<Tab/>In the Age of Discovery, many of the dominant European countries set out to explore and take as much land as possible. These Empires competed for land with gold, spices, cloth, anything that is not readily available in normal European countries, and so they conquered many lands, oppressing the natives of that land and claiming ownership. The lands conquered included land in Africa, the middle east, the America's, Philippines, India, …showed first 75 words of 1668 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1668 total…the Thai people were able to contact the foreigners in a civilized manner and forge good relationships with different countries, the use of economic advantages and politics allowing Thailand to keep its mainland intact by losing small amounts of land and appeasing the more powerful nations, and just plain luck. Some say it was just chance, others (especially Thai people) say it was because of good leadership, whatever it was, its good to be free.