Ayutthaya Kingdom

The Ayutthaya Kingdom, sometimes called the Empire of Ayutthaya, was a Thai kingdom in mainland Southeast Asia that existed from 1351 to 1767, centered on the city of Ayutthaya in what was then Siam and is now Thailand. European travelers who visited the kingdom in the early sixteenth century described Ayutthaya as one of the three great powers of Asia, reflecting its wealth from rice cultivation, its extensive network of tributary states, and its position as a major hub of regional and international trade that drew merchants from China, Japan, India, Persia and later Europe. The kingdom is widely regarded by historians as the direct precursor of the modern Thai state, and its political, legal and cultural institutions shaped the later development of Thailand. Ayutthaya's four centuries of rule ended in 1767 when a Burmese army from the Konbaung dynasty besieged and destroyed the capital city, though Thai resistance under the general Taksin soon reestablished an independent Thai kingdom nearby.