large number of vassal principalities.
550 - The southeast Asian kingdom of Funan is overthrown by Khmers which form the Chenla Kingdom, a direct predecessor of the Khmer Empire of Angkor.
568 - Thais found the city of Chiang Saen in the northern Mekong Valley (now a border town between Thailand and Laos). It is one of quite a number of city principalities that are considered the earliest larger social organizations of Thais on what is today Thai territory. However, until about the year 1000, most of these early Thai principalities are subdued by or become part of the Dvaravati Kingdom of the Mons. In that time they most probably enjoy internal independence but not real sovereignty. Later, beginning around the year 1000, practically all of these Thai principalities are conquered by the Angkor Khmers. As Khmer vassals, they have to pay substantial tributes.
Late 6th century - The Kingdom of Dvaravati of the Mons (an ethnic group closer to the Khmers than the present-day Thais) grows stronger, taking the place earlier held by Funan in ruling the upper Mekong Valley. The Dvaravati Kingdom has the powerful Burmese kingdom in the west and the Khmer kingdom in the east. Chinese influence, however, does not reach that far south. (It is subject to scientific debate to what extent there actually existed a Dvaravati Kingdom; while it is certain that there existed an urban culture in mainly the northern part of today’s Thailand, the question remains to what degree the various early urban centers were interconnected and under one rule. It could also have been the case that the urban centers were rather independent city states, much as they existed about 1000 years earlier in ancient Greece. The name Dvaravati is based on archaeological evidence such as coins, found in the Nakhon Pathom area along the Mekong. However, other archaeological evidence points to Dvaravati influence all along the Maenam Chao Phaya Valley.)
