This entry covers several thousand years, starting with the maritime Funan civilization, continuing to the shrine-building Angkorean civilization, cruising through French colonialization and bringing us to 1970, and the involvement of the US in Cambodian politics. Clearly, this is meant as a brief overview and not a thorough thesis on the subject. Again, see the references on the previous blog for more information, particularly David Chandler's The History of Cambodia.
Evidence of human occupation of Cambodia can be found as early as 4,000 BC, but there is no reason to believe that humans didn’t occupy this land before then. It is unclear where exactly these first Cambodians came from, India through Burma and Thailand, China through Vietnam, or Indonesia across the sea. What is known is that the first permanent and organized civilization on record in Cambodia emerged around 100 AD, in what scholars have termed the Funan civilization. Descriptions of this society are found primary in Chinese scrolls written by traveling scholars and adventurers, and hence, are subject to some bias. The center of the Funan civilization was near Phnom Pen, on the Mekong River. This civilization served as an important trading port between India and China.
The Funan civilization diminished by about 600 AD, when the Angkorean civilization (the civilization that built Angkor Wat and pretty much every other sacred temple site in Cambodia) came into being, and with it, the first historical writings by the Khmer in Sanskrit. And this brings up an important point. Much of the culture of Cambodia was imported from India. Not only in terms of a written language, Sanskrit, but also in terms of religion. Khmer civilization adopted both Hindu and Buddhist beliefs, and in many cases, combined the two. Indeed, during the Angkorean civilization, which last from roughly 600-1400 AD, every ruler felt it his duty to construct a temple to a patron saint. The rulers felt that without pleasing the deity, who controlled the rain, and hence the survival of their agrarian society, that they could not be successful in their rule. It is then no surprise that religious shrines, dedicated to Siva, Vishnu, and Buddha are scattered all over Cambodia, and are considered some of the greatest works of ancient architecture. Ankgor Wat is one such temple.
Angkor Wat is the central temple of the ancient city of Angkor, which includes many temples and shrines, and served as the center of Khmer civilization for the majority of time that the civilization existed. It was built by Jayavarman VII, who is considered to be the greatest ruler of the ancient Khmer civilization. He consigned more temples and structures than any other ruler. After him, the civilization declined and broke up into individual city states by 1300 or 1400. At this time, bordering kingdoms, including Siam, Vietnam, and China,. were beginning to carve out pieces of Cambodia for their own.
Around the start of the 19th century, European superpowers began invading Southeast Asia. The French took over Vietnam and Cambodia, the Dutch controlled most of Indonesia, including Java, the British took over Burma and India, and the Phillipines fell to the Portugese. Colonial rule persisted until World War II, when the Japanese swept through Southeast Asia and conquered nearly every country therein, including Cambodia. After WWII, the French were given back control of Cambodia as a protectorate.
However, in 1953, Cambodia was granted independence. Its leader, King Sihanouk, an avid filmmaker, stayed in power until a US sponsored coup ousted him in 1970, while, ironically, he was in New York at a United Nations meeting. The Khmer Republic, led by Lon Nol, was established. The impetus behind US involvement was its desire to bomb the border territory with Vietnam, where many Viet Cong were hiding. King Sihanouk wouldn't allow it, but with the new government in place, US troops were given free reign to invade Cambodia, and carpet-bombed much of its jungles, and so they did. Unsurprisinlgy, this led to a public relations and humanitarian nightmare. The majority of Cambodians, especially those from rural communities (many of which were destroyed in the "strategical" bombings) became violently opposed to the new government. It was at this moment that the Khmer Rouge, a radical communist group, led by the European-educuated Pol Pot, starting picking up momentum, and recruits. Exiled King Sihanouk, though opposed to the Khmer Rouge, plead with his people to join Pol Pot and rise up against the Lon Nol government. Many loyalists to the King joined forces with the Khmer Rouge, barely even knowing, or caring, what communism was. As we will see in the next and final entry in this series, this mistake would have cataclysmic effects on the Cambodian people; effects whose reverberations are still felt vividly today.
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