Rivers: Chao Phraya, Irrawaddy and Mekong

Abstract

Before the mid-nineteenth century, the political and economic core of mainland Southeast Asia was not the river deltas but the up-country dry farming plateaus and valleys (Spate 1943). The lower Irrawaddy, Chao Phraya and the Mekong were still sparsely populated jungle. Although the British annexed Lower Burma in 1852 this did little more than secure the eastern shores of the Bay of Bengal. The kingdom of Upper Burma, with its capital at Ava (Mandalay), remained independent until 1885. In Siam (Thailand) a mosaic of petty statelets of the northern valleys into southern Yunnan were substantially autonomous. The situation in the Lao-speaking northeast was fluid, as also between Siam and Cambodia. All the northern kingdoms and statelets were linked by a combination of rivers and ‘caravan’ routes stretching from the Bay of Bengal via northern Siam and Laos to the South China Sea. The trade was not high in volume but gems, textiles and salt were standard items. Wars and later national boundaries shut off official integration (though recent attempts have been made to reintegrate the area through the Mekong project).

The Chao Phraya has four tributaries: Ping, Wang, Yom, Nan,

The Chao Phraya flows from Paknampo.