A Thumbnail History of Cambodia

In preparing for my trip to the fishing villages of Cambodia, I've tried to get a better handle on the country's history and current situation. It's turned out to be a long and complex history with some surprises. Maybe some of what follows will be new to you as well. This will be the barest of bare bones summaries, relying on Wikipedia, Lonely Planet’s Cambodia guide, and the U.S. State Department’s Web site. The tighter the summary, the fewer the details and the greater the likelihood of omitted nuances, and important qualifications. But here goes:

Click for Large Scale Map

Cambodia, is situated somewhat like a dinner plate set between two hungry neighbors--Thailand and Vietnam. Ninety percent of its nearly 15 million people are Khmer. The fact one of its neighbors didn’t just absorb Cambodia and its Khmer people is partly due to French Colonialism.

At  one time Cambodia constituted the largest empire in Southeast Asia, including within its borders what is now Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City).

The history of the Khmer people goes back at least two thousand years. In the 1st Century A.D. Khmer people had settlements along the coast that is now Southern Vietnam. Archeologists have discovered both Persian pottery and Roman coins there. The settlements lay along the sea trading route between India and China, and Indian culture flowed through key ports into Cambodia’s interior, bringing concepts of the caste system, architecture and Buddhism. For the next several centuries Cambodia likely constituted many small states characterized by strategic intermarriages and frequent wars. 

By the Sixth Century the importance of ports declined and the population concentrated along the Mekong and Tonlé Sap rivers. They engaged in wet rice farming, utilizing land that became mineral-rich by Mekong silt deposits—the same deposits which make the Tonlé Sap lake and river such a rich fishery. The U.S. State department reports that about 75 percent of the country lies at elevations of less than 100 meters above sea level, with its most salient topographical feature being the plain formed by inundations of Tonlé Sap. 

The highest elevations lie in the Cardamom Mountains, along the Southwest coast of the country, which reach 1,700 or 1,800 meters high, depending on whether you are using State Department or Wikipedia figures. 

Right up to the 20^th Century, Kings were seen at least as semi-divine, and in 802 Cambodia was unified under its first god-king, Jayavarman II. (See Wikipedia: Khmer Empire) This marked the emergence of the Angkor Empire, whose legacy includes the magnificent temple, Angkor Wat, begun in 1112 as the funery temple for Suryavarman II. During this Ankor period major public works were undertaken, including massive irrigation projects and road and temple construction. Grand projects such as these took their toll on the royal coffers, the population, and on natural resources, such as sandstone—which was all but used up. 

About this time, the Thais were migrating southward to escape pressure from Kublai Kahn's Mongol Hordes, and making incursions into Cambodia. Other factors were taking a toll – deforestation, which may have resulted in siltation of the irrigation system; drought, and conflict among religious factions. By the 1600s the empire was handicapped by a series of weak kings and dissent within the royal family, leading to reliance on support and protection by either the Thais or the Vietnamese. 

Lonely Planet suggests the main factor keeping Cambodia from disappearing entirely was that Thailand and Vietnam were distracted by other problems. In 1864 the French intimidated Cambodian King Norodom into signing a treaty of protection, which generally maintained the integrity of Cambodia’s territory. The French gradually became more involved in Cambodia's internal affairs, and remained, well into World War II, even during part of the Japanese occupation. When Cambodia gained her independence, the French endeavored to hang on to their Laotian and Vietnamese colonies, and the resulting French-Indochina war led to  the defeat of the French, and the involvement of the United States. 

Subsequent years were characterized by the age-old dance of shifting alliances, both within Cambodia and between Cambodia, her neighbors and the United States and China. For example, the Vietnamese, who attracted carpet bombing raids by using Cambodia as a sanctuary from the United States, were later seen as liberators for waging war on the Khmer Rouge, resulting in the halt of the Khmer Rouge genocide.  The United States dropped a half million tons of bombs on Cambodia, forcing Cambodians to flee the countryside for the cities and refugee camps prior to the Khmer Rouge takeover. A full generation after the Vietnam War wound down, millions of unexploded land mines planted by the Vietnamese remain. 

With its long history of shifting alliances, and due to the exhaustion of war and genocide, Cambodia faces enormous challenges. What was once the dominant Southeast Empire of splendor has–despite impressive natural resources—become one of Asia’s poorest countries.

It is the poverty that presents the greatest challenge for maintaining Cambodia’s strategic protein source – the Tonlé Sap fishery—and which raises the question: can a strategy be created that deals with the poverty?

That’s what my traveling companion, Jay Hastings, has been trying to understand the past four years as he consults with his Cambodian government colleagues, the fishing communities, and other experienced non-governmental organizations (NGOs). 

Jay Hastings

He and his government colleagues have been working on a strategy that seeks to address poverty from the bottom up by investing much needed capital into community savings groups by means of no-interest loans. A major purpose of this trip is to see how that strategy is working.  More on that in future blogs.

Author’s note: This blog is produced independently of Sustainable Communities International. Observations, opinions, errors and omissions are solely the responsibility of the writer.