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This article is part of the History of Cambodia series
Early history of Cambodia
Migration of Kambojas
Funan (AD1 - AD630)
Chenla (AD630 - AD802)
Khmer Empire (AD802 - AD1432)
Rule over Isan
Dark ages of Cambodia (1432 - 1863)
Loss of Mekong Delta to Việt Nam
Colonial Cambodia (1863-1954)
Post-Independence Cambodia
Cambodian Civil War (1967-1975)
Coup of 1970
Việt Nam War Incursion of 1970
Khmer Rouge Regime (1975-1979)
Mayagüez incident
Việt Nam-Khmer Rouge War (1975-1989)
Vietnamese occupation (1979-1990)
Modern Cambodia (1990-present)
1991 UNAMIC
1992-93 UNTAC
2003 Phnom Penh riots
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The Dark ages of Cambodia, covers the history of Cambodia from the fifteenth to the ninteenth century, a period of continued decline and territorial loss. Cambodia enjoyed a brief period of prosperity during the sixteenth century because its kings, who built their capitals in the region southeast of the Tonle Sap along the Mekong River, promoted trade with other parts of Asia. This was the period when Spanish and Portuguese adventurers and missionaries first visited the country. But the Thai conquest of the new capital at Longvek in 1594 marked a downturn in the country's fortunes and Cambodia became a pawn in power struggles between its two increasingly powerful neighbors, Siam and Vietnam. Vietnam's settlement of the Mekong Delta led to its annexation of that area at the end of the seventeenth century. Cambodia thereby lost some of its richest territory and was cut off from the sea. Such foreign encroachments continued through the first half of the nineteenth century because Vietnam was determined to absorb Khmer land and to force the inhabitants to accept Vietnamese culture. Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ... This is the History of Cambodia series. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 557 pixelsFull resolution (900 × 627 pixel, file size: 146 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Angkor Wat (Cambodia) - seen from the west entrance. ... Prehistory and early kingdoms Archaeological evidence indicates that parts of the region now called Cambodia were inhabited during the first and second millennia BCE by a Neolithic culture may have migrated from southeastern China to the Indochinese Peninsula. ... References to Kambojas abound in ancient literature, and this may have been just the expansion of an Indo-Iranian tribe with both Persian and Indic affinities from their homeland in the Afghanistan-Turkistan region along the foothills of the Himalayas towards Bengal, along the coast to Gujarat, to Sri Lanka... Funan was the pre-southern Chinese inhabitant in SEA (the Mongoloid-southern Chinese), which is today became Thai-Lao-and Vietnam. ... Chenla, known from Chinese records as Zhenla （真腊）, was an early Khmer kingdom. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... The history of Isan has been determined by its geography: situated between Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, it has been dominated by each in turn, although its relative infertility meant it was more often a battleground than a prize. ... The Khmer Krom (Khmer: ) are the indigenous ethnic Khmer minority living in southern Vietnam, especially in the Mekong River delta. ... In October of 1887, the French announced the formation of the Union Indochinoise (Union of Indochina), which at that time comprised Cambodia, already an autonomous French possession, and the three regions of Vietnam (Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina. ... // Norodom Sihanouk continues to be one of the most controversial figures in Southeast Asias turbulent, and often tragic, postwar history. ... Combatants Khmer Republic, United States, Republic of Vietnam Khmer Rouge, Democratic Republic of Vietnam, National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NLF) Strength ~250,000 FANK troops ~100,000 (60,000) Khmer Rouge Casualties ~600,000 dead, 1,000,000+ wounded[1] The Cambodian Civil War was a conflict that pitted... The Cambodian coup of 1970 refers to removal of Prince Norodom Sihanouk and the subsequent elevation of Lon Nol as head of state in Cambodia in 1970. ... Combatants Republic of Vietnam, United States National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam, Democratic Republic of Vietnam Commanders Lu Lan (ARVN, II Corps), Do Cao Tri (ARVN, III Corps), Nguyen Viet Thanh (ARVN, IV Corps), Creighton W. Abrams (U.S.) Pham Hung (political), Hoang Van Thai (military) Strength 58... Flag Capital Phnom Penh Language(s) Khmer language Government Socialist republic Leader Pol Pot Historical era Cold War  - Civil War 1967-1975  - Established April 17, 1975  - Fall of Phnom Pehn January 7, 1979  - Monarchy restored 1993-09-24 Communist Cambodia under the government of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge... Combatants United States of America Democratic Kampuchea Commanders Lt. ... // Background Even before the war in Vietnam had ended, the relationship between the Khmer Rouge and Vietnam was at a low. ... The Peoples Republic of Kampuchea, The Vietnamese Occupation On January 10, 1979, the Vietnamese installed Heng Samrin as head of state in the new Peoples Republic of Kampuchea (PRK). ... After the fall of Democratic Kampuchea, Cambodia was under Vietnamese occupation and in a civil war during the 1980s. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The fluid historical relationship between Thailand and Cambodia has prompted some Thai nationalists to claim that Angkor belongs to Thailand. ... This is the History of Cambodia series. ... NASA satellite image of the Tonle Sap (the Great Lake) The Tonlé Sap (meaning Large Fresh Water River but more commonly translated as Great Lake) is a combined lake and river system of huge importance to Cambodia. ... View of the Mekong before the sunset The Mekong is one of the worlds major rivers. ... Mekong River Delta from space, February 1996 Mekong Delta, February 2005. ...

Cambodia's Struggle for Survival 1432-1863

The more than four centuries that passed from the abandonment of Angkor around the mid-15th century to the establishment of a protectorate under the French in 1863 are considered by historians to be Cambodia's "dark ages," a period of economic, social, and cultural stagnation when the kingdom's internal affairs came increasingly under the control of its aggressive neighbors, the Thai and the Vietnamese. By the mid-19th century, Cambodia had become an almost helpless pawn in the power struggles between Thailand and Vietnam and probably would have been completely absorbed by one or the other if France had not intervened, giving Cambodia a colonially dominated "lease on life." Fear of racial and cultural extinction has persisted as a major theme in modern Cambodian thought and helps to explain the intense nationalism and xenophobia of the Khmer Rouge during the 1970s. Establishment in 1979 of the People's Republic of Kampuchea, a Vietnamese-dominated satellite state, can be seen as the culmination of a process of Vietnamese encroachment that was already well under way by the seventeenth century. Angkor was the site of a series of capital cities that is rk of the Khmer empire for much of the period from the 9th century to the 15th century CE. (The angkor people relyed on the jungle for protection and food. ... (14th century - 15th century - 16th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500. ... Year 1863 (MDCCCLXIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Look up xenophobia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Khmer Rouge flag Photos of genocide victims on display at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum The Khmer Rouge (Khmer: ) was the ruling political party of Cambodia -- which it renamed to Democratic Kampuchea -- from 1975 to 1979. ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979. ... Also: 1979 by Smashing Pumpkins. ... The Peoples Republic of Kampuchea, The Vietnamese Occupation On January 10, 1979, the Vietnamese installed Heng Samrin as head of state in the new Peoples Republic of Kampuchea (PRK). ... Satellite state or client state is a political term that refers to a country which is formally independent but which is primarily subject to the domination of another, larger power. ...

The process of internal decay and foreign encroachment was gradual rather than precipitous and was hardly evident in the fifteenth century when the Khmer were still powerful. Following the fall of Angkor Thom, the Cambodian court abandoned the region north of the Tonle Sap, never to return except for a brief interlude in the late sixteenth century. By this time however, the Khmer penchant for monument building had ceased. Older faiths such as Mahayana Buddhism and the Hindu cult of the god-king had been supplanted by Theravada Buddhism, and the Cambodians had become part of the same religious and cultural cosmos as the Thai. This similarity did not prevent intermittent warfare between the two kingdoms, however. During the sixteenth century Cambodian armies, taking advantage of Thai troubles with the Burmese, invaded the Thai kingdom several times. (14th century - 15th century - 16th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500. ... Face-tower of the South Gate, showing Avalokiteshvara Bayon temple, Angkor Thom The Terrace of the Leper King, showing apsara Angkor Thom was the fortified inner royal city built by Jayavarman VII (1181 - 1220?), Buddhist king of the Khmer Empire, at the end of the 12th Century, after Angkor had... NASA satellite image of the Tonle Sap (the Great Lake) The Tonlé Sap (meaning Large Fresh Water River but more commonly translated as Great Lake) is a combined lake and river system of huge importance to Cambodia. ... Relief image of the bodhisattva Guan Yin from Mt. ... This article discusses the adherents of Hinduism. ... Theravada (Pali; Sanskrit: Sthaviravada) is one of the eighteen (or twenty) Nikāya schools that formed early in the history of Buddhism. ...

In the meantime, following the abandonment of the Angkorian sites, the Khmer established a new capital several hundred kilometers to the southeast on the site of what is now Phnom Penh. This new center of power was located at the confluence of the Mekong and the Tonle Sab rivers. Thus, it controlled the river commerce of the Khmer heartland and the Laotian kingdoms and had access, by way of the Mekong Delta, to the international trade routes that linked the China coast, the South China Sea, and the Indian Ocean. A new kind of state and society emerged, more open to the outside world and more dependent on commerce as a source of wealth than its inland predecessor. The growth of maritime trade with China during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) provided lucrative opportunities for members of the Cambodian elite who controlled royal trading monopolies. The appearance of Europeans in the region in the sixteenth century also stimulated commerce. City motto: No motto City proper Province Phnom Penh Mayor Kep Chuktema ( ) Area 376 km² Population 2,009,264(2006) Density 5343. ... Map of the Mekong River watershed. ... Motto ສັນຕິພາບ ເອກະລາດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ເອກະພາບ ວັດທະນາຖາວອນ Peace, Independence, Democracy, Unity and Prosperity Anthem Pheng Xat Lao Capital (and largest city) Vientiane Official languages Lao Government Socialist Republic  -  President Choummaly Sayasone  -  Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh Independence from France   -  Date 19 July 1949  Area  -  Total 236,800 km² (83rd) 91,429 sq mi   -  Water (%) 2 Population  -  2005... Mekong River Delta from space, February 1996 Mekong Delta, February 2005. ... A trade route is the sequence of pathways and stopping places used for the commercial transport of cargo. ... The South China Sea, showing surrounding countries and neighbouring seas and oceans The South China Sea is a marginal sea south of China. ... For other uses, see Ming. ... Events Timur ascends throne of Samarkand. ... // Events February to August - Explorer Abel Tasmans second expedition for the Dutch East India Company maps the north coast of Australia. ...

King Ang Chan (1516-1566), one of the few great Khmer monarchs of the post-Angkorian period, moved the capital from Phnom Penh to Lovek. Portuguese and Spanish travelers who visited the city, located on the banks of the Tonle Sab, a river north of Phnom Penh, described it as a place of fabulous wealth. The products traded there included precious stones, metals, silk and cotton, incense, ivory, lacquer, livestock (including elephants), and rhinoceros horn (prized by the Chinese as a rare and potent medicine). By the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, Lovek contained flourishing foreign trading communities of Chinese, Indonesians, Malays, Japanese, Arabs, Spanish, and Portuguese. They were joined later in the century by the English and the Dutch. // Events March - With the death of Ferdinand II of Aragon, his grandson Charles of Ghent becomes King of Spain as Carlos I. July - Selim I of the Ottoman Empire declares war on the Mameluks and invades Syria. ... Events January 7 - Pius V becomes Pope Selim II succeeds Suleiman I as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Religious rioting in the Netherlands signifies the beginning of the Eighty Years War in the Netherlands. ... Lovek was a city in ancient Cambodia that became the nations capital in the 16th century, during which Cambodia was often referred to as Lovek. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... The Arabs (Arabic: عرب ) are an ethnic group found throughout the Middle East and North Africa. ... This article is about the English as an ethnic group and nation. ...

Because the representatives of practically all these nationalities were pirates, adventurers, or traders, this was an era of stormy cosmopolitanism. Hard-pressed by the Thai, King Sattha (1576-94) surrounded himself with a personal guard of Spanish and Portuguese mercenaries, and in 1593 asked the Spanish governor of the Philippines for aid. Attracted by the prospects of establishing a Spanish protectorate in Cambodia and of converting the monarch to Christianity, the governor sent a force of 120 men, but Lovek had already fallen to the Thai when they arrived the following year. The Spanish took advantage of the extremely confused situation to place one of Sattha's sons on the throne in 1597. Hopes of making the country a Spanish dependency were dashed, however, when the Spaniards were massacred two years later by an equally belligerent contingent of Malay mercenaries. Events May 5 - Peace of Beaulieu or Peace of Monsieur (after Monsieur, the Duc dAnjou, brother of the King, who negotiated it). ... Events May 18 - Playwright Thomas Kyds accusations of heresy lead to an arrest warrant for Christopher Marlowe. ... Christianity percentage by country, purple is highest, orange is lowest Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Wycliffe Tyndale · Luther · Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch... For other uses, see: 1597 (number). ...

The Thai, however, had dealt a fatal blow to Cambodian independence by capturing Lovek in 1594. With the posting of a Thai military governor in the city, a degree of foreign political control was established over the kingdom for the first time. Cambodian chronicles describe the fall of Lovek as a catastrophe from which the nation never fully recovered. Events February 27 - Henry IV is crowned King of France at Rheims. ... For other uses, see Governor (disambiguation). ...

Domination by Thailand and by Vietnam

Cambodia around the 1650s

More than their conquest of Angkor a century and a half earlier, the Thai capture of Lovek marked the beginning of a decline in Cambodia's fortunes. One possible reason for the decline was the labor drain imposed by the Thai conquerors as they marched thousands of Khmer peasants, skilled artisans, scholars, and members of the Buddhist clergy back to their capital of Ayutthaya. This practice, common in the history of Southeast Asia, crippled Cambodia's ability to recover a semblance of its former greatness. A new Khmer capital was established at Odongk (Udong), south of Lovek, but its monarchs could survive only by entering into what amounted to vassal relationships with the Thai and with the Vietnamese. In common parlance, Thailand became Cambodia's "father" and Vietnam its "mother." Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (428x713, 15 KB) Summary Created by CGlassey, based on province map of Vietnam. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (428x713, 15 KB) Summary Created by CGlassey, based on province map of Vietnam. ...

By the late fifteenth century, the Vietnamese - who, unlike other Southeast Asian peoples, had patterned their culture and their civilization on those of China - had defeated the once powerful kingdom of Champa in central Vietnam. Thousands of Chams fled into Khmer territory. By the early seventeenth century, the Vietnamese had reached the Mekong Delta, which was inhabited by Khmer people. In 1620 the Khmer king Chey Chettha II (1618-28) married a daughter of Nguyen Phuc Nguyen, one of the Nguyen lords (1558- 1778), who ruled southern Vietnam for most of the period of the Le dynasty (1428-1788). Three years later, Chey Chettha allowed the Vietnamese to establish a custom-house at Prey Nokor, near what is now Ho Chi Minh City (until 1975, Saigon). By the end of the seventeenth century, the region was under Vietnamese administrative control, and Cambodia was cut off from access to the sea. Trade with the outside world was possible only with Vietnamese permission. Mekong River Delta from space, February 1996 Mekong Delta, February 2005. ... Chey Chettah II is a betrayed man to his own country (Cambodia) allowing Vietnam to steal Prey Nokor (Ho Chi Minh city). ... Nguyá»…n Phúc Nguyên (1563 - 1635); ruled the southern provinces of Vietnam from 1613 - 1635. ... The Nguyen Lords (1558 - 1775) were a series of rulers of Southern Vietnam. ... Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnamese: Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh) is the largest city in Vietnam and is located near the Mekong River delta. ... Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnamese: Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh  ) is the largest city in Vietnam and is located near the Mekong River delta. ...

There were periods in the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries, when Cambodia's neighbors were preoccupied with internal or external strife, that afforded the beleaguered country a breathing spell. The Vietnamese were involved in a lengthy civil war until 1672 (see the Trinh-Nguyen War for details), but upon its conclusion the Nguyen Lords, who ruled in the south, promptly annexed sizable areas of Cambodian territory in the region of the Mekong Delta. For the next one hundred years they used the alleged mistreatment of Vietnamese colonists in the delta as a pretext for their continued expansion. By the end of the eighteenth century, they had extended their control to include the area encompassed in the late 1980s by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Vietnam). Trịnh-Nguyen War (1627 - 1673) - A long war waged between the two ruling families in Vietnam. ... The Nguyen Lords (1558 - 1775) were a series of rulers of Southern Vietnam. ...

Thailand, which might otherwise have been courted as an ally against Vietnamese incursions in the eighteenth century, was itself involved in a new conflict with Burma. In 1767 the Thai capital of Ayutthaya was besieged and destroyed. The Thai quickly recovered, however, and soon reasserted their dominion over Cambodia. The youthful Khmer king, Ang Eng (1779-96), a refugee at the Thai court, was installed as monarch at Odongk by Thai troops. At the same time, Thailand quietly annexed Cambodia's three northernmost provinces. In addition, the local rulers of the northwestern provinces of Batdambang and Siemreab (Siemreap) became vassals of the Thai king, and these areas came under the Thai sphere of influence. 1767 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

A renewed struggle between Thailand and Vietnam for control of Cambodia in the nineteenth century resulted in a period when Vietnamese officials, working through a puppet Cambodian king, ruled the central part of the country and attempted to force Cambodians to adopt Vietnamese customs. Several rebellions against Vietnamese rule ensued. The most important of these occurred in 1840 to 1841 and spread through much of the country. After two years of fighting, Cambodia and its two neighbors reached an accord that placed the country under the joint suzerainty of Thailand and Vietnam. At the behest of both countries, a new monarch, Ang Duong (1848-59), ascended the throne and brought a decade of peace and relative independence to Cambodia.

In their arbitrary treatment of the Khmer population, the Thai and the Vietnamese were virtually indistinguishable. The suffering and the dislocation caused by war were comparable in many ways to similar Cambodian experiences in the 1970s. But the Thai and the Vietnamese had fundamentally different attitudes concerning their relationships with Cambodia. The Thai shared with the Khmer a common religion, mythology, literature, and culture. The Chakri kings at Bangkok wanted Cambodia's loyalty and tribute, but they had no intention of challenging or changing its people's values or way of life. The Vietnamese viewed the Khmer people as barbarians to be civilized through exposure to Vietnamese culture, and they regarded the fertile Khmer lands as legitimate sites for colonization by settlers from Vietnam.

The French Protectorate 1863-1953

Main article: Colonial Cambodia

France's interest in Indochina in the nineteenth century grew out of its rivalry with Britain, which had excluded it from India and had effectively shut it out of other parts of mainland Southeast Asia. The French also desired to establish commerce in a region that promised so much untapped wealth and to redress the Vietnamese state's persecution of Catholic converts, whose welfare was a stated aim of French overseas policy. The Nguyen dynasty's repeated refusal to establish diplomatic relations and the violently anti-Christian policies of the emperors Minh Mang (1820- 41), Thieu Tri (1841-47), and Tu Duc (1848-83) impelled the French to engage in gunboat diplomacy that resulted, in 1862, in the establishment of French dominion over Saigon and over the three eastern provinces of the Cochinchina (Mekong Delta) region. In October of 1887, the French announced the formation of the Union Indochinoise (Union of Indochina), which at that time comprised Cambodia, already an autonomous French possession, and the three regions of Vietnam (Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina. ...

In the view of the government in Paris, Cambodia was a promising backwater. Persuaded by a missionary envoy to seek French protection against both the Thai and the Vietnamese, King Ang Duong invited a French diplomatic mission to visit his court. The Thai, however, pressured him to refuse to meet with the French when they finally arrived at Odongk in 1856. The much-publicized travels of the naturalist Henri Mouhot, who visited the Cambodian court, rediscovered the ruins at Angkor, and journeyed up the Mekong River to the Laotian kingdom of Luang Prabang from 1859 to 1861, piqued French interest in the kingdom's alleged vast riches and in the value of the Mekong as a gateway to China's southwestern provinces. In August 1863, the French concluded a treaty with Ang Duong's successor, Norodom (1859-1904). This agreement afforded the Cambodian monarch French protection (in the form of a French official called a résident--in French resident) in exchange for giving the French rights to explore and to exploit the kingdom's mineral and forest resources. Norodom's coronation, in 1864, was an awkward affair at which both French and Thai representatives officiated. Although the Thai attempted to thwart the expansion of French influence, their own influence over the monarch steadily dwindled. In 1867 the French concluded a treaty with the Thai that gave the latter control of Batdambang Province and of Siemreab Province in exchange for their renunciation of all claims of suzerainty over other parts of Cambodia. Loss of the northwestern provinces deeply upset Norodom, but he was beholden to the French for sending military aid to suppress a rebellion by a royal pretender.

In June 1884, the French governor of Cochinchina went to Phnom Penh, Norodom's capital, and demanded approval of a treaty with Paris that promised far-reaching changes such as the abolition of slavery, the institution of private land ownership, and the establishment of French résidents in provincial cities. Mindful of a French gunboat anchored in the river, the king reluctantly signed the agreement. Local elites opposed its provisions, however, especially the one dealing with slavery, and they fomented rebellions throughout the country during the following year. Though the rebellions were suppressed, and the treaty was ratified, passive resistance on the part of the Cambodians postponed implementation of the reforms it embodied until after Norodom's death.