CAMBODIA
BRIEF HISTORY
By the middle of the eighteenth century, a new power was to emerge in the East. Thereafter, Cambodia was prey to two competing powers, Siam and Annam, losing the rich province of Cochin China to the latter. Kings were made and unmade by whichever power was in the ascendant. Eventually the arrival of the French during the middle of the nineteenth century established some degree of permanence. Siam was forced to gave up its protective embrace and recognise a French protectorate in 1863, bought by the cession of yet another province. A relatively long period of peace and development ensued until the collapse of France in 1940. The Japanese followed in the wake, returning some of the ceded provinces and establishing a brief fictional "independence". British-Indian troops liberated the country in 1945 but re-established the French as the dominant power. Cambodia, together with Laos and the State of Vietnam, joined the French Union in 1949. The kingdom achieved independence in November 1953 and the Union with France dissolved two years later.
King Sihanouk abdicated in favour of his father in 1955, thereafter concentrating on steering his country between the competing supers who were active in the region. Unpopular with the US, who wished to prosecute their war in Vietnam through Cambodian territory, Sihanouk was overthrown in a US-sponsored coup d'etat in March 1970. The new military regime lasted no longer than the American presence in Vietnam. By April 1975, the Khmers Rouges, a murderous communist guerrilla movement, had taken control of the country. They were to impose a new "Dark Age" over the country that saw the death and disappearance of millions of people. Every level of society lost loved ones, the Royal family high amongst them, as these pages testify. Vietnam soon tired of its malevolent neighbour, invaded in 1978 and established a friendly government of its choosing.
The Vietnamese withdrew their troops in 1991, weary of a war waged against a united nationalistic campaign composed of otherwise antagonistic and disparate guerrilla groups, who recognised Sihanouk as their head. A UN peacekeeping force led by Australia oversaw the establishment of a new constitution and democratic elections in 1993. Sihanouk became King, this time as a constitutional monarch, without ruling or political power. He abdicated his executive powers in favour of his seventh son in exasperation at the failure of the three main political parties to form a permanent government. King Norodom Sihamoni was installed October 2004, although not crowned or enthroned. A unanimous resolution of the National Assembly granted his father, King Norodom Sihanouk, the title of Great King of Cambodia for life.
RULES OF SUCCESSION:
The Royal Council of the Throne may select a successor to the King, from amongst the male members of the dynasty, aged thirty years or over, descended from King Ang Duong II and an adherent of the Buddhist faith.
SOURCES:
Annuaire Administratif de l'Indochine, Imprimerie d'Extreme-Orient, Hanoi, 1920, 1926.
Annuaire du Cambodge, Imprimerie du Protectorat, Phnom Penh, 1893-1897.
Pierre Bitard. 'Études Khmères: Les Membres de la Famille Royale du Cambodge et leurs titres d'apres l'ordonnance de S.M. An Duon'. Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extrême-Orient, No. 48, École Française d'Extrême-Orient, Paris, 1957.
Justin J. Corfield. The Governments of Cambodia, The Sihanouk Years 1945-1970, The Khmer Language & Culture Centre, Melbourne, Australia, 1991.
Justin Corfied. Khmers Stand Up! A History of the Cambodian Government 1970-1975. Monash Papers on Southeast Asia - No 32. Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University, Victoria, Australia, 1994.
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Souverains et Notabilités d'Indochine. Éditions du Gouvernement Général de l'Indochine. IDEO, 1943.
Chau Phraya Thiphakorawang. The Dynastic Chronicles, Bangkok Era, First Reign. 2 Vols. Translated and edited by Thadeus and Chadin Flood, The Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies, Tokyo, 1978.
Chau Phraya Thiphakorawang. The Dynastic Chronicles, Bangkok Era, The Fourth Reign (BE 2394-2411). The Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies, Tokyo, 1965.
Copyright© Christopher Buyers, July 2001 - October 2006