Early Years
Cambodia has been in existence for about 2000 years. The first Khmer kingdom was called Funan and was located on the Mekong River delta (In what is now Vietnam). This kingdom was an important stop in the ocean trade route between India and China. Because of the monsoon seasons in this part of the world, the wind blows one way half the year, and then reverses direction. Therefore Traders would sometimes have to wait in the Funan area for several months as they waited for the winds to change so they could contiure their journey. Both Indian and Chinese traders would do business with the Khmer peoples and also introduce their own cultures and religions. Since the cultures of India and China began to influence this area so much, it later came to be known as Indochina.
Angkor
The Khmer peoples began to expend inland up the Mekong River into what is modern Cambodia. They also began to experiment with building stone temples in honor of Hindu gods. Then in 802, a man named Jajavarman II came to Cambodia and declared himself god-king. This was the founding of the Angkor kingdom. Which later became the largest and most powerful of the Khmer kingdoms. At its largest size, the Angkor Kingdom controlled all of modern Cambodia, southern Vietnam, southern Laos, and eastern Thailand. The Khmer built many large temples in honor of Hindu gods and Buddha, including Angkor Wat which is the largest religious structure in the world (nearly 2sq km).
The capital of Angkor was established near the modern city of Siem reap. At is height, the capital of Angkor was home to one million peoples (Phnom Penh now has about 1.2 million people). The Angkor capital is near the Tonle Sap Lake Which provided a great food source for the peoples. The river that fills this lake flows north during the rainy season and south during the dray season. Therefore in the flood season, the lake triples in size and my trees are submerged. This is a great place for fish to free and breed, and the Khmer use this large supply of fish as an excellent source for fish food. Also, as the lake slowly gets smaller after the floods, they can grow rice on the receding banks of the lake. Because of this, they can get three or for rice harvests each year instead of one.
The Khmer fought many wars with their neighbors, The Cham, the Thai, and the Vietnamese. The Angkor Kingdom continuously gained and lost territory, depending on how strong or weak the king was. The greatest Angkor king was named Jayavarman VII, who was crowned king in 1181. He expanded the kingdom to its largest, size and had the most temples built. The in 1431, Thai invaded the capital of Angkor, thus ending the Angkor period. After that Cambodia kings decided to move the capital to the Phnom Penh region. The kingdom of Cambodia Continued to struggle with the Thai and Vietnamese kingdoms. At times, when one of these kingdoms would invade, Cambodia would seek the other kingdom for help.
French Colony to independence
This continued until the French came to Cambodia in 1864. King Norodom I asked the French for help and Cambodia became a French protectorate. This prevented Cambodia form loosing any more territory but the French began to take control of the government. In 1941, the French crowned Norodom Sihanouk king of Cambodia. A few years later during World War II, the Japanese took control of Cambodia. Thought the Japanese were in control, the Cambodians had more influence in the government they had under the French. After the war was over, the French returned to Cambodia but the Cambodians began to demand freedom form France. In 1953, King Norodom Sihanouk took control of the government by force and demanded freedom. In 1954, Cambodia officially gained its freedom form France and King Norodom Sihanouk led the new government.
In the 1960s, the American war with Vietnam began to escalate. At the same time, the Cambodian communist movement began to grow under the leadership of Pol Pot in the northeast of the country. The Vietnamese communist troops began to travel through Cambodia to get deeper into South Vietnam. America began to bomb these troops without telling King Sihanouk. These bombings killed more Cambodian farmers then Vietnamese troops. Fearing that a America wanted to control Cambodia, King Norodom Sihanouk cut off relations with America. The American government was afraid the king would side with North Vietnam, so they helped General Lon Nol overthrow the king and take over the government of Cambodia in 1970.
Civil War
At this point, open civil war began between Lon Nol’s government and Pot Pot’s Khmer Rouge. Many people began to join the Khmer Rouge because they were unhappy with the American bombings and the new government. Also, the king had joined the communists and moved to Beijing. Many peoples loved the king and therefore joined the communists. America provided supplies, weapons, and money to the Lon Nol government. But Lon Nol was loosing the civil war and when America lost the war in Vietnam, the stopped providing Aid to Cambodia. A short time later in April 1975, the Khmer Rouge took the capital of Phnom Penh and forced everyone out of all the cities in Cambodia. Everyone was forced into farming communes in the countryside and King Sihanouk was placed under house-arrest, in his palace.
Khmer Rouge
One the Khmer Rouge was in control of the country, they began to kill anyone associated with Lon Nol’s government or his military. They also killed educated people, teachers, and doctors because they thought they had been corrupted by Western thinking. In addition, they killed religious people such as Buddhist monks and over ninety percent of the Christians. Conditions were hard; peoples had to work long days in the fields and sometimes go as little as on cup of rice each day. Therefore, starvation and diseases began to grow. By the end of the Khmer Rouge rule, as many as two million people died
(Almost one-third of the population). In December 1978, the Khmer Rouge invaded Vietnam. By January 7, 1979, Vietnamese troops had taken control of Phnom Penh and the government.
Vietnamese Control to UN Elections
After successfully invading Cambodia, Vietnam set up a new government under their control. The Khmer Rouge fled to the Thai border and continued to fight from there. Under the Khmer Rouge, there had been no money or private property but suddenly they were needed again and no one had anything. Many Cambodians began to go to refugee camps to get supplies to bring back to their families. But there were thieves and the roads were dangerous, so peoples began to move to the refugee camps. Many resistance fighter groups formed along the border to fight against the Vietnamese-controlled government. The Khmer Rouge had placed many landmines but the Vietnamese and these resistance fighter groups placed even more to prevent each other from attacking easily. Therefore, Cambodia became one of the most heavily landmined countries in the world.
In 1989, Vietnam backed out of Cambodia for financial reason. Then the resistance fighter groups along the border began to fight each other for control of the government. At the end of 1990, The United Nations (UN) had these fighting groups sing a treaty promising to stop fighting and work together to form a new government. All the groups singe, but the Khmer Rouge baked out the agreement and continued fighting. In 1993, the UN elections were held and the royalist party, FUCINPEC, won the election. But Hun Sen, leader of the Cambodian People’s Party and prime minister during the Vietnamese era, demanded to be in control of the new government, Therefore, Prince Norodom Ranariddh of FUCINPEC and Hun Sen CPP were declared Co-prime ministers. The UN ended their responsibility. In 1993, King Norodom Sihanouk regained his throne.
On to Stability and Growth
Four years later in 1979, Hun Sen performed a coup to take away the title of prime minister from Prince Norodom Ranriddh, making Hun Sen the highest leader of Cambodia. Also, Pot Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge, died of natural causes in 1997. He had never been officially tried for his crimes. Elections for prime mister occur every five years in Cambodia so elections were held again in 1998. This Hun Sen won the elections, but some argued about the results and there was some fighting as a result. During 1998, the Khmer Rouge officially disbanded as a political and military force and ended its fighting against the Cambodian government. Therefore, 1999 was the first year of peace since 1969.
Since this time of stability has begun, many efforts have been made to rebuild the infrastructure of Cambodia. Elections were held again in 2003 and Hun sen won the election again. This time the elections were peaceful. So the current government is ruled by the CPP party in coalition with FUNCINPEC. In 2004, King Norodom Sihanouk stepped down from the throne and gave the kingship over to his son, King Norodom Sihamoni.
Christianity in Cambodia
The first protestant Christian missionaries came to Cambodian in 1923. Christianity grew dramatically just before the Khmer Rouge, but then msot of the Christians were killed. In 1989, there was estimated to e 300 Christians. Now there are more than 200,000.