Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Mainland Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline along the Gulf of Thailand in the southwest. It spans an area of about , dominated by a low-lying plain and the confluence of the Mekong river and Tonlé Sap, Southeast Asia's largest lake. It is dominated by a tropical climate. Cambodia has a population of about 17 million people, the majority of whom are ethnically Khmer. A majority of its population adhere to Buddhism, with Islam & Christianity having a minor presence. Its capital and most populous city is Phnom Penh, followed by Siem Reap and Battambang.
Cambodia has been inhabited for over 5000 years, with its earliest recorded mandala known as Funan. In 802 AD, Jayavarman II declared himself king, uniting the warring Khmer princes of Chenla under the name "Kambuja".Chandler, David P. (1992) History of Cambodia. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, . Cambodia with this became the centre of power of the Khmer Empire. Over 600 years, the Khmer Empire facilitated the spread of first Hinduism and then Buddhism across Southeast Asia and undertook vast infrastructural projects throughout the region, the most famous of which is Angkor Wat. In the 15th century, Cambodia saw a decline in power and territorial losses to its neighbours. In 1863, it became a French protectorate and later a part of French Indochina. During World War II, Cambodia was occupied by Japan. French rule was then restored until Cambodia secured independence in 1953.
Spillover of the Vietnam War in the 1960s destabilised Cambodia and contributed to internal conflict. The civil war ended with the takeover of the Khmer Rouge regime, which carried out the horrific Cambodian genocide from 1975 to 1979. A Vietnamese intervention and occupation deposed the Khmer Rouge, although insurgencies continued until 1999. By 1993 a United Nations peacekeeping mission had restored Cambodia's monarchy, and established a new democratic constitution with elections. The 1997 coup d'état consolidated power under Prime Minister Hun Sen and the Cambodian People's Party (CPP).
Cambodia is a constitutional monarchy and a de jure multi-party state, although the CPP dominates the political system and rules the country as a de facto one-party state. The UN designates Cambodia as a least developed country, given the persistent socio-economic challenges. Agriculture remains its dominant economic sector, with growth in textiles, construction, garments, and tourism leading to increased foreign investment and international trade. Corruption, deforestation, human rights issues and organized crime have remained major challenges in Cambodia's post-conflict development. The official and most widely spoken language is Khmer, although non-Khmer ethnicities also use their own languages.
Etymology
The Kingdom of Cambodia is the official English name of the country. The English Cambodia is an anglicisation of the French Cambodge, which in turn is the French transliteration of the Khmer (, ). Kâmpŭchéa is the shortened alternative to the country's official name in Khmer (, ). The Khmer endonym Kâmpŭchéa is derived from the Sanskrit name Kambujadeśa, composed of Kambuja () and Deśa (), and refers to the legendary sage Kambu Swayambhuva from whom the Khmer kings claimed descent; the name Kambujadeśa literally means "the land of the sons of Kambu". The country was known as Camogia in Europe as early as 1524, as mentioned by Antonio Pigafetta in his work Relazione del primo viaggio intorno al mondo (1524–1525).
History
Prehistory
There exists evidence for a Pleistocene human occupation of what later is Cambodia, which includes quartz and quartzite pebble tools found in terraces along the Mekong River, in Stung Treng and Kratié provinces, and in Kampot province. Some archaeological evidence shows communities of hunter-gatherers inhabited the region during the Holocene: the most ancient archaeological discovery site in Cambodia is considered to be the cave of Laang Spean, which belongs to the Hoabinhian period. Excavations in its lower layers produced a series of radiocarbon dates around 6000 BC. Upper layers in the same site gave evidence of transition to Neolithic, containing the earliest dated earthenware ceramics in Cambodia.
Archaeological records for the period between the Holocene and Iron Age remain equally limited. An event in prehistory was the penetration of the first rice farmers from the north, which began in the third millennium BC., pp. 13–22 Prehistoric evidence are the "circular earthworks" discovered in the red soil near Memot and in the adjacent region of Vietnam in the latter 1950s. Their function and age are still debated, and some of them possibly date from the second millennium BC. Other prehistoric sites of somewhat uncertain date are Samrong Sen (not far from the ancient capital of Oudong), where the first investigations began in 1875,, p. 120 and Phum Snay, in the northern province of Banteay Meanchey.
Iron was worked by about 500 BC, with supporting evidence coming from the Khorat Plateau, in what later is Thailand. In Cambodia, some Iron Age settlements were found beneath Prasat Baksei Chamkrong and other Angkorian temples while circular earthworks were discovered at the site of Lovea kilometres north-west of Angkor. Burials testify to improvement of food availability and trade, and the existence of a social structure and labour organisation.Carter, A. K. (2011). Trade and Exchange Networks in Iron Age Cambodia: Preliminary Results from a Compositional Analysis of Glass Beads. Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association, 30, 178–188. Kinds of glass beads recovered from sites, such as the Phum Snay site in the northwest and the Prohear site in the southeast, suggest that there were two main trading networks at the time. The two networks were separated by time and space, which indicate that there was a shift from one network to the other at about the 2nd–4th century AD, probably due to changes in socio-political powers.
Pre-Angkorian, Angkorian, and Post-Angkor
During the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries, the Indianised kingdoms of Funan and its successor, Chenla, coalesced in what later is Cambodia and southwestern Vietnam. For more than 2,000 years, what was to become Cambodia absorbed influences from India, passing them on to other Southeast Asian civilisations that later became Thailand and Laos.
The scholar George Cœdès refers to the 10th-century Baksei Chamkrong inscription, narrating the Cambodian dynastic legend in which the hermit Kambu Swayambhuva and the celestial nymph Mera unite and establish the Cambodian royal dynasty, first of whom were the Chenla rulers Srutavarman and his son Sreshthavarman. The Khmer Empire grew out of the remnants of Chenla, becoming firmly established in 802 when Jayavarman II (reigned – ) declared independence from Java and proclaimed himself a devaraja. Khmer kings and their followers instituted the cult of the God-king and began a series of conquests that formed an empire which flourished in the area from the 9th to the 15th centuries. During the rule of Jayavarman VIII the Angkor Empire was attacked by the Mongol army of Kublai Khan; the king was able to buy peace.Cœdès, George. (1956) The Making of South East Asia, pp. 127–128. Around the 13th century, Theravada missionaries from Sri Lanka reintroduced Theravada Buddhism to Southeast Asia, having previously sent missionaries in the 1190s.Gyallay-Pap, Peter. "Notes of the Rebirth of Khmer Buddhism", Radical Conservativism. The religion spread and eventually displaced Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism as the popular religion of Angkor, although it did not officially become state religion until 1295 when Indravarman III took power.
The Khmer Empire was the largest Southeast Asian empire during the 12th century. Its centre of power was Angkor, where a series of capitals were constructed during the empire's zenith. In 2007, an international team of researchers using satellite photographs and other modern techniques concluded Angkor to have been the largest pre-industrial city in the world with an urban sprawl of . The city could have supported a population of up to 1 million people.
After a series of wars with neighbouring kingdoms, Angkor was sacked by the Ayutthaya Kingdom and abandoned in 1432 because of ecological failure and infrastructure breakdown. The kingdom's capital was eventually moved to Longvek, which prospered as an integral part of the 16th century Asian maritime trade network. The rivalry with the Ayutthaya Kingdom resulted in several conflicts, including the Siamese conquest of Longvek in 1594.
The hill tribe people were "hunted incessantly and carried off as slaves by the Siamese (Thai), the Annamites (Vietnamese), and the Cambodians"."Slavery in Nineteenth-Century Northern Thailand (Page 4 of 6)". Kyoto Review of South East Asia; (Colquhoun 1885:53).
Formerly part of the Khmer Empire, the Mekong Delta came under Vietnamese control in 1698, with King Chey Chettha II having granted the Vietnamese permission to settle in the area decades before.
Siamese and Vietnamese dominance intensified during the 17th and 18th century, provoking frequent displacements of the seat of power as the Khmer monarch's authority decreased to the state of a vassal. Both powers alternately demanded subservience and tribute from the Cambodian court.
French colonisation In 1863, King Norodom signed a treaty of protection with France. The protectorate of France period lasted until 1953, with a brief interruption while the kingdom was occupied by the Japanese empire from 1941 to 1945 and simultaneously existing as the puppet state of Kingdom of Kampuchea in 1945. Between 1874 and 1962, the total population increased from about 946,000 to 5.7 million."Cambodia – Population ". Library of Congress Country Studies. After King Norodom's death in 1904, France manipulated the choice of king and Sisowath, Norodom's brother, was placed on the throne. The throne became vacant in 1941 with the death of Monivong, Sisowath's son, and France passed over Monivong's son, Monireth, feeling he was too independently minded. Instead, Norodom Sihanouk, a maternal grandson of King Sisowath was enthroned. The French thought young Sihanouk would be easy to control. Under the reign of King Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodia gained independence from France on 9 November 1953.
Kingdom (1953–1970)
In 1955, Sihanouk abdicated in favour of his father to participate in politics and was elected Prime Minister. Upon his father's death in 1960, Sihanouk again became head of state, taking the title of prince. As the Vietnam War progressed, Sihanouk adopted an official policy of neutrality in the Cold War. He allowed the Vietnamese communists to use Cambodia as a sanctuary and a supply route for their arms and other aid to their armed forces fighting in South Vietnam. In December 1967, Washington Post journalist Stanley Karnow was told by Sihanouk that if the U.S. wanted to bomb the Vietnamese communist sanctuaries, he would not object unless Cambodians were killed.Washington Post, 29 December 1967