In the latter part of his reign, Chulalongkorn and his supporters repeatedly justified the creation of a strong state and its absolutist management on grounds of the need for Siam to progress and be a significant country in the world. This formulation marks the start of one of the two recurring visions in modern Thai politics. The same idea, adapted to changing international and local contexts, reappeared over the following decades. The Chulalongkorn era had also created the key vocabulary of this theme, particularly the notion of samakkhi, unity, and its highly masculine and militaristic imagery, exemplified by Chulalongkorn’s equestrian statue and Damrong’s account of Thai history as a series of wars.