The two narratives are not mutually exclusive. In contrast to other parts of the world, the English and French would have just divided the territory with arbitrary lines. Why did they suddenly need a buffer zone?

Rather as this history describes, the Thai monarchy and government appears to have modernized (Westernized?) just in time to be able thread a needle between two empires, playing them off each other to maintain independence.

It is worth noting that the word "Thai" has come to mean "free" in the eponymous language. Thailand literally means "land od the free".

Note that this history conveniently ends before World War II.

The English? Surely we’re talking about the British?

I didn't mean to imply they were mutually exclusive. If anything, I suspect the reality is a mixture.

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I have to ask, though, where are you getting the idea that ไทย ("Thai") also translates to "free", or that it's pre-WW2?

Google Translate doesn't list that as a translation for "free" at all, and thai-language.com mostly lists that in the context of the Free Thai movement ([a WW2 anti-Japanese resistance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Thai_Movement)).

There's probably some subtleties I'm missing, but it really seems like a niche definition.