Historic Background Of Cambodia

The highly advanced Indianised Khmer (Cambodian) culture and civilisation developed sometime between the 1st and the 6th centuries, when the country was a part of the Funan Empire, a South East Asian kingdom that dominated the region. The Khmer Empire that followed the Funan Empire lasted till the 15th century, and was Cambodia’s Golden Age- the era when the famous Angkor Wat was built, and the country became a cultural and religious power. This era ended with the Thai invasion in 1431 an event that led to 150 years of bloodshed on both sides. In the interim, European powers like the Dutch, the Spanish and the Portuguese arrived in the area, with France not far behind. By 1863, French influence grew in the area, largely due to ineffectual Cambodia rulers. Within 21 years, the French had pushed the country into a treaty whereby it became a virtual colony of France.

Cambodia saw some years of unrest during the period the French were masters. After independence that came in 1953, things took a turn for the worse. Political instability eventually resulted in an army coup that ousted King Sihanouk in 1968; a year later, the country was bombed by the USA thus dragging Cambodia into the US-Vietnam war. That was the beginning of Cambodia’s bad times- 20 years of genocide, civil war and incessant strife were to follow under the regime of the communist Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge regime was the most brutal of attempts to radically transform a society. Hundreds of thousands of Cambodians were forced into hard labour, the entire educated class was liquidated; the mass slaughter reached its apex in 1978 -79 by which time, over a million Cambodians were dead. Their reign of terror continued till a breakaway faction allied with the Vietnamese to fight it out for control of the country. The ensuing civil war continued till 1993, when the Paris Peace Treaty and the subsequent UN-sponsored elections helped bring a semblance of peace to the country. It heralded the beginning of the end for the Khmer Rouge and by 1998, the Khmer Rouge had lost the little hold it had left, especially after Pol Pot’s death the same year.