Modern day Cambodia (or Kampuchea as it is known locally) draws its name from the Ancient Khmer Empire – an Empire that was at one point the largest in the World. The Khmer Empire began in the 8th Century AD and grew to its peak in the 12th Century under the leadership of Jayavarman VII. The Khmer Empire saw over the construction of the huge temple complexes at Angkor and complex irrigation systems which gave the empire a surplus of rice – two monolithic achievements that indicate just how culturally advanced the Khmer Empire was. It suffered a gradual decline from the 12th century onwards, culminating in its demise in the 14th Century following defeat at the hands of the Thais, and the dark ages descended on Cambodia. For 400 years Cambodia suffered continuous military defeats against its larger neighbors: Vietnam & Thailand.

In 1863 Cambodia became a French protectorate and a part of French Indochina. Many elements of the French culture were adopted, as is evident to anybody who visits the old Colonial Capital of Phnom Penh. World War 2 left Cambodia in a confused state – passed back and forth between Japan and France until it eventually ended up a semi-sovereign nation under French sovereignty. This was not enough for the Cambodians, and King Sihanouk’s popular crusade of independence was achieved in 1953.

Cambodia remained neutral during the US-Vietnam conflict that dominated it’s post independence era. King Sihanouk attempted to keep both Vietnamese and Americans out of Cambodia – a move which angered the Americans and led to a concerted CIA campaign to remove him from power. Cambodian politics began to polarize, with General Lon Nol on the right and what later became known as the Khmer Rouge on the left. This ultimately led to a Civil War in the early 1970’s, which was settled by 1975 with the Khmer Rouge victory.

The Khmer Rouge (led by Pol Pot) wanted to reduce Cambodia to ‘year zero’ – they wanted Cambodia to be returned to the glory days of the Khmer Empire, where Cambodia was (or at least they believed it to be) a classless agrarian society. Property rights and currency were abolished, schools and hospitals were closed, the Buddhist Songkha (traditional Cambodian religious leaders) and intellectuals were purged, and a forced urban to rural migration project was implemented. Institutions which had evolved over a period of centuries to govern human behaviour across all walks of life were decimated in a matter of years, along with approximately 2 million Cambodians who lost their lives in the genocide.

In 1979, the Vietnamese successfully overthrew the Khmer Rouge, expelling what remained of their forces to the west of the Country. The Vietnamese Occupation of Cambodia and the Civil War that accompanied it was essentially a Proxy War; a battle ground between Nuclear Superpowers who could not risk a direct confrontation. The PRPK (Hanoi’s client regime in Cambodia, the predecessor of the CPP, or Cambodian People’s Party), was the sole legal political party at the time, although its grasp on power was far from complete. They received extensive support from the Vietnamese, who were themselves supported by the Soviet Union. Remnants of the Khmer Rouge (the group infamous for presiding over the Cambodian genocide in the seventies) waged an insurgency in the West, with support from the Thai military and the Chinese. In terms of military strength, these two rivals were the largest of the Cambodian factions. Meanwhile, the predecessor of the BLDP (Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party) and FUNCINPEC (National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful, and Cooperative Cambodia) provided a non-communist alternative to the PRPK, waging smaller insurgencies elsewhere in the country with support from the USA. These four factions were embroiled in a bloody civil war up until 1989, when the end of the Cold War ended the superpower rivalry which had been fuelling it.

The end of the Cold War paved the way for the UN (United Nations) to begin peace talks in Cambodia. This culminated in the Paris Peace Accords in 1992 which created UNTAC (United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia) – the first attempt the UN ever made in its history towards governing a Nation State. The elections in 1993 saw the creation of a coalition between FUNCINPEC and the CPP, which has lasted through to the present day. The Khmer Rouge finally surrendered in 1997. Since then, Cambodia has enjoyed a sustained period of peace and economic growth that it had been missing for most of the second half of the Twentieth Century.

For more information on Cambodian History visit: