Cambodia Trip Planning - A Brief History

Stone tools dating back 1.83 million years have been found in Malaysia and the oldest human-like person found was the 500,000 year old "Java Man". Although Homo Floresiensis (aka the Hobbit) has been making headlines lately and is dated between 95,000 to 13,000 years old. The Khmer people (the original Cambodians) seem to have move down to Cambodia from South Eastern China around 1000 BCE and quickly set up organized agricultural societies harvesting rice, fish and domesticated animals, especially in the Mekong River valley. It was about this time when most people of Southeast Asia became heavily influenced by Indian traders and scholars, adapting their religions, sciences, and customs and borrowing from their languages.

The earliest known kingdom in the area, Funan, flourished from 68-550 CE. It reached its peak under Fan Shih-man in the early 3rd century, extending as far south as Malaysia and as far west as Burma. The Funanese established a strong system of mercantilism and commercial monopolies that would become a pattern for empires in the region. Fan Shih-man expanded the fleet and improved the Funanese bureaucracy, creating a quasi-feudal pattern that left local customs and identities largely intact, particularly in the empire's farther reaches.

The Khmers formed Chenla, a vassel state to Funan, in 550. The Khmer Kingdom of Bhavapura was lead by Ishanavarman who completely conquered the kingdom of Funan during 612-628. He chose his new capital at the Sambor Prei Kuk, naming it Ishanapura. The weakening of the Funan state at this time can largely be explained by distant events: the collapse of the Roman Empire and subsequently trade routes between the Mediterranean and China. After the death of Jayavarman I in 681 the kingdom broke up into many principalities.

In 802 the kingdom of Kambuja (which gave Kampuchea, or Cambodia, its name) began in the Angkor region in western Cambodia. Under Jayavarman VII (1181–ca. 1218), Kambuja reached its zenith of political power and cultural creativity. Jayavarman VII gained power and territory in a series of successful wars against its close enemies; the Cham or Vietnamese. Following Jayavarman VII's death, Kambuja experienced a gradual decline. Important factors were the aggressiveness of neighboring peoples (especially the Thai, or Siamese), chronic interdynastic strife, and the gradual deterioration of the complex irrigation system that had ensured rice surpluses. The Angkorian monarchy survived until 1431, when the Thai captured Angkor Thom and the Cambodian king fled to the southern part of the country.

The next 400 years are known as Cambodia's "Dark Ages". With the exception of a short time in the sixteenth century where they were able to establish trade with other parts of Asia and the Spanish & Portuguese "discovered" Ankor, Cambodia was a pawn in the power struggles between Siam and Vietnam. Siam started off with the upper hand, but when the Vietnamese annexed the Mekong Delta, cutting off Cambodia's access to the sea, Vietnamese absorption of the Khmer people seemed inevitable.

In 1863, King Norodom singed over Cambodia to the French where the French tried, till WWII to create a Union Indochinoise (Union of Indochina). In 1940 the Japanese displaced French authority in Vietnam. Thailand saw this as an opportunity to squeeze the weakened French for control of Cambodia, and after the French-Tai War, walked away with a couple of provinces. In 1941 the French made Norodom Sihanouk king (19 at the time), seeing him as inexperienced and easy to manipulate. While this seemed to work for a while, he took direct control of the government from June 1952 until February 1955 (shredding the constitution he ratified in 1947) where he pushed the French into letting go of Cambodia on November 9th, 1953.

During the first administration of Sihanouk Cambodia tried to have a neutral foreign policy, but by the mid '60s the Viet Cong had bases in parts of the east. In 1969 the USA bombing runs along the border and the Khmer Rouge insurgency, helped to destabilize Sihanouk's control. Eventually he was driven abroad for medical reasons in January 1970. This allowed General Lon Nol to take control with a military coup d'état. Cambodia then allies with the United States and used joint forces to try and drive out the NVA, with very little affect. On October 9, the Cambodian monarchy was abolished, and the country was renamed the Khmer Republic.
In 1972, a constitution was adopted, a parliament elected, and Lon Nol became president. But the government was to week and corrupt and Pol Pot and Ieng Sary asserted their dominance over the Vietnamese-trained communists eventually collapsing the Republic and taking control in April 1975.

Immediately after its victory, the CPK forced everyone to work as farmers in order to shape society into a model that Pol Pot had conceived. A new constitution in January 1976 established Democratic Kampuchea as a Communist People's Republic. Khieu Samphan would chair the State Presidium and Pol Pot would act as PM. Prince Sihanouk was put under house arrest. The CIA estimated 50,000–100,000 were executed and 1.5 million died from 1975 to 1979.
A December 1978 Vietnamese invasion drove the Khmer Rouge into the countryside, began a 10-year Vietnamese occupation, and touched off almost 13 years of civil war. The US tried to launch a relief effort, poring $400 million through UNICEF and the World Food Program between 1979 and 1982.

The 1991 Paris Peace Accords mandated democratic elections and a ceasefire, which was not fully respected by the Khmer Rouge. UN-sponsored elections in 1993 helped restore some semblance of normalcy under a coalition government (90% turn out). Factional fighting in 1997 ended the first coalition government, but a second round of national elections in 1998 led to the formation of another coalition government and renewed political stability. The remaining elements of the Khmer Rouge surrendered in early 1999. Some of the surviving Khmer Rouge leaders are now on trial by an UN-sponsored tribunal for crimes against humanity.

Elections in July 2003 were relatively peaceful, but it took one year of negotiations between contending political parties before a coalition government was formed. In October 2004, King Norodom Sihanouk abdicated the throne and his son, Prince Norodom Sihamoni, was selected to succeed him. Local elections were held in Cambodia in April 2007, and there was little in the way of pre-election violence that preceded prior elections. National elections in July 2008 were relatively peaceful.