Research & Article

Forced resettlement of conquered populations constituted an important aspect of traditional warfare in underpopulated pre-colonial Southeast Asia where the control of manpower in general counted more than the conquest of land. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries the ruling elite of Chiang Mai and other Northern Thai principalities implemented the strategy of deporting significant populations from adjacent Tai-inhabited areas in eastern Burma and southern China in order to rebuild the shattered society and economy of their respective polities. This paper reconstructs the different stages of the forced resettlement campaigns, examines the rationale and discusses their impact on state society in Thailand’s upper north, the historical region of Lan Na.