Chinese and Portuguese elements.
There has long been a European presence on the island. From the 16th century, the Dutch, Portuguese and French were given royal permission to trade.
The island has been under the jurisdiction, however remote, from the time of King Ramkamhaeng and the Sukhothai Kingdom (AD 1279-1299), of a number of Siamese states, including, around the 16th century, the kingdom of Ayutthaya, the last great capital before the ascendancy of Bangkok
