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The Royal Army Thailand was established in 1887. The First Army,
headquartered in Bangkok, was responsible for the country's western and
central provinces and the capital city. Besides that, the northeastern quadrant
was the territorial home of the Second Army, and its regional headquarters were
in Nakhon Ratchasima. The region of the Third Army, with headquarters in
Phitsanulok, consisted of the northern and northwestern parts of the kingdom.
The Fourth Army's region was southern Thailand, its headquarters were in
Nakhon Si Thammarat.
The chief of armed forces is Raja Bhumibol Adulydej. After that, the their
Defences Minister is Jeneral Prawit Wongsuwan and the Supreme Commander
is Jeneral Songkiti Jaggabatra.Then, their qualification to enter the army force
was age 21 years until 49 years old. Siam had also acquired a Royal Navy from
1875 with a Danish naval reserve officer; Andreas du Plessis de Richelieu in
charge and after his departure in 1902 with the Thai noble title Phraya
Chonlayutthayothin) under the reforms of Admiral Prince Abhakara
Kiartiwongse. Siam's increasing focus on centralised military force to deter
European invasion came at the cost of the former decentralised military and
political arrangements, beginning a trend towards centralised military power that
would continue into the 20th-century Thai history. Despite the growing Siamese
military strength, Siam's independence during much of the late 19th century on
the ongoing rivalry between Britain and France across the region, especially in
the search for lucrative trade routes into the Chinese hinterlands. By developing
an increasing sophisticated military force and playing one colonial rival off
against another, successive Siamese monarchs were able to maintain an uneasy
truce until the 1890s.
The closing act of this struggle was the French occupation of eastern Thai
territory in the Franco-Siamese war of 1893, which paved the way for an uneasy
peace between Siam and France in the region for the next forty years. French
Indochina's Governor-General had sent an envoy toBangkok to bring Laos under
French rule, backed by the threat of French military force. The Siamese
government, mistakenly believing that they would be supported by the British,
refused to concede their territories east of the Mekong river and instead
reinforced their military and administrative presence there. Spurred on by the