Cambodian History: Best Way To Kick Off a Friday Morning

So...let's talk Cambodia.  Officially, that's the Kingdom of Cambodia.  You can see its present-day neighbors below:

Image from the US Dept of State website

The capital is Phnom Penh, but we spent our time in Siem Reap (Siemreab, above). The whole country is about 70,000 square miles in area.


[Incidentally, I just did a Google search to find a US State that is similarly sized, for perspective.  The closest one? North Dakota.  No offense to North Dakota, but since many people probably consider it to be "one of those squares in the middle", this comparison is minimally helpful.  So how about Washington State (~71,000 square miles)?]  The population is ~15 million (for comparison, that's more than Illinois, but less than Florida).

On our first day here, we were on our own, without a tourguide.  Kee-Min and I had been so busy planning, preparing, and reading up on Europe that Cambodia had sort of fallen by the wayside.  So we were glad that a quick visit to the Angkor National Museum was in order. 


[Insert rant about the NJ/HPRHS social studies curriculum: 2 yrs of US history, 1 yr of US government, and 1 yr of World History.  Proportionately, there are so many things wrong with this picture.  This trip is teaching me that my World History knowledge sucks.  On the plus side, I'm working on fixing it!]

Wait a minute. Rewind. Who am I kidding?  A quick museum visit? Ha. "Quick" and "museum visit" are hardly in my vocabulary.  In fact, I think there's something in the marriage vows about tolerating your spouse's tortoise-like museum habits.  But we were with a larger group of family, and so we compromised on 2+ hrs.  Worked for me.

Now, in an attempt to keep things interesting, I will confine my Cambodian history to five eight points.  And all you readers from the US (yep, that's most of you), I know your Asian history is abominable. So read on, I promise this won't hurt (much): 

1.) 200 - 800 AD: The area of Southeast Asia that now includes Cambodia was populated by the Kingdom of Funan and the Chenla Kingdom.  The ethnic background of these peoples remains uncertain, but was probably a mixture of Chinese, Oceanic, and Indian.


2.) 800 - 1400: These people came together to form the Khmer (khu-mie) Empire.  At the time, it was the largest in Southeast Asia, occupying parts of present-day Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma, and Malaysia.  The center of the empire became known as Angkor, and may have been as large as 1,000 square miles and inhabited by over 1 million people.  One of the greatest kings of the empire was Suryavarman II, who united much of the region during the 12th century and oversaw the construction of Angkor Wat temple complex during his 37 year rule.  We'll return (literally and figuratively) to Angkor Wat in a day or two.


3.) 1400 - 1863: The Khmer Empire engaged in protracted wars with their neighbors, ultimately surrendering significant amounts of land to the Siamese (now Thailand) and Vietnamese.  Naturally, the economy and infrastructure of the Empire suffered.


4.) 1863 - 1953: In 1863, the King of Cambodia signed a treaty to make Cambodia a protectorate of France.  France "protected" it all right, installing Kings they felt would be easy to control.  They misjudged the last one, however, and Cambodia gained independence again in 1953.

A-ha! I caught you!  You were scrolling down to find the photos.
Just like you did in history class a whole bunch of years ago. *SIGH*
Now, go back up and read Points 1-4.
Gooooood.  Now, please, carry on.

5.) 1965 - 1975: As the Vietnam war raged, the (Cambodian) King Sihanouk maintained an official stance of neutrality, but looked the other way as the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong used Cambodia as their base.  When the King (under US pressure) officially announced the Communists were no longer welcome in the country, the US took the opportunity to launch a massive bombing campaign along the Cambodian/Vietnam border.  Ultimately, the US dropped 2-3 million tons of bombs in Cambodia between 1965 and 1973 in an assault against the Viet Cong and Khmer Rouge (Communist Party of Kampuchea, or Cambodia).  In the meantime, Cambodia dissolved into civil war, as the monarchy was overthrown by the armed forces, and this new government battled both the Khmer Rouge and North Vietnamese/Viet Cong.  2 million Cambodians became war refugees.


6.) 1975 - 1979: In 1975, the Khmer Rouge reached the capital (Phnom Penh) and seized control.  Their attempts at Communist self-sufficiency resulted in failed agricultural ventures and eschewing of anything (including modern medicine) not produced in Cambodia.  Genocide, work camps, illness and starvation ultimately led to a tremendous number of deaths, estimated at 1-3 million (starting population ~7 million).


7.) 1979 - 1990: Border disputes between Vietnam (backed by the Soviet Union) and Cambodia (backed by China) ultimately led to the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia.  Nothing unifies like a common enemy, and both the Khmer Rouge and the King's supporters fought the Vietnamese, who occupied the region for more than 10 years.  Anti-Vietnamese sentiment spread, and in ~1987, the withdrawal of Vietnamese troops began.


8.) With UN intervention, a Peace Settlement was finally negotiated in 1990.  This settlement: provided for withdrawal of remaining Vietnamese troops, prevented the Khmer Rouge from returning to power, and asserted the right of self-determination for the Cambodian people.


Since then, the road has not been easy.  The UN has tried to mediate repatriation and the political transition to a constitutional monarchy.  But wounds don't heal overnight.  Border relations with Thailand remain tense.  After so many years of bitter division and war, the road to recovery is long and slow.  Poor infrastructure, low education, and corruption remain as serious impediments to Cambodia's maturation.  However, progress is being made - in the last 10 years, Cambodia's economy has expanded 8%, driven mostly by the tourism industry.  Where it goes over the next ten...well, that remains to be seen.


*whew*  Congrats.  That was quite a post.  And I'll admit - I learned only Points 1-3 at the museum.  I learned the rest from our tourguide and the internet.  I've taken some liberties to simplify and condense some aspects, but did my best to be as accurate as possible to present Cambodia: Condensed.  Hopefully, this gives you a decent perspective on how, why, and where Cambodia stands today.


[And you thought I only blogged intensively about the Biology-related aspects of our trip.  How wrong you were...]


Now, before I sign off for the night, I'll leave you with a few fun transportation photos.  This is how we got from the museum to our next stop (the market).

This was not the tuk-tuk we rode.  Still pretty awesome, eh?
Nowadays, they're all pulled by motorcycles.

Mom, Stanley, Me, Kee-Min - all squeezed into half a tuk-tuk.
Good thing we're skinny!!