The First Contact

Four decades after declaring independence from the British Empire in 1776, American merchants were looking to increase trade beyond the Atlantic Ocean, Siam was strategizing against encroaching European imperialism in Southeast Asia. Although cultural differences and geographical distances divided them, both Siam and the United States saw a friend in each other.

Initial contact was made in 1818, when an American expedition to Siam established the earliest treaty between the United States and an Asian nation, initiating a “perpetual peace” which has lasted to this day. When the countries were still separated by months at sea, Siam’s participation in several American world’s fairs brought the kingdom to the republic’s doorstep. -
“View of the City of Bangkok,” 1822 Illustration by H. A. C.