No one knows for certain how long people have lived in what is now
Cambodia, as studies of its prehistory are undeveloped. A carbon-l4
dating from a cave in northwestern Cambodia suggests that people using
stone tools lived in the cave as early as 4000 bc, and rice has been
grown on Cambodian soil since well before the 1st century ad. The first
Cambodians likely arrived long before either of these dates. They
probably migrated from the north, although nothing is known about their
language or their way of life.
By the beginning of the 1st century ad, Chinese traders began to
report the existence of inland and coastal kingdoms in Cambodia. These
kingdoms already owed much to Indian culture, which provided alphabets,
art forms, architectural styles, religions (Hinduism and Buddhism), and a
stratified class system. Local beliefs that stressed the importance of
ancestral spirits coexisted with the Indian religions and remain
powerful today.
Cambodia's modem-day culture has its roots in the 1st to 6th centuries
in a state referred to as Funan, known as the oldest Indianized state
in Southeast Asia. It is from this period that evolved Cambodia's
language, part of the Mon-Khmer family, which contains elements of
Sanskrit, its ancient religion of Hinduism and Buddhism. Historians have
noted, for example, that Cambodians can be distinguished from their
neighbors by their clothing - checkered scarves known as Kramas are worn
instead of straw hats.
Funan gave way to the Angkor Empire with the rise to power of King
Jayavarman II in 802. The following 600 years saw powerful Khmer kings
dominate much of present day Southeast Asia, from the borders of Myanmar
east to the South China Sea and north to Laos. It was during this
period that Khmer kings built the most extensive concentration of
religious temples in the world - the Angkor temple complex. The most
successful of Angkor's kings, Jayavarman II, Indravarman I, Suryavarman
II and Jayavarman VII, also devised a masterpiece of ancient
engineering: a sophisticated irrigation system that includes barays
(gigantic man-made lakes) and canals that ensured as many as three rice
crops a year. Part of this system is still in use today.
The Khmer Kingdom (Funan)
Early Chinese writers referred to a kingdom in Cambodia that they
called Funan. Modern-day archaeological findings provide evidence of a
commercial society centered on the Mekong Delta that flourished from the
1st century to the 6th century. Among these findings are excavations of
a port city from the 1st century, located in the region of Oc-Eo in
what is now southern Vietnam. Served by a network of canals, the city
was an important trade link between India and China. Ongoing excavations
in southern Cambodia have revealed the existence of another important
city near the present-day village of Angkor Borei.
A group of inland kingdoms, known collectively to the Chinese as
Zhenla, flourished in the 6th and 7th centuries from southern Cambodia
to southern Laos. The first stone inscriptions in the Khmer language and
the first brick and stone Hindu temples in Cambodia date from the
Zhenla period.
Angkor Era
Bayon
Temple, Angkor Thom The giant faces carved on the Bayon temple at the
Angkor Thum complex in northwestern Cambodia represent both the Buddha
and King Jayavarman VII (ruled about 1130-1219). Although a Buddhist
temple, Angkor Thum was modeled after the great Hindu temple complex of
Angkor Wat.
In the early 9th century a Khmer (ethnic
Cambodian) prince returned to Cambodia from abroad. He probably arrived
from nearby Java or Sumatra, where he may have been held hostage by
island kings who had asserted control over portions of the Southeast
Asian mainland.
In a series of ceremonies at different
sites, the prince declared himself ruler of a new independent kingdom,
which unified several local principalities. His kingdom eventually came
to be centered near present-day Siemreab in northwestern Cambodia. The
prince, known to his successors as Jayavarman II, inaugurated a cult
honoring the Hindu god Shiva as a devaraja (Sanskrit term meaning
"god-king"). The cult, which legitimized the king's rule by linking him
with Shiva, persisted at the Cambodian court for more than two hundred
years.
Between the early 9th century and the early 15th
century, 26 monarchs ruled successively over the Khmer kingdom (known
as Angkor, the modern name for its capital city).
The successors of Jayavarman II built the great temples for which Angkor is famous.
Historians have dated more than a thousand temple sites and over a
thousand stone inscriptions (most of them on temple walls) to this era.
Notable among the Khmer builder-kings were Suyavarman II, who built
the temple known as Angkor Wat in the mid-12th century, and Jayavarman
VII, who built the Bayon temple at Angkor Thum and several other large
Buddhist temples half a century later. Jayavarman VII, a fervent
Buddhist, also built hospitals and rest houses along the roads that
crisscrossed the kingdom. Most of the monarchs, however, seem to have
been more concerned with displaying and increasing their power than with
the welfare of their subjects.
Ancient City of Angkor This map shows the layout of the ancient city
of Angkor, capital of the Cambodian Khmer kingdom from the 9th century
to the 15th century. The city's huge stone temples were both civic
centers and religious symbols of the Hindu cosmos. Historians believe
that Angkor's network of canals and barays (reservoirs) were used for
irrigation.
At its greatest extent, in the 12th century, the Khmer kingdom
encompassed (in addition to present-day Cambodia) parts of present-day
Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar (formerly Burma), and the Malay
Peninsula. Thailand and Laos still contain Khmer ruins and inscriptions.
The kings at Angkor received tribute from smaller kingdoms to the
north, east, and west, and conducted trade with China. The capital city
was the center of an impressive network of reservoirs and canals, which
historians theorize supplied water for irrigation. Many historians
believe that the abundant harvests made possible by irrigation supported
a large population whose labor could be drawn on to construct the
kings' temples and to fight their wars. The massive temples, extensive
roads and waterworks, and confident inscriptions give an illusion of
stability that is undermined by the fact that many Khmer kings gained
the throne by conquering their predecessors. Inscriptions indicate that
the kingdom frequently suffered from rebellions and foreign invasions.
Historians have not been able to fully explain the decline of the
Khmer kingdom in the 13th and 14th centuries. However, it was probably
associated with the rise of powerful Thai kingdoms that had once paid
tribute to Angkor, and to population losses following a series of wars
with these kingdoms. Another factor may have been the introduction of
Theravada Buddhism, which taught that anyone could achieve enlightenment
through meritorious conduct and meditation. These egalitarian ideas
undermined the hierarchical structure of Cambodian society and the power
of prominent Hindu families. After a Thai invasion in 1431, what
remained of the Cambodian elite shifted southeastward to the vicinity of
Phnom Penh.
Cambodia Dark Age
This map of Southeast Asia in the mid-16th century shows the major
centers of power in the region prior to the arrival of Europeans. During
this period, these kingdoms were constantly at war. Eventually the
Kingdom of Ayutthaya (modern Thailand) expanded to the north and east,
absorbing much of Lan Na and Lan Xang (modern Laos). Dai Viet (modern
Vietnam) expanded to the south, taking over the remaining territory of
the Kingdom of Champa and the southern tip of the Kingdom of Lovek
(modern Cambodia). Toungoo evolved into modern Myanmar.
The four centuries of Cambodian history following the abandonment of
Angkor are poorly recorded, and therefore historians know little about
them beyond the bare outlines. Cambodia retained its language and its
cultural identity despite frequent invasions by the powerful Thai
kingdom of Ayutthaya and incursions by Vietnamese forces. Indeed, for
much of this period, Cambodia was a relatively prosperous trading
kingdom with its capital at Lovek, near present-day Phnom Penh. European
visitors wrote of the Buddhist piety of the inhabitants of the Kingdom
of Lovek. During this period, Cambodians composed the country's most
important work of literature, the Reamker (based on the Indian myth of
the Ramayana).
In the late 18th century, a civil war in Vietnam and disorder
following a Burmese invasion of Ayutthaya spilled over into Cambodia and
devastated the area. In the early 19th century, newly established
dynasties in Vietnam and Thailand competed for control over the
Cambodian court. The warfare that ensued, beginning in the l830s, came
close to destroying Cambodia.
French Rule
Phnom Penh, as planned by the French, came to resemble a town in
provincial France. By the second half of the 19th century, France had
begun to expand its colonial penetration of Indochina (the peninsula
between India and China). In 1863 France accepted the Cambodian king's
invitation to impose a protectorate over his severely weakened kingdom,
halting the country's dismemberment by Thailand and Vietnam. For the
next 90 years, France ruled Cambodia. In theory, French administration
was indirect, but in practice the word of French officials was final on
all major subjects-including the selection of Cambodia's kings. The
French left Cambodian institutions, including the monarchy, in place,
and gradually developed a Cambodian civil service, organized along
French lines. The French administration neglected education but built
roads, port facilities, and other public works. Phnom Penh, as planned
by the French, came to resemble a town in provincial France.
The French invested relatively little in Cambodia's economy compared
to that of Vietnam, which was also under French control. However, they
developed rubber plantations in eastern Cambodia, and the kingdom
exported sizable amounts of rice under their rule. The French also
restored the Angkor temple complex and deciphered Angkorean
inscriptions, which gave Cambodians a clear idea of their medieval
heritage and kindled their pride in Cambodia's past. Because France left
the monarchy, Buddhism, and the rhythms of rural life undisturbed,
anti-French feeling was slow to develop.
King Sihanouk, through skillful maneuvering, managed to gain
Cambodia's independence peacefully in 1953. During World War II
(1939-1945), Japanese forces entered French Indochina but left the
compliant French administration in place.
On the verge of defeat in 1945, the Japanese removed their French
collaborators and installed a nominally independent Cambodian government
under the recently crowned young king, Norodom Sihanouk. France
reimposed its protectorate in early 1946 but allowed the Cambodians to
draft a constitution and to form political parties.
Soon afterward, fighting erupted throughout Indochina as nationalist
groups, some with Communist ideologies, struggled to win independence
from France. Most of the fighting took place in Vietnam, in a conflict
known as the First Indochina War (1946-1954). In Cambodia, Communist
guerrilla forces allied with Vietnamese Communists gained control of
much of the country. However, King Sihanouk, through skillful
maneuvering, managed to gain Cambodia's independence peacefully in 1953,
a few months earlier than Vietnam. The Geneva Accords of 1954, which
marked the end of the First Indochina War, acknowledged Sihanouk's
government as the sole legitimate authority in Cambodia.
Modern State
Sihanouk's campaign for independence sharpened his political skills
and increased his ambitions. In 1955 he abdicated the throne in favor of
his father to pursue a full-time political career, free of the
constitutional constraints of the monarchy. In a move aimed at
dismantling Cambodia's fledgling political parties, Sihanouk inaugurated
a national political movement known as the Sangkum Reastr Niyum
(People's Socialist Community), whose members were not permitted to
belong to any other political group. The Sangkum won all the seats in
the national elections of 1955, benefiting from Sihanouk's popularity
and from police brutality at many polling stations. Sihanouk served as
prime minister of Cambodia until 1960, when his father died and he was
named head of state. Sihanouk remained widely popular among the people
but was brutal to his opponents.
In the late 1950s the Cold War (period of tension between the United
States and its allies and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or
USSR, and its allies) intensified in Asia. In this climate, foreign
powers, including the United States, the USSR, and China, courted
Sihanouk. Cambodia's importance to these countries stemmed from events
in neighboring Vietnam, where tension had begun to mount between a
Communist regime in the north and a pro-Western regime in the south. The
USSR supported the Vietnamese Communists, while the United States
opposed them, and China wanted to contain Vietnam for security reasons.
Each of the foreign powers hoped that Cambodian support would bolster
its position in the region. Sihanouk pursued a policy of neutrality that
drew substantial economic aid from the competing countries.
In 1965, however, Sihanouk broke off diplomatic relations with the
United States. At the same time, he allowed North Vietnamese Communists,
then fighting the Vietnam War against the United States and the South
Vietnamese in southern Vietnam, to set up bases on Cambodian soil. As
warfare intensified in Vietnam, domestic opposition to Sihanouk from
both radical and conservative elements increased. The Cambodian
Communist organization, known as the Workers Party of Kampuchea (later
renamed the Communist Party of Kampuchea, or CPK), had gone underground
after failing to win any concessions at the Geneva Accords, but now they
took up arms once again. As the economy became unstable, Cambodia
became difficult to govern single-handedly. In need of economic and
military aid, Sihanouk renewed diplomatic relations with the United
States. Shortly thereafter, in 1969, U.S. president Richard Nixon
authorized a bombing campaign against Cambodia in an effort to destroy
Vietnamese Communist sanctuaries there.
Khmer Republic
In March 1970 Cambodia's legislature, the National Assembly, deposed
Sihanouk while he was abroad. The conservative forces behind the coup
were pro-Western and anti-Vietnamese. General Lon Nol, the country's
prime minister, assumed power and sent his poorly equipped army to fight
the North Vietnamese Communist forces encamped in border areas. Lon Nol
hoped that U.S. aid would allow him to defeat his enemies, but American
support was always geared to events in Vietnam. In April U.S. and South
Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia, searching for North Vietnamese, who
moved deeper into Cambodia. Over the next year, North Vietnamese troops
destroyed the offensive capacity of Lon Nol's army.
In October 1970 Lon Nol inaugurated the Khmer Republic. Sihanouk, who
had sought asylum in China, was condemned to death despite his absence.
By that time, Chinese and North Vietnamese leaders had persuaded the
prince to establish a government in exile, allied with North Vietnam and
dominated by the CPK, whom Sihanouk referred to as the Khmer Rouge
(French for "Red Khmers").
In 1975, despite massive infusions of U.S. aid, the Khmer Republic collapsed, and Khmer Rouge forces occupied Phnom Penh.
The United States continued bombing Cambodia until the Congress of
the United States halted the campaign in 1973. By that time, Lon Nol's
forces were fighting not only the Vietnamese but also the Khmer Rouge.
The general lost control over most of the Cambodian countryside, which
had been devastated by U.S. bombing. The fighting severely damaged the
nation's infrastructure and caused high numbers of casualties. Hundreds
of thousands of refugees flooded into the cities. In 1975, despite
massive infusions of U.S. aid, the Khmer Republic collapsed, and Khmer
Rouge forces occupied Phnom Penh. Three weeks later, North Vietnamese
forces achieved victory in South Vietnam.
Democratic Kampuchea
Pol Pot Pol Pot is a pseudonym for the Cambodian guerrilla commander
Saloth Sar, who organized the Communist guerrilla force known as the
Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge ousted General Lon Nol in 1975,
establishing a brutal Communist regime that ruled until 1979.
Immediately after occupying Cambodia's towns, the Khmer Rouge ordered
all city dwellers into the countryside to take up agricultural tasks.
The move reflected both the Khmer Rouge's contempt for urban dwellers,
whom they saw as enemies, and their utopian vision of Cambodia as a
nation of busy, productive peasants. The leader of the regime, who
remained concealed from the public, was Saloth Sar, who used the
pseudonym Pol Pot. The government, which called itself Democratic
Kampuchea (DK), claimed to be seeking total independence from foreign
powers but accepted economic and military aid from its major allies,
China and North Korea.
Khmer Rouge Carnage The Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, killed close to
1.7 million people in the mid- to late 1970s. In this photo, human bones
and skulls fill a museum in Cambodia that had been used as a prison and
torture center during Pol Pot's reign, Sygma.
Without identifying themselves as Communists, the Khmer Rouge quickly
introduced a series of far-reaching and often painful socialist
programs. The people given the most power in the new government were the
largely illiterate rural Cambodians who had fought alongside the Khmer
Rouge in the civil war. DK leaders severely restricted freedom of
speech, movement, and association, and forbade all religious practices.
The regime controlled all communications along with access to food and
information. Former city dwellers, now called "new people," were
particularly badly treated. The Khmer Rouge killed intellectuals,
merchants, bureaucrats, members of religious groups, and any people
suspected of disagreeing with the party. Millions of other Cambodians
were forcibly relocated, deprived of food, tortured, or sent into forced
labor.
While in power, the Khmer Rouge murdered, worked to death, or killed by starvation close to 1.7 million Cambodians.
The Khmer Rouge also attacked neighboring countries in an attempt to
reclaim territories lost by Cambodia many centuries before. After
fighting broke out with Vietnam (then united under the Communists) in
1977, DK's ideology became openly racist. Ethnic minorities in Cambodia,
including ethnic Chinese and Vietnamese, were hunted down and expelled
or massacred. Purges of party members accused of treason became
widespread. People in eastern Cambodia, suspected of cooperating with
Vietnam, suffered severely, and hundreds of thousands of them were
killed. While in power, the Khmer Rouge murdered, worked to death, or
killed by starvation close to 1.7 million Cambodians-more than one-fifth
of the country's population.
Recent Development
In October 1991 Cambodia's warring factions, the UN, and a number of
interested foreign nations signed an agreement in Paris intended to end
the conflict in Cambodia. The agreement provided for a temporary
power-sharing arrangement between a United Nations Transitional
Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) and a Supreme National Council (SNC) made
up of delegates from the various Cambodian factions. Prince Norodom
Sihanouk, the former king and prime minister of Cambodia, served as
president of the SNC.
The Paris accords and the UN protectorate pushed Cambodia out of its
isolation and introduced competitive politics, dormant since the early
1950s. UNTAC sponsored elections for a national assembly in May 1993,
and for the first time in Cambodian history a majority of voters
rejected an armed, incumbent regime. A royalist party, known by its
French acronym FUNCINPEC, won the most seats in the election, followed
by the CPP, led by Hun Sen. Reluctant to give up power, Hun Sen
threatened to upset the election results. Under a compromise
arrangement, a three-party coalition formed a government headed by two
prime ministers; FUNCINPEC's Prince Norodom Ranariddh, one of Sihanouk's
sons, became first prime minister, while Hun Sen became second prime
minister.
In September 1993 the government ratified a new constitution
restoring the monarchy and establishing the Kingdom of Cambodia.
Sihanouk became king for the second time. After the 1993 elections, no
foreign countries continued to recognize the DK as Cambodia's legal
government. The DK lost its UN seat as well as most of its sources of
international aid.
The unrealistic power-sharing relationship between Ranariddh and Hun
Sen worked surprisingly well for the next three years, but relations
between the parties were never smooth. The CPP's control over the army
and the police gave the party effective control of the country, and it
dominated the coalition government. In July 1997 Hun Sen staged a
violent coup against FUNCINPEC and replaced Prince Ranariddh, who was
overseas at the time, with Ung Huot, a more pliable FUNCINPEC figure.
Hun Sen's action shocked foreign nations and delayed Cambodia's entry
into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). By the end of
1997, Cambodia was the only nation in the region that was not a member.
Despite the coup, elections scheduled for July 1998 proceeded as
planned. Hundreds of foreign observers who monitored the elections
affirmed that voting was relatively free and fair; however, the CPP
harassed opposition candidates and party workers before and after the
elections, when dozens were imprisoned and several were killed. The
election gave the CPP a plurality of votes, but results, especially in
towns, where voting could not be dictated by local authorities,
indicated that the party did not enjoy widespread popular support.
Prince Ranariddh and another opposition candidate, Sam Rainsy, took
refuge abroad and contested the outcome of the election. In November the
CPP and FUNCINPEC reached an agreement whereby Hun Sen became sole
prime minister and Ranariddh became president of the National Assembly.
The parties formed a coalition government, dividing control over the
various cabinet ministries. In early 1999 the constitution was amended
to create a Senate, called for in the 1998 agreement. These signs that
Cambodia's political situation was stabilizing encouraged ASEAN to admit
Cambodia to its membership a short time later.
Pol Pot died in 1998, and by early 1999 most of the remaining Khmer
Rouge troops and leaders had surrendered. Rebel troops were integrated
into the Cambodian army. In 1999 two Khmer Rouge leaders were arrested
and charged with genocide for their part in the atrocities.
Since the Paris Accords of 1991, Cambodia's economic growth has
depended on millions of dollars of foreign aid. Foreign interest in
Cambodia has decreased, however, and the country has received
diminishing economic assistance. This development, along with the
continued lack of openness in Cambodian politics, has made Cambodia's
prospects for democratization dim, as well as its chances for sustained
economic growth.
