The Role of Advisers and Experts in the Reform Projects in Siam under King Rama V.

19世纪下半叶，暹罗开始了一场范围广泛的改革项目。这些改革影响了整个国家，并从根本上改变了它。他们是由国王拉玛五世（1853-1910）发起的，他的父亲国王拉玛四世（1804-1868）已经开始了第一次变革。正是拉玛五世希望将暹罗从欧洲的干预中拯救出来，并最终摆脱殖民统治，因此，他努力从欧洲列强那里获得技术、社会和经济成就，以便为他的国家服务。为了实现这一目标，他聘请了外国专家，并将他的几个兄弟送到欧洲的大学学习。新兴的国际专家组在一个日益错综复杂的世界中开展工作。外国和本国专家竞相提出他们对国家现代化的设想。暹罗的转变也是对外部压力的一种反应，但对外国知识的实施方式与被殖民的邻国不同。外国专家从未垄断过技术、制度和经济知识。因此，改革措施是在不同顾问集团之间的密切合作和竞争中谈判的。该项目旨在重建这一过程的动态，并了解不同群体的行动者能够影响政权现代化战略的方式。

In the second half of the nineteenth century a time of far-ranging reform projects began in Siam. The reforms affected the whole country and changed it fundamentally. They were initiated by King Rama V. (1853-1910), whose father King Rama IV. (1804-1868) had already started first changes. It was Rama V. who wanted to save Siam from European interventions and ultimately from colonial rule, and for that reason strove to acquire technical, societal and economic achievements from the European powers in order to instrumentalize them for his country. To attain this goal he both recruited foreign experts, and sent several of his brothers abroad to European universities. The emerging international group of experts operated in an increasingly entangled world. Foreign and indigenous experts competed with their visions of the modernization of the country. Siam transformed as a reaction to exterior pressure as well, but the implementation of foreign knowledge took place in a different way than in the colonized neighboring countries. Foreign experts never held the monopoly on technical, institutional, and economic knowledge. As a result, reform measures were negotiated in close cooperation, and competition, between different groups of advisors. This project aims to reconstruct the dynamics of this process, and understand the ways in which different groups of actors were able to influence the modernizing strategies of the regime.