Siamese King Rama IV, or Mongkut, absorbed in the study of science and languages, modernizes his country along western lines.

Sir John Bowring, Governor of Hong Kong, as representative of England, concludes the trade treaty (later commonly referred to as "the Bowring Treaty") with the Siamese Government in 1855. (The Bowring Treaty will later serve as a model for a series of trade treaties with many other western countries, and historians often give credit to King Mongkut—and Sir John Bowring—for opening the new era of Siam's international commerce.)