About Cambodia

The evidence of human settlements in the region present-day Cambodia are dates back to 2000 B.C. By the first century Funan Kingdom is the first Southeast Asian civilization developed encouraging groups of settlers migrated into the mainland of Southeast Asia present Cambodia and Mekong Delta between first to sixth century. Funan Kingdom was the earliest trading settlement strongly influenced trade ties with Indian, the discovery of Roman coins confirmed and Chinese record. The people under Funan developed into the Chenla Kingdom in the sixth century between 612 – 627A.D. The Kingdom had fractured into “Land Chenla” to the north, (modern Laos), and “Water Chenla” (present Cambodia and the Mekong delta).
Late of eight century Jayavarman II came to the power and The Angkor Empire began when Jayavarman II proclaimed himself as the God king at ceremony on the Kulen Mountain 802 A.D ruled the over the vast territories. That was the golden age of Khmer Empire between 9th to 14th century. Historically stands out as most of prominent ancient Khmer cultural and architectural supremacy of Angkor temples in present-day Cambodia and in ancient Khmer States of neighbor countries.

After the death of King Jayavarman VII between 1218 to 1220 A.D and the dissolution in 1432 that brough the political unstable, the empire started to decline. During the raid period, Siamese (Tai) ethnic was struggled for dominance in the region. As resulted in the sacking of Angkor Wat by Siam in 1351 and the latter caused the relocation of the Khmer capital to Phnom Penh.
Post Angkor history, Siamese fighting over the Khmer Kingdom, however, the Angkor temples had never completely abandoned by maintained of Buddhist monks, and in sixteen century a Cambodian royal King Ang Chan had returned to Angkor City. He encouraged sea trade, which led to the arrival of Spanish and Portuguese missionaries from Malacca that left the first written record of Angkor Wat by European and helped to restarted the written record of Angkor and Cambodian history.

By the 17th century as attacked Siamese (Thai) and Vietnam over Cambodia border, Cambodia was rendering as a vassal state to both countries. In 1863 King Norodom treaty with French and Cambodia was placed under French protection in 1863. In 1887 the creation of Indochina, incorporating the Vietnam regions of Tonkin, Annam and Cochinchina, as well as Cambodia and later Laos, Cambodia officially fall under French colonial.
During World War II, in 1945 the invading of Japanese to govern the French Indochina in an attempt to defend against Allied military, dissolved the French colonial administration and installed King Norodom Sihanouk independence. After military defeat in Vietnam in 1953, the French officially dissolved the Indochinese colonies, and Cambodia gained its independence on 9th November 1953.

In 1955, King Sihanouk abdicated, placed his father on the throne and fully engaged in politics. He won the election in the 1955 and ruled the country until he was deposed by Lon Nol in 1970.
For twenty years, Cambodia’s history largely revolved around Sihanouk, who in 1955 abdicated, placed his father on the throne, and fully engaged in politics. Uniting most right-wing and conservative groups under the Sangkum Party, he won the 1955 elections and continued to rule until 1970, when he was deposed by General Lon Nol.

In 1965 Sihanouk had supporting to Vietnam by allowed North Vietnamese troops to use the eastern part of the country as part of the Ho Chi Minh trail. By 1967 this had had a destabilizing effected in the region and caused American and South Vietnamese troops entered to Cambodia, accompanied by U.S. aerial bombing in the east, killing thousands of Cambodians and fueling hatred of the USA and those in government supported by them. Lon Nol, who supported the American actions faced growing resistance from Cambodia’s communist guerrilla movement, the Khmer Rouge.

By 17 April 1975 Khmer Rouge’s occupation the capital of Phnom Penh and ruled the rest part of Cambodia. The recent political history of Cambodia was shaped by the developments in neighboring Thailand and Vietnam, in addition to the destruction caused by the Khmer Rouge regime, which ruled Cambodia between 1975-1979.
The year zero, Khmer Rouge remaining the country Democratic Kampuchea by embarked of Maoist version communist theory and returned the country free from foreign interfered and stated to evacuation the people from Phnom Penh capital after a few days captured. The people were forced to return to their ancestral villages, and the destruction of the trappings of modernity ensued – cars, refrigerators, etc
After an increasing number of incursions by the Khmer Rouge into Vietnam, the Vietnamese came into Cambodia in 1979, and after instilling a government of Khmer Rouge defectors, remained until 1989. Pol Pot and the remnants of the Khmer Rouge fled to Thailand, where alongside groups allied with Prince Sihanouk and Son Sann, they received training and supported from China and the USA who aided their insurgency against the Soviet supported Vietnamese.

The People’s Republic of Cambodia, headed by Hen Samrin, struggled with famine, and went largely unrecognized by the international community. A Cold War proxy war enveloped Cambodia during the 1980’s, and it was not until Vietnam’s withdrawal in 1989, that the war ravaged and heavily land mined country began on a path to peace.

From 1989 to 1993, the country, renamed the State of Cambodia, but with largely the same leadership, began the transition to modern Cambodia. Buddhism was reinstated as the state religion, and Prince Sihanouk returned as the head of state.
Internal turmoil in the country continued in the 1980s. As a result of the negotiations carried out by the United Nations (UN), a transitional authority was established in 1991 under the UN mandate.
Named the “Kingdom of Cambodia” in 1993, the country has been governed by a constitutional monarchy since then. Current King Norodom Sihamoni acceded of his father Norodom Sihanouk to the throne instead in 2004.