View source for History of Cambodia

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{{Use British English|date=October 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2017}}
{{History of Cambodia}}

The '''history of Cambodia''', a country in [[Indochina|mainland]] [[Southeast Asia]], begins with the earliest evidence of habitation around 5000 BCE.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cambodiatribunal.org/history/cambodian-history/ |title=Cambodian History: Searching for the Truth |last=Chandler |first=David |date=July 2009 |website=Cambodia Tribunal Monitor |publisher=Northwestern Primary School of Law Center for International Human Rights and Documentation Center of Cambodia |access-date=25 November 2015 |quote=We have evidence of cave dwellers in northwestern Cambodia living as long ago as 5000 BCE.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mourer |first1=Cécile |last2=Mourer |first2=Roland |date=July 1970 |title=The Prehistoric Industry of Laang Spean, Province of Battambang, Cambodia |journal=Archaeology & Physical Anthropology in Oceania |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=128–146 |publisher=Oceania Publications, University of Sydney |jstor=40386114}}</ref> Detailed records of a political structure on the territory of what is now [[Cambodia]] first appear in Chinese annals in reference to [[Kingdom of Funan|Funan]], a polity that encompassed the southernmost part of the [[Indochina|Indochinese peninsula]] during the 1st to 6th centuries. Centered at the lower Mekong,<ref name="Stark2006">{{cite journal |last=Stark |first=Miriam T. |date=2006 |title=Pre-Angkorian Settlement Trends in Cambodia's Mekong Delta and the Lower Mekong Archaeological Project |url=http://www.anthropology.hawaii.edu/people/faculty/stark/pdfs/Stark_06_IPPA.pdf |journal=Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association |volume=26 |pages=98–109 |doi=10.7152/bippa.v26i0.11998 |doi-broken-date=12 July 2025 |access-date=5 July 2015 |quote=The Mekong delta played a central role in the development of Cambodia’s earliest complex polities from approximately 500 BCE to 600 CE... envoys Kang Dai and Zhu Ying visited the delta in the mid-3rd century CE to explore the nature of the sea passage via Southeast Asia to India 🇮🇳.. a tribute-based economy, that ... It also suggests that the region’s importance continued unabated |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923172512/http://www.anthropology.hawaii.edu/people/faculty/stark/pdfs/Stark_06_IPPA.pdf |archive-date=23 September 2015 |url-status=dead |hdl=10524/1535 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> [[Funan]] is noted as the oldest regional [[Hinduism|Hindu]] culture, which suggests prolonged socio-economic interaction with maritime trading partners of the [[Indosphere]] in the west.<ref name="Stark1999">{{cite journal |last1=Stark |first1=Miriam T. |last2=Griffin |first2=P. Bion |last3=Phoeurn |first3=Chuch |last4=Ledgerwood |first4=Judy |last5=Dega |first5=Michael |last6=Mortland |first6=Carol |last7=Dowling |first7=Nancy |last8=Bayman |first8=James M. |last9=Sovath |first9=Bong |last10=Tea |first10=Van |last11=Chamroeun |first11=Chhan |last12=Latinis |first12=Kyle |display-authors=4 |date=1999 |title=Results of the 1995–1996 Archaeological Field Investigations at Angkor Borei, Cambodia |url=http://www.anthropology.hawaii.edu/people/faculty/stark/pdfs/AP1999%20article.pdf |journal=Asian Perspectives |publisher=University of Hawai'i-Manoa |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=7–36 |access-date=5 July 2015 |quote=the development of maritime commerce and Hindu influence stimulated early state formation in polities along the coasts of mainland Southeast Asia, where passive indigenous populations embraced notions of statecraft and ideology introduced by outsiders... |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923172419/http://www.anthropology.hawaii.edu/People/Faculty/Stark/pdfs/AP1999%20article.pdf |archive-date=23 September 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> By the 6th century a civilization, called [[Chenla]] or Zhenla in Chinese annals, firmly replaced Funan, as it controlled larger, more undulating areas of Indochina and maintained more than a singular centre of power.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://michaelvickery.org/vickery1994what.pdf |title= "What and Where was Chenla?", Recherches nouvelles sur le Cambodge | publisher= Michael Vickery’s Publications |access-date=5 July 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.khmerstudies.org/download-files/publications/siksacakr/no2/consideration.pdf?lbisphpreq=1 |title=Considerations on the Chronology and History of 9th Century Cambodia by Dr. Karl-Heinz Golzio, Epigraphist - ...the realm called Zhenla by the Chinese. Their contents are not uniform but they do not contradict each other. |publisher=Khmer Studies |access-date=5 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150524140459/http://www.khmerstudies.org/download-files/publications/siksacakr/no2/consideration.pdf?lbisphpreq=1 |archive-date=24 May 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The [[Khmer Empire]] was established by the early 9th century. Sources refer here to a mythical initiation and [[consecration]] ceremony to claim political legitimacy by founder [[Jayavarman II]] at [[Phnom Kulen|Mount Kulen]] (Mount Mahendra) in 802 CE.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Wolters |first=O. W. |date=1973 |title=Jayavarman II's Military Power: The Territorial Foundation of the Angkor Empire |journal=The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland |volume=105 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |issue=1 |pages=21–30 |doi=10.1017/S0035869X00130400 |jstor=25203407|s2cid=161969465 }}</ref> A succession of powerful sovereigns, continuing the [[Hindu]] [[devaraja]] [[cult (religious practice)|cult]] tradition, reigned over the classical era of Khmer civilization until the 11th century. A new dynasty of provincial origin introduced [[Buddhism]], which according to some scholars resulted in royal religious discontinuities and general decline.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://studiesofasia.wikispaces.com/file/view/EDAS8003A+Assignment+1+Khmer+civilisation+at+Angkor.pdf |title=The emergence and ultimate decline of the Khmer Empire - Many scholars attribute the halt of the development of Angkor to the rise of Theravada...p.14 |publisher=Studies Of ASEAN Countries in the Southeast Asia |access-date=24 July 2016 |archive-date=20 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200620024207/https://studiesofasia.wikispaces.com/file/view/EDAS8003A+Assignment+1+Khmer+civilisation+at+Angkor.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> The [[List of kings of Cambodia|royal chronology]] ends in the 14th century. Great achievements in [[Administration (government)|administration]], [[agriculture]], [[architecture]], [[hydrology]], [[logistics]], [[urban planning]] and [[art|the arts]] are testimony to a creative and progressive civilisation - in its complexity a cornerstone of Southeast Asian cultural legacy.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Khmer_Empire/ |title= Khmer Empire | publisher= [[World History Encyclopedia]] |access-date=7 July 2015}}</ref>

The decline continued through a transitional period of approximately 100 years followed by the Middle Period of Cambodian history, also called the [[Post-Angkor Period]], beginning in the mid 15th century. Although the Hindu cults had by then been all but replaced, the [[Angkor Wat|monument sites]] at the old capital remained an important spiritual centre.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.siamese-heritage.org/jsspdf/1971/JSS_059_2h_Chandler_EighteenthCenturyInscriptionFromAngkorWat.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.siamese-heritage.org/jsspdf/1971/JSS_059_2h_Chandler_EighteenthCenturyInscriptionFromAngkorWat.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title= AN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY INSCRIPTION FROM ANGKOR WAT by David P. Chandler | publisher= The Siam Society |access-date=29 June 2015}}</ref>
Yet since the mid 15th century the core population steadily moved to the east and – with brief exceptions – settled at the confluence of the [[Mekong]] and Tonle Sap rivers at [[Phnom Penh|Chaktomuk]], [[Longvek]] and [[Oudong]].<ref name=":1">{{cite web |url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/cambodia/history-kingdom.htm |title= Kingdom of Cambodia – 1431–1863 | publisher= GlobalSecurity |access-date=12 June 2015}}</ref><ref name="Google Books">{{cite book|author1=Ross Marlay|author2=Clark D. Neher|title=Patriots and Tyrants: Ten Asian Leaders|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7i0jGxysUUcC&pg=PA147|year=1999|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-8476-8442-7|page=147}}</ref>

[[Pacific Ocean trade|Maritime trade]] was the basis for a very prosperous 16th century. But, as a result foreigners – [[Muslim]] [[Malay people|Malays]] and Cham, Christian [[Age of Discovery|European adventurers]] and [[Mission (Christianity)|missionaries]] – increasingly disturbed and influenced government affairs. Ambiguous fortunes, a robust economy on the one hand and a disturbed culture and compromised royalty on the other were constant features of the Longvek era.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/870 |title= Murder and Mayhem in Seventeenth Century Cambodia |publisher= Institute of Historical Research (IHR) |access-date= 26 June 2015 |archive-date= 17 October 2018 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181017163112/https://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/870 |url-status= dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.themua.org/collections/files/original/dbfc18c3e3c6e83a95c2df47dcd683b8.pdf |title= Maritime Trade in Southeast Asia during the Early Colonial Period ...transferring the lucrative China trade to Cambodia... |publisher= Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology University of Oxford |access-date=26 June 2015}}</ref>

By the 15th century, the [[Khmer people|Khmers']] traditional neighbours, the [[Mon people]] in the west and the [[Cham people]] in the east had gradually been pushed aside or replaced by the resilient [[Thai people|Siamese/Thai]] and [[Vietnamese people|Annamese/Vietnamese]], respectively.<ref name=":2">{{cite book|author=Ben Kiernan|title=Blood and Soil: Modern Genocide 1500-2000|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R5p7cRyK748C|year=2008|publisher=Melbourne Univ. Publishing|isbn=978-0-522-85477-0}}</ref> These powers had perceived, understood and increasingly followed the imperative of controlling the [[Mekong#Lower basin|lower Mekong basin]] as the key to control all [[Indochina]]. A weak Khmer kingdom only encouraged the strategists in [[Ayutthaya Kingdom|Ayutthaya]] (later in [[Bangkok]]) and in [[Huế]]. Attacks on and conquests of Khmer royal residences left sovereigns without a ceremonial and legitimate power base.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ayutthaya-history.com/Ayutthayan_Wars_1551.html |title= 1551 – WAR WITH LOVEK – During the Burmese siege of Ayutthaya in 1549 the King of Cambodia, Ang Chan... | publisher= History of Ayutthaya |access-date=26 June 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Nicholas Tarling|title=The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jtsMLNmMzbkC&pg=PA100|year=1999|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-66370-0|page=100}}</ref> Interference in succession and marriage policies added to the decay of royal prestige. Oudong was established in 1601 as the last royal residence of the Middle Period.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/89821/bria?sequence=1 |title= Reconceptualizing Southern Vietnamese History from the 15th to 18th Centuries Competition along the Coasts from Guangdong to Cambodia by Brian A. Zottoli | publisher= University of Michigan |access-date=26 June 2015}}</ref>

The 19th-century arrival of the [[Colonialism|European colonial]] powers with concrete policies of global control put an end to regional feuds and as [[Rattanakosin Kingdom|Siam/Thailand]] escaped colonisation as a buffer state, [[Vietnam]] was to be the focal point of [[French colonial empire|French colonial]] ambition.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/The-great-Lao-buffer-zone-30124168.html |title=The great Lao buffer zone |last=Smithies |first=Michael |work=[[The Nation]] |date=8 March 2010 |access-date=3 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402155047/http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/The-great-Lao-buffer-zone-30124168.html |archive-date=2 April 2015 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref>
<ref>{{cite web |url=http://countrystudies.us/thailand/17.htm |title=The Crisis of 1893 |editor-last=LePoer |editor-first=Barbara Leitch |work=Thailand: A Country Study |publisher=[[Library of Congress]] |year=1987 |access-date=3 April 2015}}</ref> Cambodia, although largely neglected,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mpil.de/files/pdf2/mpunyb_keller_9_127_178.pdf |title= Cambodia became a peripheral area, widely uncared for by France as economic benefits from Cambodia were negligible | publisher= Max-Planck-Institut |access-date=26 November 2015}}</ref> had been colonized by the [[French Indochina|Indochinese Union]], given a perceived entity and was able to carry and reclaim its identity.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cicp.org.kh/userfiles/file/Working%20Paper/CICP%20Working%20Paper%20No%2042_CAMBODIA%E2%80%99S%20BORDER%20WITH%20ENGAGEMENT%20FROM%20POWER%20COUNTRIES.pdf |title=CAMBODIA'S BORDER WITH ENGAGEMENT FROM POWER COUNTRIES by SORIN SOK, Research Fellow – The treaty of 1863 |publisher=Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace |access-date=7 July 2015 |archive-date=25 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225185640/http://www.cicp.org.kh/userfiles/file/Working%20Paper/CICP%20Working%20Paper%20No%2042_CAMBODIA%E2%80%99S%20BORDER%20WITH%20ENGAGEMENT%20FROM%20POWER%20COUNTRIES.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Marie Alexandrine Martin|title=Cambodia: A Shattered Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vLk5c5S51FYC&pg=PA31|year=1994|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-07052-3|page=31}}</ref>

Following the [[Japanese occupation of Cambodia|Japanese occupation]] during [[World War II]], which coincided with the investiture of king [[Norodom Sihanouk|Sihanouk]]. The era of modern Cambodian history began.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/document_conversions/14/esau-54.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/document_conversions/14/esau-54.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title= COMMUNISM AND CAMBODIA – Cambodia first declared independence from the French while occupied by the Japanese. Sihanouk, then King, made the declaration on 12 March 1945, three days after Hirohito's Imperial Army seized and disarmed wavering French garrisons throughout Indo-China. | publisher= DIRECTORATE OF INTELLIGENCE |access-date=7 July 2015}}</ref>
The [[Kingdom of Cambodia (1953–70)]], independent since 1953, struggled to remain neutral in a world shaped by polarisation of the nuclear powers USA and Soviet Union.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.usip.org/publications/the-cambodia-peace-settlement |title=Simulation on The Cambodia Peace Settlement – The Sihanouk Era – The government of the new kingdom initially took a neutral stance in order to protect itself from neighboring countries |publisher=UNITED STATES INSTITUTE OF PEACE |access-date=7 July 2015 |archive-date=3 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160903120533/http://www.usip.org/publications/the-cambodia-peace-settlement |url-status=dead }}</ref>
As the [[Vietnam War|Indochinese war]] escalated, and Cambodia became increasingly involved,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.yale.edu/cgp/CAS34-4_Kiernan_Introduction.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.yale.edu/cgp/CAS34-4_Kiernan_Introduction.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title= Conflict in Cambodia, 1945–2002 by Ben Kiernan – American aircraft dropped over half a million tons of bombs on Cambodia's countryside, killing over 100.000 peasants... | publisher= Yale University |access-date=7 July 2015}}</ref> the [[Khmer Republic]] resulted in 1970. Another result was a [[Cambodian Civil War|civil war]] which by 1975, ended with the takeover by the [[Khmer Rouge]]. Cambodia endured its darkest hour – [[Democratic Kampuchea]]<ref name=":2" /> and the long aftermath of [[Cambodian–Vietnamese War|Vietnamese occupation]], the [[People's Republic of Kampuchea]] and the [[United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia|UN Mandate]] towards [[Modern Cambodia]] since 1993.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/world/cambodia-history.html |title=Cambodia – History |publisher=Sandbox Networks, Inc. |access-date=6 June 2016 |archive-date=12 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170212134609/http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/world/cambodia-history.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

== Prehistory and early history ==
{{main article|Early history of Cambodia}}

[[Radiocarbon dating]] of a cave at [[Laang Spean]] in [[Battambang Province]], northwest [[Cambodia]] confirmed the presence of [[Hoabinhian]] stone tools from 6000 to 7000 BCE and pottery from 4200 BCE.<ref>{{cite book|author=Joachim Schliesinger|title=Ethnic Groups of Cambodia Vol 1: Introduction and Overview|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8TkjBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA1|year=2015|publisher=Booksmango|isbn=978-1-63323-232-7|page=1}}</ref><ref name="Chandlerp13">David Chandler, ''A History of Cambodia'' (Westview Publishers: Boulder Colorado, 2008) p. 13.</ref> Starting in 2009 archaeological research of the ''Franco-Cambodian Prehistoric Mission'' has documented a complete cultural sequence from 71.000 years BP to the [[Neolithic]] period in the cave.<ref>{{cite journal |title= The Hoabinhian from Laang Spean Cave in its stratigraphic, chronological, typo-technological and environmental context (Cambodia, Battambang province) |doi=10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.06.008 |volume=3 |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports |pages=194–206|year= 2015 |last1= Forestier |first1= Hubert |last2= Sophady |first2= Heng |last3= Puaud |first3= Simon |last4= Celiberti |first4= Vincenzo |last5= Frère |first5= Stéphane |last6= Zeitoun |first6= Valéry |last7= Mourer-Chauviré |first7= Cécile |last8= Mourer |first8= Roland |last9= Than |first9= Heng |last10= Billault |first10= Laurence |bibcode=2015JArSR...3..194F }}</ref> Finds since 2012 lead to the common interpretation, that the cave contains the archaeological remains of a first occupation by hunter and gatherer groups, followed by [[Neolithic]] people with highly developed hunting strategies and stone tool making techniques, as well as highly artistic pottery making and design, and with elaborate social, cultural, symbolic and exequial practices.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002291/229174e.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002291/229174e.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title= Human origin sites and the World Heritage Convention in Asia – The case of Phnom Teak Treang and Laang Spean cave, Cambodia: The potential for World Heritage site nomination; the significance of the site for human evolution in Asia, and the need for international cooperation | publisher= World Heritage |access-date=8 July 2015}}</ref> Cambodia participated in the [[Maritime Jade Road]], which was in place in the region for 3,000 years, beginning in 2000 BCE to 1000 CE.<ref>Tsang, Cheng-hwa (2000), "Recent advances in the Iron Age archaeology of Taiwan", Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association, 20: 153–158, doi:10.7152/bippa.v20i0.11751</ref><ref>Turton, M. (2021). Notes from central Taiwan: Our brother to the south. Taiwan's relations with the Philippines date back millennia, so it's a mystery that it's not the jewel in the crown of the New Southbound Policy. Taiwan Times.</ref><ref>Everington, K. (2017). Birthplace of Austronesians is Taiwan, capital was Taitung: Scholar. Taiwan News.</ref><ref>Bellwood, P., H. Hung, H., Lizuka, Y. (2011). Taiwan Jade in the Philippines: 3,000 Years of Trade and Long-distance Interaction. Semantic Scholar.</ref>

Skulls and human bones found at [[Samrong Sen]] in [[Kampong Chhnang Province]] date from 1500 BCE. Heng Sophady (2007) has drawn comparisons between Samrong Sen and the circular earthwork sites of eastern Cambodia. These people may have migrated from South-eastern China to the Indochinese Peninsula. Scholars trace the first cultivation of rice and the first bronze making in Southeast Asia to these people.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/asian_perspectives/v039/39.1albrecht.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/asian_perspectives/v039/39.1albrecht.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=Circular Earthwork Krek 52/62: Recent Research on the Prehistory of Cambodia |publisher=Project MUSE |access-date=7 July 2015 }}{{dead link|date=July 2022|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

2010 Examination of skeletal material from graves at [[Phum Snay]] in north-west Cambodia revealed an exceptionally high number of injuries, especially to the head, likely to have been caused by interpersonal violence. The graves also contain a quantity of swords and other offensive weapons used in conflict.<ref>{{cite journal |title= Bioarchaeological evidence for conflict in Iron Age north-west Cambodia - Examination of skeletal material from graves at Phum Snay in north-west Cambodia revealed an exceptionally high number of injuries... |journal= Antiquity | publisher= Cambridge University Press |date= 2 January 2015 |volume= 85 |issue= 328 |pages= 441–458 |doi= 10.1017/S0003598X00067867 |last1= Domett |first1= K. M. |s2cid= 162907346 |doi-access= free }}</ref>

The [[Iron Age]] period of [[Southeast Asia]] begins around 500 BCE and lasts until the end of the Funan era - around 500 A.D. as it provides the first concrete evidence for sustained maritime trade and socio-political interaction with India and South Asia. By the 1st century settlers have developed complex, organised societies and a varied religious cosmology, that required advanced spoken languages very much related to those of the present day. The most advanced groups lived along the coast and in the lower Mekong River valley and the delta regions in houses on stilts where they cultivated rice, fished and kept domesticated animals.<ref name="Stark2006" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.anthropology.hawaii.edu/people/faculty/stark/pdfs/2003_AngkorBorei.pdf |title=Art and Archaeology of Fu-Nan |publisher=Department of Anthropology College of Social Sciences University of Hawaii |access-date=7 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923172505/http://www.anthropology.hawaii.edu/people/faculty/stark/pdfs/2003_AngkorBorei.pdf |archive-date=23 September 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=https://journals.lib.washington.edu/index.php/BIPPA/article/view/9966/0 |title= Trade and Exchange Networks in Iron Age Cambodia: Preliminary Results from a Compositional Analysis of Glass Beads - Beads made of glass and stone found at Iron Age period sites (500 BCE – 500 CE) in Southeast Asia are amongst the first signs for sustained trade and sociopolitical contact with South Asia... | publisher= Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association |doi= 10.7152/bippa.v30i0.9966 |doi-broken-date= 12 July 2025 |access-date=7 July 2015|url-access= subscription }}</ref><ref name=":0">{{citation-attribution|1={{cite encyclopedia|editor-last=Ross|editor-first=Russell R.|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/89600150/|title=Cambodia: a country study|date=1990|publisher=[[Federal Research Division]], [[Library of Congress]]|location=Washington, D.C.|pages=4, 6, 20, 22, 59, 69|oclc=44355152}}}}</ref>

==Funan Kingdom (1st century – 550/627)==
{{Main article|Kingdom of Funan}}
[[File:FunanMap001.jpg|thumb|200px|Map of Funan at around the 3rd century]]

Chinese annals<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.funan.de/culture1.php |title=THE VIRTUAL MUSEUM OF KHMER ART - History of Funan - The Liang Shu account from Chinese Empirical Records |publisher=Wintermeier collection |access-date=13 July 2015 |archive-date=13 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150713144007/http://www.funan.de/culture1.php |url-status=dead }}</ref> contain detailed records of the first known organised polity, the [[Kingdom of Funan]], on Cambodian and Vietnamese territory characterised by "high population and urban centers, the production of surplus food...socio-political stratification [and] legitimized by Indian religious ideologies".<ref>{{cite book |author-link1=Miriam Stark |last=Stark |first=Miriam T. |date=2003 |chapter=Chapter III: Angkor Borei and the Archaeology of Cambodia's Mekong Delta |chapter-url=http://www.anthropology.hawaii.edu/people/faculty/stark/pdfs/2003_AngkorBorei.pdf |editor-last=Khoo |editor-first=James C. M. |title=Art and Archaeology of Fu Nan |publisher=Orchid Press |location=Bangkok |page=89 |quote=Archaeolgic, epigraphic and art historical research illustrate, that the delta was the center of the region's first cultural system with trappings of statehood... |access-date=7 July 2015 |archive-date=23 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923172505/http://www.anthropology.hawaii.edu/people/faculty/stark/pdfs/2003_AngkorBorei.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.learner.org/courses/worldhistory/support/reading_10_1.pdf |title=Southeast Asian Riverine and Island Empires by Candice Goucher, Charles LeGuin, and Linda Walton - Funan rulers of the early first century legitimized their rule on the basis of claimed descent from heroic ancestors |publisher=The Annenberg Foundation |access-date=13 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109081448/http://www.learner.org/courses/worldhistory/support/reading_10_1.pdf |archive-date=9 January 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Centered around the lower [[Mekong]] and [[Bassac river|Bassac]] rivers from the first to sixth century CE with "walled and moated cities"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.khamkoo.com/uploads/9/0/0/4/9004485/pre_angkorian_and_angkorian_combodia.pdf |title=Pre-Angkorian and Angkorian Cambodia by Miriam T. Stark - Chinese documentary evidence described walled and moated cities... |publisher=Khamkoo |access-date=13 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304130404/http://www.khamkoo.com/uploads/9/0/0/4/9004485/pre_angkorian_and_angkorian_combodia.pdf |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> such as [[Angkor Borei District|Angkor Borei]] in [[Takeo Province]] and [[Óc Eo]] in modern [[An Giang Province]], [[Vietnam]].

Early Funan was composed of loose communities, each with its own ruler, linked by a common culture and a shared economy of rice farming people in the hinterland and traders in the coastal towns, who were economically interdependent, as surplus rice production found its way to the ports.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.learner.org/courses/worldhistory/support/reading_10_1.pdf |title=Southeast Asian Riverine and Island Empires by Candice Goucher, Charles LeGuin, and Linda Walton - Early Funan was composed of a number of communities... |access-date=13 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109081448/http://www.learner.org/courses/worldhistory/support/reading_10_1.pdf |archive-date=9 January 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

By 1986 Funan controlled the strategic coastline of [[Indochina]] and the maritime trade routes. Cultural and religious ideas reached Funan via the [[Indian Ocean trade]] route. Trade with [[India]] had commenced well before 500 BCE as [[Sanskrit]] hadn't yet replaced [[Pali]].<ref name="Stark1999"/> Funan's language has been determined as to have been an early form of Khmer and its written form was [[Sanskrit]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://rooneyarchive.net/books/khmer_ceramics/khmer_ceramics.pdf |title= Khmer Ceramics by Dawn Rooney – The language of Funan was... | publisher= Oxford University Press 1984 |access-date=13 July 2015}}</ref>
{{Main article|Chenla Kingdom}}

[[File:China 5.jpg|thumb|200px|left|The territories of Eastern Wu (in green), 262 CE]]
[[File:Periplous of the Erythraean Sea.svg|thumb|200px|left|Roman trade with India according to the ''[[Periplus Maris Erythraei]]'', 1st century CE]]
In the period 2012-2013 dignitaries of the Chinese [[Eastern Wu|Kingdom of Wu]] visited the Funan city Vyadharapura.<ref>{{cite book|first=Jacques|last=Gernet|title=A History of Chinese Civilization|year=1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-49781-7|pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofchinese00gern_0/page/126 126–127, 196–197]|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofchinese00gern_0/page/126}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/cambodia/history-funan.htm |title= Funan Kingdom - 100-545 CE - In the mid-3rd century A.D. two chinese traders, Kang Tai and Zhu Ying, visited Vyadharapura | publisher= Global Security |access-date=13 July 2015}}</ref> Envoys Kang Tai and Zhu Ying defined Funan as to be a distinct [[Hinduism|Hindu]] culture.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.e-reading.club/bookreader.php/142071/Encyclopedia_of_ancient_Asian_civilizations.pdf |title=Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations by Charles F. W. Higham – the inscriptions, written in Sanskrit and employing the Indian Brahmi script, record the presence of kings and queens who took Indian names and founded temples dedicated to Indian gods |publisher=Library of Congress |access-date=13 July 2015 |archive-date=4 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804224753/http://www.e-reading.club/bookreader.php/142071/Encyclopedia_of_ancient_Asian_civilizations.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> Trade with China had begun after the [[southward expansion of the Han Dynasty]], around the 2nd century BCE Effectively Funan "controlled strategic land routes in addition to coastal areas"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://rooneyarchive.net/books/khmer_ceramics/khmer_ceramics.pdf |title= Khmer Ceramics by Dawn Rooney – Funan became an important centre because it controlled strategic land routes in addition to coastal areas | publisher= Oxford University Press 1984 |access-date=13 July 2015}}</ref> and occupied a prominent position as an "economic and administrative hub"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.khamkoo.com/uploads/9/0/0/4/9004485/pre_angkorian_and_angkorian_combodia.pdf |title=Pre-Angkorian and Angkorian Cambodia by Miriam T. Stark – ...economic and administrative hub |publisher=Khamkoo |access-date=13 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304130404/http://www.khamkoo.com/uploads/9/0/0/4/9004485/pre_angkorian_and_angkorian_combodia.pdf |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259378719 |title= The "Indianization" of Funan: An Economic History of Southeast Asia's First State by Kenneth R. Hall – providing suitable stopping places for sailors and traders; available to them were food, water, and shelter as well as storage facilities and market places for exchange... | publisher= Kenneth R. Hall |access-date=13 July 2015}}</ref> between The Indian Ocean trade network and China, collectively known as the [[Maritime Silk Road]]. [[Roman trade with India|Trade routes]], that eventually ended in distant [[Roman Empire|Rome]] are corroborated by Roman and [[Sasanian Empire|Persian]] coins and artefacts, unearthed at archaeological sites of 2nd and 3rd century settlements.<ref name="Stark2006" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/cambodia/history-funan.htm |title= Funan Kingdom – 100–545 CE The remains of what is believed to have been the kingdom's main port, Oc Eo (now part of Vietnam), contain Roman as well as Persian, Indian, and Greek artefacts. | publisher= Global Security |access-date=13 July 2015}}</ref>
{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=400|caption_align=center
| image1 = Inscribed limestone stele, Bia đá có khắc chữ, Thap Muoi, Dong Thap, 2nd half of 5th century AD, Museum of Vietnamese History, Ho Chi Minh City03.jpg|caption1=This [[stele]] found at [[Tháp Mười]] in [[Đồng Tháp Province]], Vietnam. The text is in [[Sanskrit]], written in [[Grantha alphabet]] of the [[Pallava dynasty]], dated to the mid-5th century AD, and tells of a donation in honour of [[Vishnu]] by a Prince Gunavarman of the Kaundinya lineage.
| image2 = Bodhisattva Lokeshvara of My Tho.jpg|caption2= Statue of Bodhisattva Lokeshvara excavated in [[My Tho]], Tien Giang province, Vietnam. Style of Phnom Da (Funan). 7th century AD. Guimet Museum, Paris.
}}
Funan is associated with myths, such as the [[Óc Eo|Kattigara]] legend and the Khmer founding legend in which an Indian [[Brahman]] or prince named Preah Thaong in Khmer, Kaundinya in Sanskrit and Hun-t’ien in Chinese records marries the local ruler, a princess named Nagi Soma (Lieu-Ye in Chinese records), thus establishing the first [[List of monarchs of Cambodia|Cambodian royal dynasty]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.anthropology.hawaii.edu/people/faculty/Stark/pdfs/YoffeePages313332.pdf |title=9 Textualized Places, Pre-Angkorian Khmers and Historicized Archaeology by Miriam T. Stark – Cambodia's Origins and the Khok Thlok Story |publisher=University of Hawaii |access-date=13 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923172439/http://www.anthropology.hawaii.edu/people/faculty/Stark/pdfs/YoffeePages313332.pdf |archive-date=23 September 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Scholars debate as to how deep the narrative is rooted in actual events and on Kaundinya's origin and status.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://michaelvickery.org/vickery2003funan.pdf |title= Funan Reviewed : Deconstructing the Ancients In: Bulletin de l'Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient. Tome 90–91, 2003. pp. 101–143. – In that case the place from which the stranger started his voyage to Funan would have been on the east coast of the Malay peninsula. | publisher= Michael Vickery’s Publications |access-date=13 July 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://odisha.gov.in/e-magazine/Orissareview/2011/Nov/engpdf/32-38.pdf|title=Kalinga and Funan : A Study in Ancient Relations – there is considerable disagreement on the homeland of Kaundinya|publisher=Government of Odisha|access-date=13 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150713102241/http://odisha.gov.in/e-magazine/Orissareview/2011/Nov/engpdf/32-38.pdf|archive-date=13 July 2015|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref> A Chinese document, that underwent 4 alterations<ref>{{cite web |url=http://michaelvickery.org/vickery2003funan.pdf |title= Funan Reviewed : Deconstructing the Ancients In: Bulletin de l'Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient. Tome 90–91, 2003. pp. 101–143. – Altogether there are 4 versions differing among themselves in interesting ways. – The first version... | publisher= Michael Vickery’s Publications |access-date=13 July 2015}}</ref> and a 3rd-century epigraphic inscription of [[Champa]] are the contemporary sources.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://odisha.gov.in/e-magazine/Orissareview/2011/Nov/engpdf/32-38.pdf|title=Kalinga and Funan: A Study in Ancient Relations – This Chinese version of the dynastic origin of Funan has been corroborated by a Sanskrit inscription of Champa belonging to the third century CE.|publisher=Government of Odisha|access-date=13 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150713102241/http://odisha.gov.in/e-magazine/Orissareview/2011/Nov/engpdf/32-38.pdf|archive-date=13 July 2015|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref> Some scholars consider the story to be simply an [[allegory]] for the diffusion of Indic Hindu and Buddhist beliefs into ancient local cosmology and culture<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.learner.org/courses/worldhistory/support/reading_10_1.pdf |title=Southeast Asian Riverine and Island Empires by Candice Goucher, Charles LeGuin, and Linda Walton – The mythical account of the founding of Funan reflects in symbolic terms the conditions... |publisher=The Annenberg Foundation |access-date=13 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109081448/http://www.learner.org/courses/worldhistory/support/reading_10_1.pdf |archive-date=9 January 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> whereas some historians dismiss it chronologically.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://michaelvickery.org/vickery2003funan.pdf |title= Funan Reviewed : Deconstructing the Ancients In: Bulletin de l'Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient. Tome 90–91, 2003. pp. 101–143. – there is no evidence that the initial foreign conqueror came from India, neither is it clear that he was a Brahman, and almost certainly his name, as given to the Chinese, was not Kaundinya... | publisher= Michael Vickery’s Publications |access-date=13 July 2015}}</ref>

Chinese annals report that Funan reached its territorial climax in the early 3rd century under the rule of king Fan Shih-man, extending as far south as [[Malaysia]] and as far west as [[Myanmar|Burma]]. A system of [[mercantilism]] in commercial monopolies was established. Exports ranged from forest products to precious metals and commodities such as gold, elephants, ivory, rhinoceros horn, kingfisher feathers, wild spices like cardamom, lacquer, hides and aromatic wood. Under Fan Shih-man Funan maintained a formidable fleet and was administered by an advanced bureaucracy, based on a "tribute-based economy, that produced a surplus which was used to support foreign traders along its coasts and ostensibly to launch expansionist missions to the west and south".<ref name="Stark2006" />

Historians maintain contradicting ideas about Funan's political status and integrity.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://web.isanet.org/Web/Conferences/GSCIS%20Singapore%202015/Archive/23e81aa1-2e38-42a5-86f5-d95c45e4d9ce.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://web.isanet.org/Web/Conferences/GSCIS%20Singapore%202015/Archive/23e81aa1-2e38-42a5-86f5-d95c45e4d9ce.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title= Thinking Through Srivijaya: Polycentric Networks in Traditional Southeast Asia By Rosita Dellios and R. James Ferguson – Yet Funan, like Srivijaya, was not a straightforward country/state or "guo" in the Western or Chinese sense. Funan has been shown to be "a conglomerate of chiefdoms but not a state" | publisher= Bond University Australia |access-date=13 July 2015}}</ref> [[Miriam T. Stark]] calls it simply Funan: [The]"notion of Fu Nan as an early "state"...has been built largely by historians using documentary and historical evidence" and Michael Vickery remarks: "Nevertheless, it is...unlikely that the several ports constituted a unified state, much less an 'empire'".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://michaelvickery.org/vickery2003funan.pdf |title= Funan Reviewed : Deconstructing the Ancients In: Bulletin de l'Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient. Tome 90–91, 2003. pp. 101–143. – What was Funan? Nevertheless, it is a priori unlikely that... | publisher= Michael Vickery |access-date=13 July 2015}}</ref> Other sources though, imply imperial status: "Vassal kingdoms spread to southern Vietnam in the east and to the Malay peninsula in the west"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://aero-comlab.stanford.edu/jameson/world_history/A_Short_History_of_South_East_Asia1.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://aero-comlab.stanford.edu/jameson/world_history/A_Short_History_of_South_East_Asia1.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title= A Short History of South East Asia Chapter 1. Early Movements of PeopIes, Indian Influence – The First States on the Mainland Cambodia (Funan) – Vassal kingdoms spread to southern Vietnam in the east and to the Malay peninsula in the west | publisher= Stanford University |access-date=13 July 2015}}</ref> and "Here we will look at two empires of this period...Funan and Srivijaya".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.learner.org/courses/worldhistory/support/reading_10_1.pdf |title=Southeast Asian Riverine and Island Empires by Candice Goucher, Charles LeGuin, and Linda Walton – Here we will look at two empires |publisher=The Annenberg Foundation |access-date=13 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109081448/http://www.learner.org/courses/worldhistory/support/reading_10_1.pdf |archive-date=9 January 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The question of how Funan came to an end is in the face of almost universal scholarly conflict impossible to pin down. [[Chenla]] is the name of Funan's successor in Chinese annals, first appearing in 616/617 CE

{{blockquote|...the fall of Funan was not the result of the shifting of maritime trade route from the Malay Peninsula route to the Strait of Malacca starting from the 5th century CE; rather, it suggests that the conquest of Funan by Zhenla was the exact reason for the shifting of maritime trade route in the 7th century CE....
"As Funan was indeed in decline caused by shifts in Southeast Asian maritime trade routes, rulers had to seek new sources of wealth inland."<ref>{{cite web |title= "What and Where was Chenla?" George Coedes | publisher= Michael Vickery }}</ref>

"By the end of the fifth century, international trade through southeast Asia was almost entirely directed through the Strait of Malacca. Funan, from the point of view of this trade, had outlived its usefulness."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.learner.org/courses/worldhistory/support/reading_10_1.pdf |title=Southeast Asian Riverine and Island Empires by Candice Goucher, Charles LeGuin, and Linda Walton - By the end of the fifth century, international trade through |publisher=The Annenberg Foundation |access-date=13 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109081448/http://www.learner.org/courses/worldhistory/support/reading_10_1.pdf |archive-date=9 January 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

"Nothing in the epigraphical record authorizes such interpretations; and the inscriptions which retrospectively bridge the so- called Funan-Chenla transition do not indicate a political break at all."
<ref>{{cite web |title= What and Where was Chenla? | publisher= Michael Vickery }}</ref>}}

The archaeological approach to and interpretation of the entire early historic period is considered to be a decisive supplement for future research.<ref>{{cite journal |title= The Transition to History in the Mekong by Miriam T. Stark - There is another untapped role for archaeological approaches to the early historic period... | journal= International Journal of Historical Archaeology |doi=10.1023/A:1027368225043 |volume=2 | issue= 3 |pages=175–203|year = 1998|last1 = Stark|first1 = Miriam T.| s2cid= 17588289 }}</ref> The "Lower Mekong Archaeological Project" focuses on the development of political complexity in this region during the early historic period. LOMAP survey results of 2003 to 2005, for example, have helped to determine that "...the region's importance continued unabated throughout the pre-Angkorian period...and that at least three [surveyed areas] bear Angkorian-period dates and suggest the continued importance of the delta."<ref name="Stark2006" />

==Chenla Kingdom (6th century – 802)==
{{Main article|Chenla Kingdom}}
{{multiple image
| perrow            = 2
| total_width       = 400
| caption_align     = center
| image1            = Buddha of Binh Hoa.jpg
| caption1          = Chenla-era statue of Buddha found at Binh Hoa, [[Long An]]
| image2            = AncientKhmerScript.jpg
| caption2          = Ancient [[Khmer script]]
}}

The History of the Chinese [[Sui dynasty]] contains records that a state called [[Chenla]] sent an embassy to China in 616 or 617 CE. It says, that Chenla was a vassal of [[Kingdom of Funan|Funan]], but under its ruler Citrasena-Mahendravarman conquered Funan and gained independence.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.e-reading.club/bookreader.php/142071/Encyclopedia_of_ancient_Asian_civilizations.pdf |title=Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations by Charles F. W. Higham - Chenla - Chinese histories record that a state called Chenla... |publisher=Library of Congress |access-date=13 July 2015 |archive-date=4 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804224753/http://www.e-reading.club/bookreader.php/142071/Encyclopedia_of_ancient_Asian_civilizations.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Most of the Chinese recordings on Chenla, including that of Chenla conquering Funan, have been contested since the 1970s as they are generally based on single remarks in the Chinese annals, as author Claude Jacques emphasised the very vague character of the Chinese terms 'Funan' and 'Chenla', while more domestic epigraphic sources become available. Claude Jacques summarises: "Very basic historical mistakes have been made" because "the history of pre-Angkorean Cambodia was reconstructed much more on the basis of Chinese records than on that of [Cambodian] inscriptions" and as new inscriptions were discovered, researchers "preferred to adjust the newly discovered facts to the initial outline rather than to call the Chinese reports into question".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://michaelvickery.org/vickery1994what.pdf |title= "What and Where was Chenla?" - In the 1970s Claude Jacques began cautiously to move away from the established historiographical framework | publisher= Michael Vickery |access-date=15 July 2015}}</ref>

The notion of Chenla's centre being in modern Laos has also been contested. "All that is required is that it be inland from Funan."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://michaelvickery.org/vickery1994what.pdf |title= "What and Where was Chenla?" - there is really no need to look for Khmer Empire beyond the borders of what is present-day Cambodia. All that is required is that it be inland from Funan. | publisher= Michael Vickery publications |access-date=14 July 2015}}</ref> The most important political record of pre-Angkor Cambodia, the inscription K53 from Ba Phnom, dated 667 CE does not indicate any political discontinuity, either in royal succession of kings Rudravarman, Bhavavarman I, Mahendravarman [Citrasena], Īśānavarman, and Jayavarman I or in the status of the family of officials who produced the inscription. Another inscription of a few years later, K44, 674 CE, commemorating a foundation in Kampot province under the patronage of Jayavarman I, refers to an earlier foundation in the time of King Raudravarma, presumably Rudravarman of Funan, and again there is no suggestion of political discontinuity.

The [[New Book of Tang|History of the T'ang]] asserts that shortly after 706 the country was split into {{ill|Land Chenla|km|ចេនឡាដីគោក}} and {{ill|Water Chenla|km|ចេនឡាទឹកលិច}}. The names signify a northern and a southern half, which may conveniently be referred to as Upper and Lower Chenla.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.khamkoo.com/uploads/9/0/0/4/9004485/the_journal_of_the_siam_society_vol._lii_part_1-2_1964.pdf |title=THE JOURNAL OF THE SIAM SOCIETY - AN HISTORICAL ATLAS OF THAILAND Vol. LII Part 1-2 1964 - The Australian National University Canberra |publisher=The Australian National University |access-date=15 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150714093413/http://www.khamkoo.com/uploads/9/0/0/4/9004485/the_journal_of_the_siam_society_vol._lii_part_1-2_1964.pdf |archive-date=14 July 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

By the late 8th century Water Chenla had become a vassal of the Sailendra dynasty of Java – the last of its kings were killed and the polity incorporated into the Javanese monarchy around 790 CE. Land Chenla acquired independence under [[Jayavarman II]] in 802 CE.<ref name="Chenla - 550-800">{{cite web |url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/cambodia/history-chenla.htm |title= Chenla – 550–800 | publisher= Global Security |access-date=13 July 2015}}</ref>

Ancient Chinese records mention two kings, Shrutavarman and Shreshthavarman who ruled at the capital Shreshthapura located in modern-day southern Laos. The immense influence on the identity of Cambodia to come was wrought by the Khmer Kingdom of [[Sambor Prei Kuk|Bhavapura]], in the modern day Cambodian city of [[Kampong Thom (city)|Kampong Thom]]. Its legacy was its most important sovereign, [[Isanavarman I|Ishanavarman]] who completely conquered the kingdom of Funan during 612–628. He chose his new capital at the [[Sambor Prei Kuk]], naming it Ishanapura.<ref name=Coedes>{{cite book|last= Coedès|first= George|author-link= George Coedès|editor= Walter F. Vella|others= trans.Susan Brown Cowing|title= The Indianized States of Southeast Asia|year= 1968|publisher= University of Hawaii Press|isbn= 978-0-8248-0368-1}}</ref>

==Khmer Empire (802–1431)==
{{Main article|Khmer Empire}}
[[File:AngkorThomBasRelief.JPG|thumb|left|[[Archery|Archers]] mounted on [[war elephant]]s, stone relief at the [[Bayon]]]]
[[File:Map-of-southeast-asia 900 CE.png|thumb|200px|Map of South-east Asia c. 900 CE, showing the [[Khmer Empire]] in red, [[Champa]] in yellow and [[Haripunjaya]] in light green, plus additional surrounding states]]

The six centuries of the Khmer Empire are characterised by unparalleled technical and artistic progress and achievements, political integrity and administrative stability. The empire represents the cultural and technical apogee of the Cambodian and Southeast Asian pre-industrial civilisation.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Jacques Dumarçay|author2=Pascal Royère|title=Cambodian Architecture: Eighth to Thirteenth Centuries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tbBii4uBCvsC&pg=PA109|year=2001|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-11346-6|page=109}}</ref>
[[File:Roulos_Group_-_005_Bakong_(8587796725).jpg|left|thumb|[[Bakong]], one of the earliest temple mountain in Khmer architecture]]
The Khmer Empire was preceded by Chenla, a polity with shifting centres of power, which was split into Land Chenla and Water Chenla in the early 8th century.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mksjournal.org/mks42gordon.pdf |title=THE JOURNAL OF THE SIAM SOCIETY - AN HISTORICAL ATLAS OF THAILAND Vol. LII Part 1-2 1964 - The Australian National University Canberra |publisher=The Australian National University |access-date=15 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150209114317/http://www.mksjournal.org/mks42gordon.pdf |archive-date=9 February 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> By the late 8th century Water Chenla was absorbed by the Malays of the [[Srivijaya|Srivijaya Empire]] and the Javanese of the [[Shailendra dynasty|Shailandra Empire]] and eventually incorporated into Java and [[Srivijaya]].<ref name="Chenla - 550-800"/>
[[Jayavarman II]], ruler of Land Chenla, initiates a mythical Hindu [[consecration]] ceremony at [[Phnom Kulen|Mount Kulen]] (Mount Mahendra) in 802 CE, intended to proclaim political autonomy and royal legitimacy. As he declared himself [[devaraja]] - god-king, divinely appointed and uncontested, he simultaneously declares independence from Shailandra and Srivijaya. He established [[Hariharalaya]], the first capital of the Angkorean area near the modern town of [[Roluos]].<ref name="God and King">{{cite book |url=http://www.easternbookcorporation.com/moreinfo.php?txt_searchstring=7306 |title=God and King: The Devaraja Cult in South Asian Art & Architecture |editor-last=Sengupta |editor-first=Arputha Rani  |year=2005 |publisher=National Museum Institute |isbn=978-8189233266 |access-date=14 September 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121209215215/http://easternbookcorporation.com/moreinfo.php?txt_searchstring=7306 |archive-date=9 December 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[Indravarman I]] (877–889) and his son and successor [[Yasovarman I]] (889–900), who established the capital [[Yasodharapura]] ordered the construction of huge water reservoirs (barays) north of the capital. The water management network depended on elaborate configurations of channels, ponds, and embankments built from huge quantities of clayey sand, the available bulk material on the Angkor plain. Dikes of the [[East Baray]] still exist today, which are more than {{convert|7|km|mi|0|abbr=on}} long and {{convert|1.8|km|mi|0|abbr=on}} wide. The largest component is the West Baray, a reservoir about {{convert|8|km|mi|0|abbr=on}} long and {{convert|2|km|mi|0|abbr=on}} across, containing approximately 50 million m<sup>3</sup> of water.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://faculty.washington.edu/plape/citiesaut11/readings/Fletcher-water%20management%20in%20angkor%20Antiquity%202008.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://faculty.washington.edu/plape/citiesaut11/readings/Fletcher-water%20management%20in%20angkor%20Antiquity%202008.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title= The water management network of Angkor, Cambodia Roland Fletcher Dan Penny, Damián Evans, Christophe Pottier, Mike Barbetti, Matti Kummu, Terry Lustig & Authority for the Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap (APSARA) Department of Monuments and Archaeology Team | publisher= University of Washington |access-date=14 July 2015}}</ref>
[[File:Southeast Asian history - 13th century.png|thumb|right|200px|The mainland of Southeast Asia at the end of the 13th century]]
Royal administration was based on the religious idea of the Shivaite Hindu state and the central cult of the sovereign as warlord and protector – the "Varman". This centralised system of governance appointed royal functionaries to provinces. The [[Mahidharapura|Mahidharapura dynasty]] – its first king was [[Jayavarman VI]] (1080 to 1107), which originated west of the [[Dângrêk Mountains]] in the [[Mun river]] valley discontinued the old "ritual policy", genealogical traditions and crucially, [[Hinduism]] as exclusive state religion. Some historians relate the empires' decline to these religious discontinuities.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://studiesofasia.wikispaces.com/file/view/EDAS8003A+Assignment+1+Khmer+civilisation+at+Angkor.pdf |title=The emergence and ultimate decline of the Khmer Empire – Many scholars attribute the halt of the development of Angkor to the rise of Theravada... |publisher=Studies Of Asia |access-date=11 June 2015 |archive-date=20 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200620024207/https://studiesofasia.wikispaces.com/file/view/EDAS8003A+Assignment+1+Khmer+civilisation+at+Angkor.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Lowman 2011">{{cite thesis |last1=Lowman |first1=Ian Nathaniel |title=The Descendants of Kambu: The Political Imagination of Angkorian Cambodia |type=PhD dissertation |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |date=2011 |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/06j1b9tp |access-date=6 March 2023 |language=en}}</ref>

The area that comprises the various capitals was spread out over around {{convert|1000|km2|sqmi|0|abbr=on}}, it is nowadays commonly called [[Angkor]]. The combination of sophisticated wet-rice agriculture, based on an engineered irrigation system and the [[Tonlé Sap]]'s spectacular abundance in fish and aquatic fauna, as protein source guaranteed a regular food surplus. Recent Geo-surveys have confirmed that Angkor maintained the largest pre-industrial settlement complex worldwide during the 12th and 13th centuries – some three quarters of a million people lived there. Sizeable contingents of the public workforce were to be redirected to monument building and [[infrastructure]] maintenance. A growing number of researchers relates the progressive over-exploitation of the delicate local eco-system and its resources alongside large scale [[deforestation]] and resulting [[erosion]] to the empires' eventual decline.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.khamkoo.com/uploads/9/0/0/4/9004485/the_journal_of_the_siam_society_vol._lxxxii_part_1-2_1994.pdf |title=GEOHYDROLOGY AND THE DECLINE OF ANGKOR by HENG L. THUNG |publisher=Khamkoo |access-date=29 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160629010703/http://www.khamkoo.com/uploads/9/0/0/4/9004485/the_journal_of_the_siam_society_vol._lxxxii_part_1-2_1994.pdf |archive-date=29 June 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

{{multiple images 
| caption_align     = center
| header_align      = center
| align             = left
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| width             = 200
| image1            = Angkor Wat.jpg
| caption1          = [[Angkor Wat]]
| image2            = Bayon Angkor frontal.jpg
| caption2          = Faces of [[Bodhisattva]] [[Avalokiteshvara]] at [[Bayon|Prasat Bayon]]
}}

Under king [[Suryavarman II]] (1113–1150) the empire reached its greatest geographic extent as it directly or indirectly controlled [[Indochina]], the [[Gulf of Thailand]] and large areas of northern [[maritime Southeast Asia]]. Suryavarman II commissioned the temple of [[Angkor Wat]], built in a period of 37 years, its five towers representing [[Mount Meru]] is considered to be the most accomplished expression of classical [[Khmer architecture]]. However, territorial expansion ended when Suryavarman II was killed in battle attempting to invade [[Đại Việt]]. It was followed by a period of dynastic upheaval and a [[Cham people|Cham]] invasion that culminated in the sack of Angkor in 1177.

[[File:Jayavarman VII Guimet 90508 3.jpg|thumb|200px|Portrait statue of [[Jayavarman VII]]]]
King Jayavarman VII (reigned 1181–1219) is generally considered to be Cambodia's greatest King. A [[Mahayana Buddhism|Mahayana Buddhist]], he initiates his reign by striking back against [[Champa]] in a successful campaign. During his nearly forty years in power he becomes the most prolific monument builder, who establishes the city of [[Angkor Thom]] with its central temple the [[Bayon]]. Further outstanding works are attributed to him – [[Banteay Kdei]], [[Ta Prohm]], [[Neak Pean]] and Sra Srang. The construction of an impressive number of utilitarian and secular projects and edifices, such as maintenance of the extensive road network of [[Suryavarman I]], in particular the royal road to [[Phimai]] and the many rest houses, bridges and hospitals make Jayavarman VII unique among all imperial rulers.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://faculty.washington.edu/plape/citiesaut11/readings/Hendrickson--angkor%20roads-Antiquity.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://faculty.washington.edu/plape/citiesaut11/readings/Hendrickson--angkor%20roads-Antiquity.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title= Historie routes to Angkor: development of the Khmer road system (ninth to thirteenth centuries CE) in mainland Southeast Asia by Mitch Hendrickson | publisher= University of Sydney |access-date=14 July 2015}}</ref>

In August 1296, the Chinese diplomat [[Zhou Daguan]] arrived at Angkor and remained at the court of king [[Srindravarman]] until July 1297. He wrote a detailed report, ''[[The Customs of Cambodia]]'', on life in Angkor. His portrayal is one of the most important sources of understanding historical Angkor as the text offers valuable information on the everyday life and the habits of the inhabitants of Angkor.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://thegreatkhmerempire.blogspot.com/2011/12/zhou-daguan-record-of-cambodia-siam.html |title= Zhou Daguan-A Record of Cambodia-Siam Society Review by Milton Osborne |date= December 2011 | publisher= The Great Khmer Empire |access-date=13 July 2015}}</ref>

The last Sanskrit inscription is dated 1327, and records the succession of Indrajayavarman by [[Jayavarman IX]] Parameshwara (1327–1336).

The empire was an agrarian state that consisted essentially of three social classes, the elite, workers and slaves. The elite included advisers, military leaders, courtiers, priests, religious ascetics and officials. Workers included agricultural labourers and also a variety of craftsman for construction projects. Slaves were often captives from military campaigns or distant villages. Coinage did not exist and the barter economy was based on agricultural produce, principally rice, with regional trade as an insignificant part of the economy.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://studiesofasia.wikispaces.com/file/view/EDAS8003A+Assignment+1+Khmer+civilisation+at+Angkor.pdf |title=The emergence and ultimate decline of the Khmer Empire was paralleled with development and subsequent change in religious ideology, together with infrastructure that supported agriculture by Kay McCullough |publisher=National Academy of Science |access-date=15 July 2015 |archive-date=20 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200620024207/https://studiesofasia.wikispaces.com/file/view/EDAS8003A+Assignment+1+Khmer+civilisation+at+Angkor.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book| title=Southeast Asia in the 9th to 14th Centuries |first1=David G. |last1=Marr |first2=Anthony Crothers |last2=Milner |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lon7gmj040MC&pg=PA244 |publisher=Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore | date=1986 | page=244 | isbn=978-9971-988-39-5}}</ref>

==Cambodia Middle Period (1431–1863)==
{{Main article| Post-Angkor Period}}
[[File:AMH-7235-KB_Bird's_eye_view_of_Eauweck.jpg|thumb|left|[[Longvek]], the former capital of Cambodia]]
[[File:Flag of Cambodia (pre-1863).svg|thumb|right|Flag of [[Cambodia]] pre-1864]]
The term "Post-Angkor Period of Cambodia", also the "Middle Period"<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/item/4562 |title= Murder and Mayhem in Seventeenth Century Cambodia – The so-called middle period of Cambodian history, stretching from... – Reviews in History |date= 28 February 2009 |publisher= School of Advanced Study at the University of London |access-date= 14 June 2015 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150615182814/http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/item/4562 |archive-date= 15 June 2015 |url-status= dead }}</ref> refers to the historical era from the early 15th century to 1863, the beginning of the French Protectorate of Cambodia. Reliable sources – particularly for the 15th and 16th century – are very rare. A conclusive explanation that relates to concrete events manifesting the decline of the [[Khmer Empire]] has not yet been produced.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jan/14/what-the-collapse-of-ancient-capitals-can-teach-us-about-the-cities-of-today |title= What the collapse of ancient capitals can teach us about the cities of today by Srinath Perur – There had long been a debate about what led to the decline of Angkor and the southward move of the Khmer... | newspaper= The Guardian |date= 14 January 2015 |access-date=27 June 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://michaelvickery.org/ |title=Cambodia and Its Neighbors in the 15th Century, Michael Vickery |date= 1 June 2004 | publisher= Michael Vickery’s Publications |access-date=8 June 2015}}</ref> However, most modern historians contest that several distinct and gradual changes of religious, dynastic, administrative and military nature, environmental problems and ecological imbalance<ref>{{cite news |url=http://legacy.utsandiego.com/news/world/20040613-0915-fallenangkor.html |title=Scientists dig and fly over Angkor in search of answers to golden city's fall by Miranda Leitsinger |newspaper=The San Diego Union-Tribune |date=13 June 2004 |access-date=19 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224114808/http://legacy.utsandiego.com/news/world/20040613-0915-fallenangkor.html |archive-date=24 December 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> coincided with shifts of power in Indochina and must all be taken into account to make an interpretation.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://archaeology.about.com/od/medieval/qt/Collapse-Of-Angkor.htm |title=What Caused the End of the Khmer Empire By K. Kris Hirst |publisher=About com |access-date=11 June 2015 |archive-date=1 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170101015438/http://archaeology.about.com/od/medieval/qt/Collapse-Of-Angkor.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/90520/Cambodia/52482/The-decline-of-Angkor |title= THE DECLINE OF ANGKOR | publisher= Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. |access-date=11 June 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://studiesofasia.wikispaces.com/file/view/EDAS8003A+Assignment+1+Khmer+civilisation+at+Angkor.pdf |title=The emergence and ultimate decline of the Khmer Empire was paralleled with development and subsequent change in religious ideology, together with infrastructure that supported agriculture. |publisher=Studies Of Asia |access-date=11 June 2015 |archive-date=20 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200620024207/https://studiesofasia.wikispaces.com/file/view/EDAS8003A+Assignment+1+Khmer+civilisation+at+Angkor.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> In recent years, focus has notably shifted towards studies on climate changes, human–environment interactions and the ecological consequences.<ref name="KHMER GEO">{{cite web|url=http://khmer-geo.com/siemreap/event/laser-scans-flesh-out-the-saga-of-cambodias-1200-year-old-lost-city|title=Laser scans flesh out the saga of Cambodias 1200 year old lost city|publisher=KHMER GEO|access-date=11 June 2015|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150614182252/http://khmer-geo.com/siemreap/event/laser-scans-flesh-out-the-saga-of-cambodias-1200-year-old-lost-city|archive-date=14 June 2015|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://phys.org/news/2012-01-explanation-sudden-demise-khmer-empire.html |title= Possible new explanation found for sudden demise of Khmer Empire |date=3 January 2012 | publisher= Phys org |access-date=11 June 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://studiesofasia.wikispaces.com/file/view/EDAS8003A+Assignment+1+Khmer+civilisation+at+Angkor.pdf|title=The emergence and ultimate decline of the Khmer Empire – ...the Empire experienced two lengthy droughts, during c.1340–1370 and also c.1400–1425...|publisher=Studies of Asia|access-date=19 June 2015|archive-date=20 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200620024207/https://studiesofasia.wikispaces.com/file/view/EDAS8003A+Assignment+1+Khmer+civilisation+at+Angkor.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Climate as a contributing factor in the demise of Angkor, Cambodia |doi=10.1073/pnas.0910827107 |pmid=20351244 |volume=107 |issue=15 |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |pages=6748–6752|pmc=2872380|year=2010 |last1=Buckley |first1=B. M. |last2=Anchukaitis |first2=K. J. |last3=Penny |first3=D. |last4=Fletcher |first4=R. |last5=Cook |first5=E. R. |last6=Sano |first6=M. |last7=Nam |first7=L. C. |last8=Wichienkeeo |first8=A. |last9=Minh |first9=T. T. |last10=Hong |first10=T. M. |bibcode=2010PNAS..107.6748B |doi-access=free }}</ref>

[[Epigraphy]] in temples, ends in the third decade of the fourteenth, and does not resume until the mid-16th century. Recording of the [[List of monarchs of Cambodia#Khmer Empire (802–1431)|Royal Chronology]] discontinues with King Jayavarman IX Parameshwara (or Jayavarma-Paramesvara) – there exists not a single contemporary record of even a king's name for over 200 years. Construction of monumental temple architecture had come to a standstill after [[Jayavarman VII]]'s reign. According to author [[Michael Vickery (historian)|Michael Vickery]] there only exist external sources for Cambodia's 15th century, the Chinese Ming Shilu annals and the earliest Royal Chronicle of Ayutthaya.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://michaelvickery.org/vickery1996mak.pdf |title=Mak Phœun : Histoire du Cambodge de la fin du XVIe au début du XVIIIe siècle |publisher=Michael Vickery |access-date=11 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150214095913/http://michaelvickery.org/vickery1996mak.pdf |archive-date=14 February 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://epress.nus.edu.sg/msl/source.html|title=The Ming Shi-lu as a Source for the Study of Southeast Asian History|publisher=Southeast Asia in the Ming Shi-lu|access-date=12 June 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150622235550/http://www.epress.nus.edu.sg/msl/source.html|archive-date=22 June 2015|df=dmy-all}}</ref> Wang Shi-zhen (王世貞), a Chinese scholar of the 16th century, remarked: "The official historians are unrestrained and are skilful at concealing the truth; but the memorials and statutes they record and the documents they copy cannot be discarded."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.epress.nus.edu.sg/msl/MSL.pdf|title=The Ming Shi-lu as a source for Southeast Asian History by Geoff Wade, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore 2.5 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MSL AS A HISTORICAL SOURCE|publisher=National University of Singapore|access-date=11 June 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150701055419/http://www.epress.nus.edu.sg/msl/MSL.pdf|archive-date=1 July 2015|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.siamese-heritage.org/jsspdf/1971/JSS_061_1c_Wyatt_AbridgedChronicleOfAyudhyaOfPrinceParamanuchitchinorot.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.siamese-heritage.org/jsspdf/1971/JSS_061_1c_Wyatt_AbridgedChronicleOfAyudhyaOfPrinceParamanuchitchinorot.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title= THE ABRIDGED ROYAL CHRONICLE OF AYUDHYA | publisher= The Siam Society |access-date=12 June 2015}}</ref>

The central reference point for the entire 15th century is a [[Ayutthaya Kingdom|Siamese]] intervention of some undisclosed nature at the capital [[Yasodharapura]] (Angkor Thom) around the year 1431. Historians relate the event to the shift of Cambodia's political centre southward to the region of [[Phnom Penh]], [[Longvek]] and later [[Oudong]].<ref name="Google Books"/><ref name=":1" />
{{blockquote|"As Siam became Cambodia’s primary nemesis after the demise of Angkor, it put an end to the pattern of ambivalent sovereignty that Cambodia’s imperial experiment on its western frontier had so effectively prolonged."<ref name="Lowman 2011"/>}}

[[File:1780_Raynal_and_Bonne_Map_of_Southeast_Asia_and_the_Philippines_-_Geographicus_-_Philippines-bonne-1780.jpg|thumb|left|1780 map of Cambodia and Southeast Asia]]

Sources for the 16th century are more numerous. The kingdom is centred at the Mekong, prospering as an integral part of the [[Indian Ocean trade|Asian maritime trade network]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.siamese-heritage.org/jsspdf/2001/JSS_095_0c_Polenghi_MarinisDellaMisioni1663AnnotatedTranslat.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.siamese-heritage.org/jsspdf/2001/JSS_095_0c_Polenghi_MarinisDellaMisioni1663AnnotatedTranslat.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title= Giovanni Filippo de MARINI, Delle Missioni… CHAPTER VII – MISSION OF THE KINGDOM OF CAMBODIA by Cesare Polenghi – It is considered one of the most renowned for trading opportunities: there is abundance... | publisher= The Siam Society |access-date=1 July 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Anthony Reid|title=Charting the Shape of Early Modern Southeast Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YNMGBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT10|year=2000|publisher=Silkworm Books|isbn=978-1-63041-481-8|page=10}}</ref> via which the first contact with [[Age of Discovery|European explorers and adventurers]] does occur.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.themua.org/collections/files/original/dbfc18c3e3c6e83a95c2df47dcd683b8.pdf |title= Maritime Trade in Southeast Asia during the Early Colonial Period | publisher= University of Oxford |access-date=12 June 2015}}</ref> Wars with the Siamese result in loss of territory and eventually the conquest of the capital Longvek in 1594. [[Richard Cocks]], of the [[East India Company]] established trade with [[Kingdom of Cochin|Cochin]], China, and Cambodia by 1618, but the Cambodia commerce was not authorized by the directors in London and was short-lived until it was revived in 1651, again without authorization.<ref>Bassett, D. K. “The Trade of the English East India Company in Cambodia, 1651-1656.” ''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland'', no. 1/2, 1962, pp. 35–61. 
[http://www.jstor.org/stable/25202509 JSTOR website] Retrieved 23 Oct. 2023.</ref> The Vietnamese on their "Southward March" reach Prei Nokor/Saigon at the Mekong Delta in the 17th century. This event initiates the slow process of Cambodia losing access to the seas and independent marine trade.<ref>{{cite book|author=Peter Church|title=A Short History of South-East Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8S5PXyWMEeAC&pg=PT24|year=2012|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-118-35044-7|page=24}}</ref>

Siamese and Vietnamese dominance intensified during the 17th and 18th century, resulting in frequent displacements of the seat of power as the Khmer royal authority decreased to the state of a vassal.<ref>{{cite book|author=Cathal J. Nolan|title=The Greenwood Encyclopedia of International Relations: S-Z|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FMJ8KP8i3v0C&pg=PA1653|year=2002|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-32383-6|page=1653}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Ooi |first=Keat Gin |author-link=Keat Gin Ooi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QKgraWbb7yoC&pg=PA566 |title=Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-57607-770-2 |page=566}}</ref> In the early 19th century with dynasties in Vietnam and Siam firmly established, Cambodia was placed under joint suzerainty, having lost its national sovereignty. [[British Empire|British]] agent [[John Crawfurd]] states: "...the King of that ancient Kingdom is ready to throw himself under the protection of any European nation..." To save Cambodia from being incorporated into Vietnam and Siam, the Cambodians entreated the aid of the [[Luzones]]/Lucoes (Filipinos from [[Luzon]]-[[Philippines]]) that previously participated in the Burmese-Siamese wars as mercenaries. When the embassy arrived in Luzon, the rulers were now Spaniards, so they asked them for aid too, together with [[Mexican settlement in the Philippines|their Latin American troops]] imported from [[Viceroyalty of New Spain|Mexico]], in order to restore the then Christianised King, Satha II, as monarch of Cambodia, this, after a Thai/Siamese invasion was repelled. However that was only temporary. Nevertheless, the future King, [[Ang Duong]], also enlisted the aid of the French who were allied to the Spanish (As Spain was ruled by a French royal dynasty the [[Bourbon Dynasty|Bourbons]]). The Cambodian king agreed to colonial France's offers of protection in order to restore the existence of the Cambodian monarchy, which took effect with King [[Norodom of Cambodia|Norodom Prohmbarirak]] signing and officially recognising the French protectorate on 11 August 1863.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.siamese-heritage.org/jsspdf/1991/JSS_081_2b_Sternstein_LondonCompanysEnvoysPlotSiam.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.siamese-heritage.org/jsspdf/1991/JSS_081_2b_Sternstein_LondonCompanysEnvoysPlotSiam.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=London Company's Envoys Plot Siam |website=Siamese Heritage |access-date=7 May 2015}}</ref><ref name="Owen2005">{{cite book|first=Norman G. |last=Owen|title=The Emergence Of Modern Southeast Asia: A New History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=py5Xh0-pw18C&pg=PA117|year=2005|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-2890-5|pages=117–}}</ref>

==French colonial period (1863–1953)==
{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=300|caption_align=center
| image1 = King Norodom.jpg|caption1=[[Norodom of Cambodia]]
| image2 =French Indochina expansion.jpg|caption2=French colonial expansion
}}
{{Main article|French Protectorate of Cambodia|French Indochina}}

In August 1863 King [[Norodom of Cambodia|Norodom]] signed an agreement with the French placing the kingdom under the protection of France.<ref name=":0" /> The original treaty left Cambodian sovereignty intact, but French control gradually increased, with important landmarks in 1877, 1884, and 1897, until by the end of the century the king's authority no longer existed outside the palace.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cambodiatribunal.org/history/cambodian-history/ |title= Colonial Era – Cambodia Enters the Wider World: 1863 – 1953 Cambodian History Searching for the Truth, July 2009 By David Chandler | publisher= NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND DOCUMENTATION CENTER OF CAMBODIA |access-date=25 November 2015}}</ref> Norodom died in 1904, and his two successors, Sisowath and Monivong, were content to allow the French to control the country, but in 1940 France was defeated in a brief border war with Thailand and forced to surrender the provinces of Battambang and Angkor (the ancient site of Angkor itself was retained). King Monivong died in April 1941,<ref name=":0" /> and the French placed the obscure Prince [[Norodom Sihanouk]] on the throne as king, believing that the inexperienced 18-year old would be more pliable than Monivong's middle-aged son, Prince Monireth.

[[Japanese occupation of Cambodia|Japan Occupied Cambodia]] in 1941.  For most of [[World War II]], the Japanese authorities allowed the cooperating Vichy French colonial officials to remain at their administrative posts, but On 9 March 1945, the Japanese carried out a coup against the French, and authorized young King Sihanouk to proclaim an independent [[Kingdom of Kampuchea (1945)|Kingdom of Kampuchea]]. Shortly thereafter the Japanese government nominally ratified the independence of Cambodia and established a consulate in Phnom Penh.<ref>Keat Gin Ooi ''Southeast Asia: a historical encyclopedia''</ref> The new government did away with the [[Romanization of Khmer|romanization]] of the [[Khmer language]] that the French colonial administration was beginning to enforce and officially reinstated the [[Khmer script]]. This measure taken by the short-lived governmental authority would be popular and long-lasting, for since then no government in Cambodia has tried to romanise the Khmer language again.<ref>David P. Chandler, ''A History of Cambodia'', Silkworm 1993</ref>
After Allied military units entered Cambodia, the Japanese military forces present in the country were disarmed and repatriated. The French were able to reimpose the colonial administration in Phnom Penh in October the same year.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.country-data.com/frd/cs/cambodia/kh_appnb.html| title = Cambodia, Appendix B – Major Political and Military Organizations}}</ref>

Cambodia's situation at the end of the war was chaotic.<ref name=":0" /> The [[Free French]], under General [[Charles de Gaulle]], were determined to recover Indochina, though they offered Cambodia and the other Indochinese protectorates a carefully circumscribed measure of self-government.<ref name=":0" /> Convinced that they had a "[[civilizing mission]]", they envisioned Indochina's participation in a French Union of former colonies that shared the common experience of French culture.<ref name="Martin1994">{{cite book|author=Marie Alexandrine Martin|title=Cambodia: A Shattered Society - p. 30|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vLk5c5S51FYC|year=1994|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-07052-3}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

==Administration of Sihanouk (1953–70)==

[[File:Norodom Sihanouk Coronation Regalia 1941 bw.jpg|thumb|right|Coronation of [[Norodom Sihanouk]] in 1941]]
[[File:Hartini Sukarno with Norodom Sihanouk and wife, Bung Karno Penjambung Lidah Rakjat 253.jpg|thumb|left|Norodom Sihanouk and his wife in Indonesia, 1964]]
Sihanouk's "royal crusade for independence" resulted in grudging French acquiescence to his demands for a transfer of sovereignty. A partial agreement was struck in October 1953. Sihanouk then declared that independence had been achieved and returned in triumph to [[Phnom Penh]]. As a result of the [[1954 Geneva Conference]] on Indochina, Cambodia was able to bring about the withdrawal of the [[Viet Minh]] troops from its territory and to withstand any residual impingement upon its sovereignty by external powers.

Neutrality was the central element of Cambodian foreign policy during the 1950s and 1960s. By the mid-1960s, parts of Cambodia's eastern provinces were serving as bases for North Vietnamese Army and [[Viet Cong|National Liberation Front]] (NVA/NLF) forces operating against South Vietnam, and the port of [[Sihanoukville (city)|Sihanoukville]] was being used to supply them. As NVA/VC activity grew, the United States and [[South Vietnam]] became concerned, and in 1969, the United States began a 14-month-long series of bombing raids targeted at NVA/VC elements, contributing to destabilisation. The bombing campaign took place no further than ten, and later {{convert|20|mi|km|spell=in}} inside the Cambodian border, areas where the Cambodian population had been evicted by the NVA.<ref>Davidson, Phillip B. ''Vietnam at War: The History 1946–1975''. 1988. P. 593</ref> <!--Cite supports entire paragraph--> Prince Sihanouk, fearing that the conflict between communist North Vietnam and South Vietnam might spill over to Cambodia, publicly opposed the idea of a bombing campaign by the United States along the Vietnam–Cambodia border and inside Cambodian territory. However, [[Peter Rodman]] claimed, "Prince Sihanouk complained bitterly to us about these North Vietnamese bases in his country and invited us to attack them". In December 1967 ''Washington Post'' journalist Stanley Karnow was told by Sihanouk that if the US wanted to bomb the Vietnamese communist sanctuaries, he would not object, unless Cambodians were killed.<ref>''The Washington Post'', 29 December 1967</ref> The same message was conveyed to US President Johnson's emissary [[Chester Bowles]] in January 1968,<ref>Stephen J. Morris ''Why Vietnam Invaded Cambodia'' (Stanford University Press. 1999). p. 44</ref> so the US had no real motivation to overthrow Sihanouk. However, Prince Sihanouk, facing internal struggles of his own due to the rise of the Khmer Rouge, wanted the United States and its allies (South Vietnam) to keep the war away from the Cambodian border. Sihanouk did not allow the United States to use Cambodian air space and airports for military purposes. This upset the United States greatly and contributed to their view of Prince Sihanouk as a North Vietnamese sympathiser and a thorn in the side of the United States.<ref>{{worldhistory|quote=P. 1012|section=4084}}</ref> However, declassified documents indicate that, as late as March 1970, the Nixon administration was hoping to garner "friendly relations" with Sihanouk.

Throughout the 1960s, domestic Cambodian politics became polarised. Opposition to the government grew within the middle class and leftists including Paris-educated leaders like [[Son Sen]], [[Ieng Sary]], and Saloth Sar (later known as [[Pol Pot]]), who led an [[insurgency]] under the clandestine Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK). Sihanouk called these insurgents the [[Khmer Rouge]], literally the "Red Khmer". But the 1966 national assembly elections showed a significant swing to the right, and General [[Lon Nol]] formed a new government, which lasted until 1967. During 1968 and 1969, the insurgency worsened. However, members of the government and army, who resented Sihanouk's ruling style as well as his tilt away from the United States, did have a motivation to overthrow him.

==Khmer Republic and the War (1970–75)==
{{Main article|Cambodian Civil War|Khmer Republic|Democratic Kampuchea}}
{{More citations needed section|date=January 2010}}
[[File:LonNol (cropped).jpg|thumb|[[Lon Nol]]]]
While visiting Beijing in 1970 Sihanouk was [[Cambodian coup of 1970|ousted by a military coup]] led by Prime Minister General [[Lon Nol]] and Prince [[Sisowath Sirik Matak]] in the early hours of 18 March 1970.<ref>Philip Short, ''Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare'' p. 197.</ref><ref>
{{cite web| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/133533.stm| title = "Prince Sihanouk was deposed in a right-wing coup in 1970 led by Lt-Gen Lon Nol"}}</ref>
However, as early as 12 March 1970, the CIA Station Chief told Washington that based on communications from Sirik Matak, Lon Nol's cousin, that "the (Cambodian) army was ready for a coup".<ref>Philip Short, ''Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare'' (Henry Holt & Co.: New York, 2004) p. 195.</ref> Lon Nol assumed power after the military coup and immediately allied Cambodia with the United States. Son Ngoc Thanh, an opponent of Pol Pot, announced his support for the new government. The new regime immediately demanded that the Vietnamese communists leave Cambodia.

Hanoi rejected the new government's request for the withdrawal of NVA troops. In response, the United States moved to provide material assistance to the new government's armed forces, which were engaged against both CPK insurgents and NVA forces. The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces, determined to retain their sanctuaries and supply lines from North Vietnam, immediately launched armed attacks on the new government. The North Vietnamese quickly overran large parts of eastern Cambodia, reaching to within {{convert|15|mi|km}} of [[Phnom Penh]]. The North Vietnamese turned the newly won territories over to the [[Khmer Rouge]]. The king urged his followers to help in overthrowing this government, hastening the onset of [[Cambodian Civil War|civil war]].<ref name="SIHNK">{{Cite book| last = Sihanouk | first = Norodom | author-link = Norodom Sihanouk | title = My War with the CIA: The Memoirs of Prince Norodom Sihanouk as Related to Wilfred Burchett | publisher = Pantheon Books | year = 1973 | isbn = 978-0394485430 | url = https://archive.org/details/mywarwithcia00noro}}</ref>
[[File:Norodom Sianuc74b.jpg|thumb|left|Norodom Sihanouk and his wife with [[Nicolae Ceauşescu]] and his wife Elena Ceauşescu, 1974]]
In April 1970, US President Richard Nixon announced to the American public that US and South Vietnamese ground forces had entered Cambodia in a campaign aimed at destroying NVA base areas in Cambodia (see [[Cambodian Incursion]]).<ref>Philip Short, ''Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare'' (Henry Holt & Co.: New York, 2004) p. 204.</ref> The US had already been bombing Vietnamese positions in Cambodia for well over a year by that point. Although a considerable quantity of equipment was seized or destroyed by US and South Vietnamese forces, containment of North Vietnamese forces proved elusive.

The Khmer Republic's leadership was plagued by disunity among its three principal figures: Lon Nol, Sihanouk's cousin [[Sirik Matak]], and National Assembly leader [[In Tam]]. Lon Nol remained in power in part because none of the others were prepared to take his place. On 9 October, the Cambodian monarchy was formally abolished, and the country was renamed the Khmer Republic. In 1972, a constitution was adopted, a parliament elected, and Lon Nol became president. But disunity, the problems of transforming a 30,000-man army into a national combat force of more than 200,000 men, and spreading corruption weakened the civilian administration and army.
[[File:President Richard Nixon and Sirik Matack.jpg|thumb|right|[[Sisowath Sirik Matak]] with President [[Richard Nixon]]]]
The Khmer Rouge insurgency inside Cambodia continued to grow, aided by supplies and military support from North Vietnam. Pol Pot and [[Ieng Sary]] asserted their dominance over the Vietnamese-trained communists, many of whom were purged. At the same time, the Khmer Rouge (CPK) forces became stronger and more independent of their Vietnamese patrons. By 1973, the CPK were fighting battles against government forces with little or no North Vietnamese troop support, and they controlled nearly 60% of Cambodia's territory and 25% of its population.
[[File:Rue 3 pnom-penh-b.jpg|thumb|[[Phnom Penh]] in 1973 amid the [[Cambodian Civil War]].]]
The government made three unsuccessful attempts to enter into negotiations with the insurgents, but by 1974, the CPK was operating openly as divisions, and some of the NVA combat forces had moved into South Vietnam. Lon Nol's control was reduced to small enclaves around the cities and main transportation routes. More than two million refugees from the war lived in Phnom Penh and other cities.

On New Year's Day 1975, Communist troops launched an offensive which, in 117 days of the hardest fighting of the war, caused the [[Fall of Phnom Penh|collapse of the Khmer Republic]]. Simultaneous attacks around the perimeter of Phnom Penh pinned down Republican forces, while other CPK units overran fire bases controlling the vital lower Mekong resupply route. A US-funded airlift of ammunition and rice ended when Congress refused additional aid for Cambodia. The Lon Nol government in Phnom Penh surrendered on 17 April 1975, just five days after the US mission evacuated Cambodia.<ref>Philip Short, ''Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare'' p. 4.</ref>

=== Foreign involvement in the rise of the Khmer Rouge ===
{{further|Cambodian campaign|Allegations of United States support for the Khmer Rouge|Operation Menu|Operation Freedom Deal}}
[[File:Bomb craters in Cambodia.jpg|thumb|An aerial view of bomb craters in Cambodia (2014)]]
During the civil war, the United States launched a massive [[carpet bombing]] campaign targeting both the North Vietnamese and the Khmer Rouge. The relationship between this and the growth of the Khmer Rouge, in terms of recruitment and popular support, has been a matter of interest to historians. Some historians, including [[Michael Ignatieff]], [[Adam Jones (Canadian scholar)|Adam Jones]]<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.mcvts.net/cms/lib07/NJ01911694/Centricity/Domain/155/Textbook.pdf|title=Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction|last=Jones|first=Adam|publisher=Routledge|year=2006|pages=189–90|access-date=9 August 2019|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805203324/https://www.mcvts.net/cms/lib07/NJ01911694/Centricity/Domain/155/Textbook.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> and [[Greg Grandin]],<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QGGzBgAAQBAJ&q=%22grandin,%22+khmer+rouge|title=Kissinger's Shadow: The Long Reach of America's Most Controversial Statesman|last=Grandin|first=Greg|date=2015|publisher=Henry Holt and Company|isbn=978-1627794503|pages=179–80}}</ref> have cited the United States intervention and bombing campaign (spanning 1965–1973) as a significant factor which lead to increased support for the Khmer Rouge among the Cambodian peasantry.<ref>Kiernan, Ben (Winter 1989). "The American Bombardment of Kampuchea 1969–1973". ''Vietnam Generation''. '''1''' (1): 4–41.</ref> According to [[Ben Kiernan]], the Khmer Rouge "would not have won power without U.S. economic and military destabilization of Cambodia.&nbsp;... It used the bombing's devastation and massacre of civilians as recruitment propaganda and as an excuse for its brutal, radical policies and its purge of moderate communists and Sihanoukists."<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Ben Kiernan|last=Kiernan|first=Ben|title=The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975–1979|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]|year=2008|isbn=9780300142990|pages=16–19}}</ref> Pol Pot biographer [[David P. Chandler]] writes that the bombing "had the effect the Americans wanted – it broke the Communist encirclement of Phnom Penh", but it also accelerated the collapse of rural society and increased social polarization.<ref>[[David P. Chandler|Chandler, David]] (2000), ''Brother Number One: A Political Biography of Pol Pot'', Revised Edition, Chiang Mai, Thailand: Silkworm Books, pp. 96–98.</ref><ref>Chandler, David (2000). ''Brother Number One: A Political Biography of Pol Pot'', Revised Edition, Chiang Mai, Thailand: Silkworm Books, pp. 96–97.</ref><ref>Chandler, David (2005). ''Cambodia 1884–1975'', in The Emergence of Modern Southeast Asia, edited by Norman Owen. University of Hawaii Press, p. 369.</ref> [[Peter Rodman]] and [[Michael Lind]] claimed that the United States intervention saved the Lon Nol regime from collapse in 1970 and 1973.<ref>Rodman, Peter (23 August 2007). [http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2007/0823iraq_rodman.aspx "Returning to Cambodia"]. Brookings Institution. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111110165813/http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2007/0823iraq_rodman.aspx|date=10 November 2011}}</ref><ref>Lind, Michael, ''Vietnam: The Necessary War: A Reinterpretation of America's Most Disastrous Military Conflict'', Free Press, 1999.</ref> Craig Etcheson acknowledged that U.S. intervention increased recruitment for the Khmer Rouge but disputed that it was a primary cause of the Khmer Rouge victory.<ref>Etcheson, Craig, ''The Rise and Demise of Democratic Kampuchea'', Westview Press, 1984, p. 97.</ref> [[William Shawcross]] wrote that the United States bombing and ground incursion plunged Cambodia into the chaos that Sihanouk had worked for years to avoid.<ref>Shawcross, pp. 92–100, 106–112.</ref>

By 1973, the North Vietnamese, who had been fighting alongside the Khmer Rouge against the Cambodian government, had largely ended its support to the war effort.<ref>{{cite book|title=Genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda: New Perspectives|last1=Cook|first1=Susan E.|last2=Mosyakov|first2=Dmitri|date=2017|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1351517775}}</ref>

China "armed and trained" the Khmer Rouge both during the civil war and the years afterward.<ref>Bezlova, Antoaneta (21 February 2009). [http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KB21Ad01.html "China haunted by Khmer Rouge links"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160818111124/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KB21Ad01.html |date=18 August 2016 }}. ''Asia Times''. Retrieved 21 February 2009.</ref> Since the 1950s, Pol Pot made frequent visits to China, where he received political and military training including from high-ranking CCP officials such as [[Chen Boda]] and [[Zhang Chunqiao]].<ref name="Lessons">{{Cite web |last=Wang |first=Xiaolin |title=波尔布特：并不遥远的教训 |trans-title=Pol Pot: Lessons from the Past |url=http://www.yhcqw.com/13/2114.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124074333/http://www.yhcqw.com/13/2114.html |archive-date=2020-11-24 |access-date=2019-11-23 |website=[[Yanhuang Chunqiu]] |language=zh}}</ref> After being overthrown during the 1970 coup, Sihanouk fled to Beijing, where Pol Pot was also visiting. On the advice of the CCP, the Khmer Rouge started supporting Sihanouk and established the [[National United Front of Kampuchea]] with Sihanouk as its figurehead. In 1970 alone, the Chinese reportedly gave the group 400 tons of military aid.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Song |first1=Lianghe |last2=Wu |first2=Yijun |date=2013 |title=中国对柬埔寨的援助：评价及建议 |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/41448796.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Xiamen University Forum on International Development |language=zh |issue=6 |pages=54–58 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190414161319/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/41448796.pdf |archive-date=2019-04-14}}</ref> In April 1974, Sihanouk and Khmer Rouge leaders Ieng Sary and Khieu Samphan met with [[Mao Zedong]] in Beijing. Mao showed support many of the policies proposed by the Khmer Rouge.<ref>{{Cite web |title=人间正道：审判红色高棉 |url=http://news.ifeng.com/history/special/khmerrouge |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210103050441/http://news.ifeng.com/history/special/khmerrouge |archive-date=2021-01-03 |access-date=2019-11-28 |website=[[Phoenix Television|Phoenix New Media]] |language=zh}}</ref>

==Democratic Kampuchea (Khmer Rouge era) (1975–79)==
{{more citations needed section|date=November 2008}}
{{Main article|Democratic Kampuchea}}

[[File:Flag of Democratic Kampuchea.svg|left|thumb|Flag of [[Democratic Kampuchea]]]]
[[File:Banner of the Communist Party of Kampuchea.svg|thumb|left|Flag of the [[Communist Party of Kampuchea]]]]
Immediately after its victory, the CPK ordered the evacuation of all cities and towns, sending the entire urban population into the countryside to work as farmers, as the CPK was trying to reshape society into a model that Pol Pot had conceived.

The new government sought to completely restructure Cambodian society. Remnants of the old society were abolished and religion was suppressed.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=326}}<ref name="auto5">{{Cite journal|title=The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide under the Khmer Rouge, 1975–79|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2468-1733_shafr_sim240100033|access-date=2020-10-04|website=The SHAFR Guide Online|doi=10.1163/2468-1733_shafr_sim240100033|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Agriculture was collectivised, and the surviving part of the industrial base was abandoned or placed under state control. Cambodia had neither a currency nor a banking system.

Within the CPK, the Paris-educated leadership—[[Pol Pot]], [[Ieng Sary]], [[Nuon Chea]], and [[Son Sen]]—were in control. A new constitution in January 1976 established Democratic Kampuchea as a Communist People's Republic, and a 250-member Assembly of the Representatives of the People of Kampuchea (PRA) was selected in March to choose the collective leadership of a State Presidium, the chairman of which became the head of state.

Prince Sihanouk resigned as head of state on 2 April.<ref name=":0" /> On 14 April, after its first session, the PRA announced that [[Khieu Samphan]] would chair the State Presidium for a 5-year term. It also picked a 15-member cabinet headed by Pol Pot as prime minister. Prince Sihanouk was put under virtual house arrest.

Democratic Kampuchea's relations with Vietnam and Thailand worsened rapidly as a result of border clashes and ideological differences. While communist, the CPK was fiercely nationalistic, and most of its members who had lived in Vietnam were purged. Democratic Kampuchea established close ties with the People's Republic of China, and the Cambodian-Vietnamese conflict became part of the Sino-Soviet rivalry, with Moscow backing Vietnam. Border clashes worsened when the Democratic Kampuchea military attacked villages in Vietnam. The regime broke off relations with Hanoi in December 1977, protesting Vietnam's alleged attempt to create an Indochina Federation. In mid-1978, Vietnamese forces invaded Cambodia, advancing about {{convert|30|mi|km}} before the arrival of the rainy season.

The reasons for Chinese support of the CPK was to prevent a pan-Indochina movement, and maintain Chinese military superiority in the region. The Soviet Union supported a strong Vietnam to maintain a second front against China in case of hostilities and to prevent further Chinese expansion. Since Stalin's death, relations between Mao-controlled China and the Soviet Union had been lukewarm at best. In February to March 1979, China and Vietnam would fight the brief [[Sino-Vietnamese War]] over the issue.

In December 1978, Vietnam announced the formation of the [[Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation]] (KUFNS)<ref name=":0" /> under [[Heng Samrin]], a former DK division commander. It was composed of Khmer Communists who had remained in Vietnam after 1975 and officials from the eastern sector—like Heng Samrin and Hun Sen—who had fled to Vietnam from Cambodia in 1978. In late December 1978, Vietnamese forces launched a full invasion of Cambodia, capturing Phnom Penh on 7 January 1979 and driving the remnants of Democratic Kampuchea's army westward toward Thailand.

===Destruction and deaths caused by the regime===
{{Main article|Cambodian genocide}}
[[File:Phnom Penh, Killing Fields of Choeung Ek (6226142426).jpg|left|thumb|[[Choeung Ek]] Monument contains more than 5,000 human skulls.]]
20,000 people died of exhaustion or disease during the evacuation of [[Phnom Penh]] and its aftermath. Many of those forced to evacuate the cities were resettled in newly created villages, which lacked food, agricultural implements, and medical care. Many who lived in cities had lost the skills necessary for survival in an agrarian environment. Thousands starved before the first harvest. Hunger and malnutrition—bordering on starvation—were constant during those years. Most military and civilian leaders of the former regime who failed to disguise their pasts were executed.

Some of the ethnicities in Cambodia, such as the [[Cham people|Cham]] and [[Vietnamese people|Vietnamese]], suffered specific and targeted and violent persecutions, to the point of some international sources referring to it as the "Cham genocide". Entire families and towns were targeted and attacked with the goal of significantly diminishing their numbers and eventually eliminating them. Life in 'Democratic Kampuchea' was strict and brutal. In many areas of the country people were rounded up and executed for speaking a foreign language, wearing glasses, scavenging for food, absent for government assigned work, and even crying for dead loved ones. Former businessmen and bureaucrats were hunted down and killed along with their entire families; the Khmer Rouge feared that they held beliefs that could lead them to oppose their regime. A few Khmer Rouge loyalists were even killed for failing to find enough 'counter-revolutionaries' to execute.
[[File:Cambodia 2011 monuments 09.jpg|thumb|Rooms of the [[Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum]] contain thousands of photos taken by the Khmer Rouge of their victims.]]
When Cambodian socialists began to rebel in the eastern zone of Cambodia, [[Pol Pot]] ordered his armies to exterminate 1.5 million eastern Cambodians which he branded as "Cambodians with Vietnamese minds" in the area.<ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Genocide: Vol. 1-|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Q30HcvCVuIC&pg=PA132|year=1999|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-87436-928-1|pages=132–}}</ref> The purge was done speedily and efficiently as Pol Pot's soldiers quickly killed at least more than 100,000 to 250,000 eastern Cambodians right after deporting them to execution site locations in Central, North and North-Western Zones within a month's time,<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2BTRtIv1_B8C&pg=PT435 | title=Pol Pot: The History of a Nightmare | page=435 | author=Philip Short| isbn=9781444780307 | date=2013-04-25 | publisher=John Murray Press }}</ref> making it the bloodiest episode of mass murder under Pol Pot's regime.

Religious institutions were not spared by the Khmer Rouge as well, in fact [[religion]] was so viciously persecuted to such an extent that the vast majority of [[Khmer architecture|Cambodia's historic architecture]], 95% of Cambodia's Buddhist temples, was completely destroyed.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=la4kBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT23 | title=The Worst World Disasters of All Time | author=Kevin Baker | page=23| isbn=9781456623432 | date=2014-11-03 | publisher=eBookIt.com }}</ref>

[[Ben Kiernan]] estimates that 1.671 million to 1.871 million Cambodians died as a result of Khmer Rouge policy, or between 21% and 24% of Cambodia's 1975 population.<ref name="CAS">{{cite journal|author-link=Ben Kiernan|last=Kiernan|first=Ben|s2cid=143971159|title=The Demography of Genocide in Southeast Asia: The Death Tolls in Cambodia, 1975–79, and East Timor, 1975–80|journal=Critical Asian Studies|volume=35|issue=4|pages=585–597|year=2003|doi=10.1080/1467271032000147041|quote=We may safely conclude, from known pre- and post-genocide population figures and from professional demographic calculations, that the 1975-79 death toll was between 1.671 and 1.871 million people, 21 to 24 percent of Cambodia's 1975 population.}}</ref> A study by French demographer Marek Sliwinski calculated slightly fewer than 2 million unnatural deaths under the Khmer Rouge out of a 1975 Cambodian population of 7.8 million; 33.5% of Cambodian men died under the Khmer Rouge compared to 15.7% of Cambodian women.<ref name="Locard">{{cite journal|last=Locard|first=Henri|title=State Violence in Democratic Kampuchea (1975–1979) and Retribution (1979–2004)|journal=[[European Review of History]]|volume=12|issue=1|pages=121–143|date=March 2005|doi=10.1080/13507480500047811|s2cid=144712717}}</ref> According to a 2001 academic source, the most widely accepted estimates of excess deaths under the Khmer Rouge range from 1.5 million to 2 million, although figures as low as 1 million and as high as 3 million have been cited; conventionally accepted estimates of deaths due to Khmer Rouge executions range from 500,000 to 1 million, "a third to one half of excess mortality during the period."<ref name="Heuveline, Patrick 2001"/> However, a 2013 academic source (citing research from 2009) indicates that execution may have accounted for as much as 60% of the total, with 23,745 mass graves containing approximately 1.3 million suspected victims of execution.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Seybolt|first1=Taylor B.|last2=Aronson|first2=Jay D.|last3=Fischoff|first3=Baruch|title=Counting Civilian Casualties: An Introduction to Recording and Estimating Nonmilitary Deaths in Conflict|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2013|isbn=9780199977314|page=238}}</ref> While considerably higher than earlier and more widely accepted estimates of Khmer Rouge executions, the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam)'s Craig Etcheson defended such estimates of over one million executions as "plausible, given the nature of the mass grave and DC-Cam's methods, which are more likely to produce an under-count of bodies rather than an over-estimate."<ref name="Tufts.edu"/> Demographer Patrick Heuveline estimated that between 1.17 million and 3.42 million Cambodians died unnatural deaths between 1970 and 1979, with between 150,000 and 300,000 of those deaths occurring during the civil war. Heuveline's central estimate is 2.52 million excess deaths, of which 1.4 million were the direct result of violence.<ref name="Heuveline, Patrick 2001">{{cite book|last=Heuveline|first=Patrick|chapter=The Demographic Analysis of Mortality Crises: The Case of Cambodia, 1970–1979|title=Forced Migration and Mortality|publisher=[[National Academies Press]]|year=2001|pages=102–105|isbn=9780309073349|quote=As best as can now be estimated, over two million Cambodians died during the 1970s because of the political events of the decade, the vast majority of them during the mere four years of the 'Khmer Rouge' regime. This number of deaths is even more staggering when related to the size of the Cambodian population, then less than eight million.&nbsp;... Subsequent reevaluations of the demographic data situated the death toll for the [civil war] in the order of 300,000 or less.}}</ref><ref name="Tufts.edu">{{cite web|url=https://sites.tufts.edu/atrocityendings/2015/08/07/cambodia-u-s-bombing-civil-war-khmer-rouge/|title=Cambodia: U.S. bombing, civil war, & Khmer Rouge|publisher=[[World Peace Foundation]]|date=2015-08-07|access-date=2019-08-05|quote=Demographer Patrick Heuveline has produced evidence suggesting a range of 150,000 to 300,000 violent deaths from 1970 to 1975.&nbsp;... One of the more thorough demographic studies, conducted by Patrick Heuveline, also attempts to separate out violent civilian deaths from a general increase in mortality caused by famine, disease, working conditions, or other indirect causes. He does so by grouping deaths within different age and sex brackets and analyzing treatment of these age and sex groups by the Khmer Rouge and violent regimes in general. His conclusion is that an average of 2.52 million people (range of 1.17-3.42 million) died as a result of regime actions between 1970 and 1979, with an average estimate of 1.4 million (range of 1.09-2.16 million) directly violent deaths.|archive-date=14 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190714181839/https://sites.tufts.edu/atrocityendings/2015/08/07/cambodia-u-s-bombing-civil-war-khmer-rouge/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Despite being based on a house-to-house survey of Cambodians, the estimate of 3.3 million deaths promulgated by the Khmer Rouge's successor regime, the [[People's Republic of Kampuchea]] (PRK), is generally considered to be an exaggeration; among other methodological errors, the PRK authorities added the estimated number of victims that had been found in the partially-exhumed mass graves to the raw survey results, meaning that some victims would have been double-counted.<ref name="Tufts.edu"/>

An estimated 300,000 Cambodians starved to death between 1979 and 1980, largely as a result of the after-effects of Khmer Rouge policies.<ref>{{cite book|last=Heuveline|first=Patrick|title=Forced Migration and Mortality|chapter=The Demographic Analysis of Mortality Crises: The Case of Cambodia, 1970–1979|publisher=[[National Academies Press]]|year=2001|isbn=978-0-309-07334-9|page=124}} cf. {{cite news|author-link=Seymour Hersh|last=Hersh|first=Seymour M.|title=2.25&nbsp;million Cambodians Facing Starvation|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=8 August 1979|quote=U.N. and Red Cross officials said here and in Ho Chi Minh city this week that 2.25&nbsp;million Cambodians were facing imminent starvation&nbsp;... "I have seen quite a few ravaged countries in my career, but nothing like this," one official said&nbsp;... Cambodia's social welfare apparatus has been left in shambles, the relief officials said, citing the demolition of hospitals, schools, water supply facilities and sanitary systems&nbsp;... Intellectuals were systematically purged&nbsp;... Of more than 500 doctors known to have been practicing medicine in Cambodia before the defeat of the Lon Nol regime by the communist forces&nbsp;... only 40 have been found&nbsp;... Every home had been systematically ransacked&nbsp;... All signs of modern civilization—typewriters, radios, television sets, phonographs, books—were destroyed&nbsp;... A Roman Catholic cathedral in the center of Phnom Penh had been razed&nbsp;... The former regime was scrupulously methodical in its destruction of hospitals&nbsp;... Cambodia's fall harvest [is] expected to yield almost nothing.}}</ref>

==Vietnamese occupation and the PRK (1979–93)==

{{Main article|People's Republic of Kampuchea|Cambodian–Vietnamese War|United Nations Administered Cambodia}}
{{see also|Cambodian Conflict (1979–1998)|Cambodian humanitarian crisis}}
[[File:FUNSK-emblem.JPG|thumb|right|Emblem of the [[Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation|Salvation Front]] at the former head office in [[Phnom Penh]]]]
On 10 January 1979, after the Vietnamese army and the [[KUFNS]] (Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation) invaded Cambodia and overthrew the Khmer Rouge, the new [[People's Republic of Kampuchea]] (PRK) was established with [[Heng Samrin]] as head of state. Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge forces retreated rapidly to the jungles near the Thai border. The Khmer Rouge and the PRK began a costly struggle that played into the hands of the larger powers China, the United States and the Soviet Union. The Khmer People's Revolutionary Party's rule gave rise to a guerrilla movement of three major resistance groups – the FUNCINPEC (Front Uni National pour un Cambodge Indépendant, Neutre, Pacifique, et Coopératif), the KPLNF (Khmer People's National Liberation Front) and the PDK (Party of Democratic Kampuchea, the Khmer Rouge under the nominal presidency of Khieu Samphan).They made up the [[Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea]] (CGDK).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mpil.de/files/pdf2/mpunyb_keller_9_127_178.pdf |title= Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia and the PRK's rule constituted a challenge on both the national and international political level. On the national level, the Khmer People's Revolutionary Party's rule gave rise... | publisher= Max-Planck-Institut |access-date=26 November 2015}}</ref> "All held dissenting perceptions concerning the purposes and modalities of Cambodia's future". Civil war displaced 600,000 Cambodians, who fled to refugee camps along the border to Thailand and tens of thousands of people were murdered throughout the country.<ref>David P. Chandler, A history of Cambodia, Westview Press; Allen & Unwin, Boulder, Sydney, 1992</ref><ref>Craig Etcheson, ''After the Killing Fields'' (Praeger, 2005), pp24, 27.</ref><ref>Daniel Bultmann (2015) 'Inside Cambodian Insurgency. A Sociological Perspective on Civil Wars and Conflict', Ashgate: Burlington, VT/Farnham, UK, {{ISBN|9781472443076}}.</ref>

Owing to Chinese, U.S., and Western support, the CGDK held Cambodia's UN seat until 1993, long after the Cold War had ended.<ref name="Tufts.edu"/> China has defended its ties with the Khmer Rouge. [[Chinese Foreign Ministry]] spokeswoman Jiang Yu said that "the government of Democratic Kampuchea had a legal seat at the United Nations, and had established broad foreign relations with more than 70 countries".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE51G33W20090217|work=Reuters|first=Ben|last=Blanchard|title=China defends its Khmer Rouge ties as trial opens|date=17 February 2009|access-date=30 July 2019}}</ref>

[[Modern Cambodia#Peace efforts and the free elections|Peace efforts]] began in Paris in 1989 under the [[People's Republic of Kampuchea#Transition|State of Cambodia]], culminating two years later in October 1991 in a comprehensive peace settlement. The [[United Nations]] was given a mandate to enforce a ceasefire and deal with refugees and disarmament known as the [[United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia]] (UNTAC).<ref name="USDOS3">US Department of State. [https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2732.htm Country Profile of Cambodia.]. Retrieved 26 July 2006.</ref>

==Modern Cambodia (1993–present)==
{{Main article|Modern Cambodia|l1=Modern Cambodia (1990–present)}}
[[File:King Norodom Sihamoni (2019).jpg|thumb|right|200px|King [[Norodom Sihamoni]]]]
On 23 October 1991, the Paris Conference reconvened to sign a comprehensive settlement giving the UN full authority to supervise a cease-fire, repatriate the displaced Khmer along the border with Thailand, disarm and demobilise the factional armies, and prepare the country for free and fair elections. Prince Sihanouk, President of the Supreme National Council of Cambodia (SNC), and other members of the SNC returned to Phnom Penh in November 1991, to begin the resettlement process in Cambodia.<ref>{{cite book|author=Nassrine De Rham-Azimi|title=The United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (Untac: Debriefing and Lessons : Report and Recommendations of the International Conference, Singapore, August 1994|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=upheQiz5ofIC&pg=PA68|year=1995|publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers|isbn=978-90-411-0886-9|page=68}}</ref> The UN Advance Mission for Cambodia (UNAMIC) was deployed at the same time to maintain liaison among the factions and begin demining operations to expedite the repatriation of approximately 370,000 Cambodians from Thailand.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/past/unamicbackgr.html |title= Historical background, International Conference on Kampuchea, Paris Conference, Intense diplomatic activity, P-5 proposal, Ceasefire UNAMIC DEPLOYED Establishment, Expansion of mandate, Ceasefire violations | publisher= United Nations |access-date=26 November 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.akp.gov.kh/?p=52688 |title= OPINION: The 1991 Paris Peace Agreement Had Been the Starting Point in the Quest for Peace, Independence, Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity | publisher= AKP |date=23 October 2014 |access-date=26 November 2015}}</ref>

On 16 March 1992, the [[United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia|UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia]] (UNTAC) arrived in Cambodia to begin implementation of the UN settlement plan and to become operational on 15 March 1992 under [[Yasushi Akashi]], the Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary General.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/one-year-after-paris-accords-interview-yasushi-akashi |title= One Year After the Paris Accords: An Interview with Yasushi Akashi | publisher= Phnom Penh Post |date=6 November 1992 |access-date=26 November 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/past/untacmandate.html |title= UNTAC was established by Security Council resolution 745 (1992) of 28 February 1992 | publisher= United Nations |access-date=26 November 2015}}</ref> UNTAC grew into a 22,000-strong civilian and military peacekeeping force tasked to ensure the conduct of free and fair elections for a constituent assembly.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2011-05-28 |title=UNITED NATIONS TRANSITIONAL AUTHORITY IN CAMBODIA (UNTAC) - Facts and Figures |url=http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/past/untacfacts.html |access-date=2022-06-16 |archive-date=28 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110528122307/http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/past/untacfacts.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
Over 4 million Cambodians (about 90% of eligible voters) participated in the May 1993 elections. Pre-election violence and intimidation was widespread, caused by SOC (State of Cambodia – made up largely of former PDK cadre) security forces, mostly against the FUNCINPEC and BLDP parties according to UNTAC.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/democracy/1993_hrp_report/93hrp_report_eap/Cambodia.html |title=CAMBODIA HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES, 1993 |publisher=U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE |date=31 January 1994 |access-date=26 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160909120055/http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/democracy/1993_hrp_report/93hrp_report_eap/Cambodia.html |archive-date=9 September 2016 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/asia/south-east-asia/cambodia/Cambodias%20Elections%20Turn%20Sour.pdf|title=CAMBODIA'S ELECTIONS TURN SOUR – Pre-election violence and intimidation|publisher=International Crisis Group|access-date=26 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304193644/http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/asia/south-east-asia/cambodia/Cambodias%20Elections%20Turn%20Sour.pdf|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref> The Khmer Rouge or [[Party of Democratic Kampuchea]] (PDK), whose forces were never actually disarmed or demobilized blocked local access to polling places.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.seasite.niu.edu/khmer/ledgerwood/free_and_fair.htm |title="Massive irregularities": SOC charges of Voting Fraud |publisher=SEAsite |access-date=26 November 2015 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304093320/http://www.seasite.niu.edu/khmer/ledgerwood/free_and_fair.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Norodom Ranariddh|Prince Ranariddh]]'s (son of Norodom Sihanouk) royalist [[Funcinpec]] Party was the top vote recipient with 45.5% of the vote, followed by Hun Sen's [[Cambodian People's Party]] and the [[Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party]], respectively. Funcinpec then entered into a coalition with the other parties that had participated in the election. A coalition government resulted between the Cambodian People's Party and FUNCINPEC, with two co-prime ministers – [[Hun Sen]], since 1985 the prime minister in the Communist government, and [[Norodom Ranariddh]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/cambodia/government.htm |title= Royal Government of Cambodia [RGC] – The election resulted in a coalition government | publisher= GlobalSecurity |access-date=26 November 2015}}</ref>

The parties represented in the 120-member assembly proceeded to draft and approve a new constitution, which was promulgated 24 September 1993. It established a multiparty democracy in the framework of a constitutional monarchy, with the former Prince Sihanouk elevated to King. Prince Ranariddh and Hun Sen became First and Second Prime Ministers, respectively, in the Royal Cambodian Government (RGC).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cambodia.ohchr.org/klc_pages/KLC_files/section_001/section_01_01_ENG.pdf |title=Constitution of Cambodia |publisher=OHCHR Cambodia |access-date=26 November 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304090810/http://cambodia.ohchr.org/klc_pages/KLC_files/section_001/section_01_01_ENG.pdf |archive-date=4 March 2016 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>

Hun Sen and his government have seen much controversy. Hun Sen was a former Khmer Rouge commander who was originally installed by the Vietnamese and, after the Vietnamese left the country, maintains his [[Strongman (politics)|strong man]] position by violence and oppression when deemed necessary.<ref name=HRWAdams>{{cite web|author=Brad Adams |url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2012/05/31/10000-days-hun-sen |title=Adams, Brad, ''10,000 Days of Hun Sen'', International Herald Tribune, reprinted by Human Rights Watch.org |publisher=Hrw.org |date=31 May 2012 |access-date=15 March 2013}}</ref> In 1997, fearing the growing power of his co-Prime Minister, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, Hun launched a [[1997 Cambodian Coup|coup]], using the army to purge Ranariddh and his supporters. Ranariddh was ousted and fled to Paris while other opponents of Hun Sen were arrested, tortured and some summarily executed.<ref name=HRWAdams/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/54/060.html |title=Open letter to Second Prime Minister Hun Sen from Amnesty International|publisher=Hartford-hwp.com |date=11 July 1997 |access-date=15 March 2013}}</ref>
[[File:Cambodian President of the Senate Hun Sen met United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin during his visit to senior Cambodian government officials in Phnom Penh on June 4, 2024 (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Hun Sen]] was the longest-serving head of government in Cambodia's history.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://apnews.com/article/cambodia-hun-sen-manet-politics-election-9d5f4bb91044ddecf58653e0f87b3390|title=Cambodia's Hun Sen, Asia's longest serving leader, says he'll step down and his son will take over|work=[[Associated Press]]|date=26 July 2023|accessdate=28 July 2023}}</ref>]]
On 4 October 2004, the Cambodian National Assembly ratified an agreement with the United Nations on the establishment of a tribunal to try senior leaders responsible for the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.eccc.gov.kh/en/about-eccc |title=About ECCC – INTRODUCTION |publisher=Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) |access-date=26 November 2015 |archive-date=20 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230820205534/https://www.eccc.gov.kh/en/about-eccc |url-status=dead }}</ref> International donor countries have pledged a US$43 Million share of the three-year tribunal budget as Cambodia contributes US$13.3 Million. The tribunal has sentenced several senior Khmer Rouge leaders since 2008.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cambodiatribunal.org/history/tribunal-background/accused-persons/ |title= Accused Persons – Cambodia Tribunal Monitor | publisher= Cambodia Tribunal Monitor |access-date=26 November 2015}}</ref>

Cambodia is still infested with countless land mines, indiscriminately planted by all warring parties during the decades of war and upheaval.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.seasite.niu.edu/khmer/Ledgerwood/Landmines.htm |title=Landmines in Cambodia |publisher=seasite |access-date=26 November 2015 |archive-date=28 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171128075809/http://www.seasite.niu.edu/khmer/Ledgerwood/Landmines.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The [[Cambodia National Rescue Party]] was dissolved ahead of the [[2018 Cambodian general election]] and the ruling [[Cambodian People's Party]] also enacted tighter curbs on [[Mass media in Cambodia|mass media]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-11-02|title=Cambodia's Government Should Stop Silencing Journalists, Media Outlets|url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/11/02/cambodias-government-should-stop-silencing-journalists-media-outlets|access-date=2021-04-16|website=Human Rights Watch|language=en}}</ref> The CPP won every seat in the National Assembly without a major opposition, effectively solidifying ''de facto'' [[One-party state|one-party rule]] in the country.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2018-07-29|title=Cambodia: Hun Sen re-elected in landslide victory after brutal crackdown|url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/29/cambodia-hun-sen-re-elected-in-landslide-victory-after-brutal-crackdown|access-date=2021-07-17|website=the Guardian|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Authoritarian rule shedding its populist skin in rural Cambodia|url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/authoritarian-rule-shedding-its-populist-skin-in-rural-cambodia/|access-date=2021-04-16|website=openDemocracy|language=en}}</ref>

Cambodia's longtime Prime Minister Hun Sen, one of the world's longest-serving leaders, has a very firm grip on power. He has been accused of the crackdown on opponents and critics. His Cambodian People's Party (CPP) has been in power since 1979. In December 2021, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced his support for his son [[Hun Manet]] to succeed him after the next election, which took place in 2023.<ref>{{cite news |title=Hun Sen, Cambodian leader for 36 years, backs son to succeed him |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/12/2/cambodian-leader-hun-sen-says-he-backs-eldest-son-to-succeed-him |work=www.aljazeera.com |language=en}}</ref>

In [[2023 Cambodian general election|July 2023 election]], the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) easily won by a landslide in a flawed election, after disqualification of Cambodia's most important opposition, [[Candlelight Party]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Jazeera |first1=Al |title=Cambodia PM Hun Sen's party claims 'landslide' in flawed election |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/23/cambodia-votes-in-one-sided-election-with-pm-hun-sen-win-expected |work=www.aljazeera.com |language=en}}</ref> On 22 August 2023, Hun Manet was sworn in as the new Cambodian prime minister.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Petty |first1=Martin |title=Cambodia's new leader Hun Manet, strongman or reformer? |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/cambodias-new-leader-hun-manet-strongman-or-reformer-2023-08-22/ |work=Reuters |date=22 August 2023 |language=en}}</ref>

==See also==
{{portal|Cambodia}}
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
* [[Cambodian monarchs' family tree]]
* [[Economic history of Cambodia]]
* [[History of Buddhism in Cambodia]]
* [[History of Asia]]
* [[Khmer Rouge]]
* [[List of kings of Cambodia]]
* [[List of prime ministers of Cambodia]]
* [[Military history of Cambodia]]
* [[Politics of Cambodia]]
}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

'''Attribution:'''
* {{StateDept}} – [https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2732.htm]

===Works cited===
* {{cite book |last=Short |first=Philip |title=Pol Pot: The History of a Nightmare |year=2004 |publisher=John Murray |location=London |isbn=978-0719565694}}

==Further reading==
* Chanda, Nayan. "China and Cambodia: In the mirror of history." ''Asia Pacific Review'' 9.2 (2002): 1–11.
* Chandler, David. ''A history of Cambodia'' (4th ed. 2009) [https://archive.org/details/david_chandler_a_history_of_cambodia_4th_edition online].
* Corfield, Justin. ''The history of Cambodia'' (ABC-CLIO, 2009).
* Herz, Martin F. ''Short History of Cambodia'' (1958) [https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.16589 online]
* {{cite news |last1=Lupo |first1=Alan |title=Kampuchea in the UN: History and hypocrisy |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_boston-phoenix_1982-10-12_11_41/page/n2/mode/1up |access-date=September 26, 2024 |work=The Boston Phoenix |date=October 12, 1982}}
* Slocomb, Margaret. ''An economic history of Cambodia in the twentieth century'' (National University of Singapore Press, 2010).
* Strangio, Sebastian. ''Cambodia: From Pol Pot to Hun Sen and Beyond'' (2020)

==External links==
{{sister project links|Cambodia}}
* Records of [https://search.archives.un.org/united-nations-advance-mission-in-cambodia-unamic-1991-1992 the United Nations Advance Mission in Cambodia (UNAMIC) (1991-1992)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201203221755/https://search.archives.un.org/united-nations-advance-mission-in-cambodia-unamic-1991-1992 |date=3 December 2020 }} at the United Nations Archives
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20160304090810/http://cambodia.ohchr.org/klc_pages/KLC_files/section_001/section_01_01_ENG.pdf Constitution of Cambodia]
* State Department [https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2732.htm#history Background Note: Cambodia]
* [https://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/co_mission/untacbackgr1.html Summary of UNTAC mission]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20121215064608/http://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/552701 History of Cambodian Civil War] from the [https://web.archive.org/web/20160115205405/https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/552494 Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives]
* [http://countrystudies.us/cambodia/15.htm Cambodia under Sihanouk, 1954–70]
* [http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DEC/Resources/DEWALQUE.PGS351-368.pdf Selective Mortality During the Khmer Rouge Period in Cambodia]
* [http://www.virginialawreview.org/content/pdfs/90/893.pdf Crossroads in Cambodia: The United Nation's responsibility to withdrawn involvement from the establishment of a Cambodian Tribunal to prosecute the Khmer Rouge]{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/133533.stm BBC article]
* David Chandler - [[iarchive:david chandler a history of cambodia 4th edition|A History Of Cambodia, 4th Edition Westview Press ( 2009)]]

{{Cambodia topics}}
{{History of Asia}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Cambodia}}
[[Category:History of Cambodia| ]]