Reconstructing Pre-modern State Power:A Critical Analysis of Nakhon Ratchasima within the Ayutthaya and Early Rattanakosin Power Periphery

Abstract

This article examined the dynamics of power relations and the processes of territorial incorporation between the Ayutthaya capital and Nakhon Ratchasima, a strategically significant outer city in the northeastern region. Employing a historical-analytical approach through the examination of historical evidence, the study revealed that the relationship between Ayutthaya and Nakhon Ratchasima did not operate as a rigid or unilateral imposition of central authority. Rather, it functioned as a flexible and negotiated political process. The Ayutthaya court intervened through mechanisms such as the appointment of centrally affiliated officials to oversee local administration, while simultaneously constructing legitimacy through patron–client relationships and kinship ties with local elites. These strategies gradually transformed Nakhon Ratchasima from a semi-autonomous territory into an integrated component of the Ayutthaya kingdom.

This article, therefore, proposed a new argument that Nakhon Ratchasima during the Ayutthaya period functioned as a “contact zone of power,” where the pre-modern mandala state was required to adapt and negotiate with pre-existing local authorities. This dynamic reflected a distinctive characteristic of pre-modern Thai governance, in which political authority was not fully centralized but instead depended on interpersonal relationships, negotiated power, and the management of shared interests between the center and the periphery.