Political events that led to the creation of modern day Cambodia, from pre-colonial times to the 2010s. For our Southeast Asian Politics class (comparative politics).

1. CAMBODIA

2. ● Official Name: Preahreacheanachakr Kampuchea (Kingdom of
Cambodia)
● Form of Government: Constitutional monarchy with two legislative
houses, Senate and National Assembly
● Head of State: King Norodom Sihamoni
● Head of Government: Prime Minister Hun Sen
● Capital: Phnom Pehn
● Official Language: Khmer
● Official Religion: Buddhism
○ Buddhist 93%, Christian 2%, Muslim 4%, Other 1%
CAMBODIA

3. ● Population and Rank: 16.4 M/69th
● Majority of Cambodian population are Khmers (Cambodians) while
ethnic minorities include Chinese, Vietnamese, Muslim Cham-Malays,
Laotians and others).
○ Khmer 97.6%, Cham 1.2%, Chinese 0.1%, Vietnamese 0.1%, other
0.9% (2013 est.)
● Urban-Rural Population:
○ Urban: (2015) 20.7%
○ Rural: (2015) 79.3%
● Literacy (Percentage of Population Age 15 and over literate):
○ Male: (2015) 84.5%
○ Female: (2015) 70.5%
CAMBODIA

5. Pre-Independence

6. Outline
I. Ancient Funan: Cambodia before Angkor
II. Angkor and Post-Angkor Period (Thirteenth to
Seventeenth Century)
III. Colonial Period (Eighteenth to Twentieth
Century)

7. I. Ancient Funan: Cambodia before Angkor
Knowledge of ancient Funan
comes from
● Chinese dynastic
chronicles
● Sanskrit stone inscriptions
● Archaeological records
Main Features
● Beginning of the first century AD –
inhabitants of Cambodia had
achieved a high level of civilization
● A loose alliance of port towns or a
unified state?
● A literate and Indianized society
● Seafarers who traded with India and
China
● Lived in the lower Mekong Valley

8. I. Ancient Funan: Cambodia before Angkor
Decline
● Rise of Chenla (North)
that challenged the
Funan (South)
● Shift of power from
South to North

9. II. Angkor and Post-Angkor Period
(Thirteenth to Seventeenth Century)
● Khmer Empire – Angkor Empire
● Founder of Angkor, King Jayavarman II, moved his capital from
Mekong Valley to the drier region at the north-west of the Great Lake
● centre of a powerful empire and of a dispersed city with between
700 000 and one million inhabitants
● sprawling over an area of 1000 square kilometres or more
● inscriptions carved at Jayavarman’s behest

10. II. Angkor and Post-Angkor Period (13th
to 17th Century)
Buddhist Kingship of Jayavarman VII
● Seen as a pinnacle of Cambodian history which
dominated the historiography of Cambodia
● labored to integrate Buddhist with Cambodian
ideas of kingship - Buddhist kingship
● a transition in the state religion from Hinduism to
Mahayana Buddhism – his devotion to Buddhist
teachings was displayed throughout his rule

11. II. Angkor and Post-Angkor Period (13th
to 17th Century)
A Buddhist king made similar
statements, but he addressed many
of them, specifically, to an
audience of his people – people
became objects of his compassion,
an audience for merit-making.
A Hindu king’s rule was an
aggregation of statements—rituals,
temples, poems, marriages,
inscriptions, and the like—that
displayed his grandeur, acumen,
and godliness – people were simply
an ingredient of the king’s
magnificence.

12. II. Angkor and Post-Angkor Period (13th
to 17th Century)
Hinduism’s devaraja (monarch
possesses transcendental quality,
the king as the living god on earth)
to Buddhism’s sangha (community).
As a Mahayana Buddhist, he
regarded himself to be a
Dharma-king, a bodhisattva, whose
duty was to "save the people"
through service and merit-making,
liberating himself in the process.

13. II. Angkor and Post-Angkor Period (13th
to 17th Century)
inclusive and universal in its
outreach, recruiting the disciples
and monks from not only the elites
and court, but also in the villages
and among the peasants,
enhancing its popularity among the
Khmer folk
priestly class structure to a
village-based monastic system
Theravada variant, unlike
Brahmanism or Mahayana
Buddhism, was oriented toward
ordinary people.
The ideal of Theravada Buddhism is
the arhat (Pali: arahant), or
perfected saint, who attains
enlightenment as a result of his own
efforts.

18. II. Angkor and Post-Angkor Period (13th
to 17th Century)
Decline
● Shift of capital from Northwestern
Cambodia (Angkor) to the South
riverbanks (Phnom Penh)
● Decline in priestly class of Hinduism
● Increasing importance of foreign
powers in Cambodian internal affairs
● Decline in the popularity of kingship

19. III. Colonial Period (18th to 20th Century)
Thai and Vietnamese Occupation
Tug of War between Siam and Vietnam
● Leaders sought either Tai or Vietnamese protection against their rivals
in the royal family and against the foreign power
Thai absorption of northwestern Cambodia (1790s)
● 1794 refugee Cambodian prince Eng seated on throne with
Thailand’s help in exchange of Bătdâmbâng (Battambang) and
Siĕmréab (Siem Reap)

20. III. Colonial Period (18th to 20th Century)
● Chan II succeeded - dual vassalage to Thailand and Vietnam
● His brothers sought patrons and assistance from Thailand while Chan II
sought assistance from Vietnam.
Vietnamization of Cambodia(1835-1840)
● strong Vietnamese pressure led to the succession of Princess Mei
● 1841 Chan’s brother Duong returned from Thailand with Siamese
troops
● Cambodia again became a Siamese protectorate

21. III. Colonial Period (18th to 20th Century)
Cambodia as a French Protectorate
French interest in Cambodia deepened with their involvement in Vietnam
and also after a French naturalist, Henri Mouhot (1826–61), visited Duang’s
court.
1863 French officers from Vietnam persuaded Norodom to sign a treaty
that allowed France to control Cambodia’s foreign affairs
late 1870s - increasing desire of French government to control internal
affairs of Cambodia which King Norodom resisted believing them to be an
infringement of his power

22. III. Colonial Period (18th to 20th Century)
1884 King Norodom of Cambodia was forced to
sign a document that transformed Cambodia into
a colony
French’s hastiness in trying to impose “equality,
property, and an electorate,” (led to a year and
half of rebellion) (Chandler, 2008, p. 177)
“the masters wanted to keep their slaves and the
slaves their masters”; people clung to the
patron-client system that had been in effect in
Cambodia for centuries. (Chandler, 2008, p. 177)

23. III. Colonial Period (18th to 20th Century)
The features they saw as revolutionary (and that the French saw as crucial
to their program of reforms) were those that placed French résidents in
provincial cities, abolished slavery, and institutionalized the ownership of
land. These provisions struck at the heart of traditional Cambodian
politics, which were built up out of entourages, exploitation of labor, and
the taxation of harvests (rather than land) for the benefit of the elite, who
were now to become paid civil servants of the French, administering
rather than consuming the people under their control.
(Chandler, 2008, p. 176)

24. III. Colonial Period (18th to 20th Century)
1916 Affair
● Peasants from provinces of Phnom Pehn travelled to the city
● November 1915 - three hundred peasants from the area northeast of
Phnom Penh arrived in the capital with a petition to Sisowath asking
him to reduce the taxes that were levied by the French
● What is extraordinary about the demonstrations is the speed and
efficiency with which they were organized by provincial leaders
whose identity and motives remain obscure (Chandler, 2008, p. 189).
Sisowath’s Rule and Monivon’s Rule

25. III. Colonial Period (18th to 20th Century)
Towards Cambodian Independence
● Prince Norodom Sihanouk
● Overthrow of French administration by Japanese allowed greater
autonomy for Cambodia
● pressed by Japanese – Sihanouk declared Cambodia’s
independence which was led by Son Ngoc Thanh
● October 1945 French re-established control
● Cambodia soon became an “autonomous state within the French
Union,”

26. III. Colonial Period (18th to 20th Century)
Towards Cambodian Independence
● Sihanouk and advisers vs. pro-independence Democratic Party
(dominated National Assembly)
● Democrats – suffered internal dissension – death of their leader Prince
Yuthevong in 1947 and the assassination of his heir
● June 1952 Sihanouk assumed control of the government
● “Royal Crusade” a tour of several countries to elicit their support
fought political independence from the French

27. Post - Independence

28. Rough outline:
1960’s - 1970’s The Cold War
1970’s - 1990’s Democratic Kampuchea, Vietnam Protectorate
1990’s - 2000’s The Restored Kingdom of Cambodia
2000’s - 2010’s Hun Sen Regime

30. Sihanouk during the Cold War
● Rising tensions in Vietnam
● Cambodia’s policy of neutrality
● Sihanouk supports North Vietnamese Communists, 1965
● Sihanouk is deposed, 1970
● Sihanouk establishes the Khmer Rouge as a government in
exile

31. Lon Nol vs. Sihanouk
KHMER REPUBLIC
● Troops fought North Vietnamese
forces in Cambodia
● Relied on American aid, but US
was occupied with Vietnam
● Offensive capacity destroyed by
1975
KHMER ROUGE
● Troops fought as guerilla warriors
● Made up of Cambodian farmers
who turned to Communism
● Led by Pol Pot, who became prime
minister in 1975

32. Khmer Rouge Becomes Democratic Kampuchea
● The Khmer Rouge rules until 1979
● Vietnam invades, establishes protectorate
● Paris Peace Accords, 1991
○ United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia
(UNTAC)
○ Supreme National Council (SNC)

33. Late 1990’s to early 2000’s
● 1993 elections
○ Ranariddh (FUNCINPEC) as first prime minister, Hun Sen (CPP) as
second prime minister
● Hun Sen’s coup, replaces Ranariddh with Ung Huot, 1997
● Pol Pot dies, 1998
● Coalition government formed with Hun Sen as PM, Sihamoni as DPM
● Cambodia enters ASEAN in 1999, WTO in 2005

35. The Hun Sen Regime
BORDER ISSUES
● Armed conflict over Preah Vihear
temple, 2008
● Troops exchange fire after two Thai
citizens cross the disputed border
● Troops are withdrawn after 2012
International Court of Justice ruling
● New border treaty currently in the
works
DEMOCRACY ISSUES
● First conviction of Opposition
leader Sam Rainsy, 2005
● Hun Sen reelectected, protests are
held over election results, 2013
● Rainsy returns from exile, 2013
● Opposition party dissolves, 2017
○ Rainsy resigns from CNRP
○ Successor to Rainsy is
convicted of treason

36. Sources:
Cambodia History Timeline. worldatlas. Retrieved from
https://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/asia/cambodia/khtimeln2.htm#page
Cambodia profile - Timeline. BBC News. Retrieved from
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-13006828
Chandler, D. (2008). A History of Cambodia. Colorado: Westview Press.
CIA: The World Factbook: Cambodia. (2011). CIA World Fact Book, 116–119. Retrieved from
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=74443530&site=ehost-live
Gin, O. K. (2004). Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor. Santa Barbara,
California: Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Sutton, J. (2018). Hun Sen’s Consolidation of Personal Rule and the Closure of Political Space in Cambodia.
Contemporary Southeast Asia: A Journal of International & Strategic Affairs, 40(2), 173–195.
Sodhy, P. (2004). Modernization and Cambodia. Journal of Third World Studies, 21(1), 153–174. Retrieved
from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=13429133&site=ehost-live
Tully, J. (2005). A Short History of Cambodia: From Empire to Survival. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Silkworm
Books.