Step 1 : Introduction to the question "What is the only Southeast Asian country never to be colonized by Europe?"
...Europe went a bit imperially nuts there for a couple centuries, which means it’s actually rarer for a country to have never been colonized than should be reasonably expected. Thailand is one of the few countries to have gotten away without European colonization and the only one to accomplish it in Southeast Asia. The country achieved this feat mostly through skillful negotiations and diplomacy. They ceded small areas of land to European powers to keep them off their back, then allied themselves with Japan during the Second World War, which afforded them a small amount of protection. A strong post-war alliance with the United States brought them more physical protection, as well as some ideological defense as Communism swept through their neighbors.
