Siam in World War I

The Kingdom of Siam, now known as Thailand, is one of the lesser known participants in World War I. Siam contributed to the fight against the Central Powers in one of the critical campaigns of the war. It sent an Expeditionary Force to France to serve on the Western Front.

At the start of the war in 1914, Siam declared their neutrality. The Kingdom maintained this status until July 1917 when it declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary. Following both military and specialist training, a Siamese military contingent arrived on the Western Front in mid-September 1918, only two months before the war ended. Following the Armistice of 11 November 1918, Siamese troops contributed to the initial occupation of Rhineland, when they took over the town of Neustadt an der Haardt.