The historical importance of Cambodia in mainland Southeast Asia is out of proportion to its present reduced territory and limited political power. Between the 11th and 13th centuries, the Khmer state included much of the indochinese mainland, incorporating large parts of present-day southern Vietnam, Laos, and eastern Thailand. The cultural influence of Cambodia on other countries particularly Laos and Thailand, has been enormous.
It is not known for certain how long people have lived in what is now Cambodia, where they came from, or what languages they spoke before writing was introduced about the 3rd century CE. Carbon-14 dating indicates that people who made and used pottery inhabited Cambodia as early as 4000 BCE. Those and subsequent findings suggest that those early people, like Cambodians today, were of light to medium build,
constructed their houses on wooden piles, consumed a considerable quantity of fish, and raised pigs and water buffalo.
Whether the early inhabitants of Cambodia came originally or primarily from the north, west , or south is still debated, as are theories about waves of different peoples moving through the region in prehistoric times.
Archaeological finds since 1950 suggest that prehistoric mainland Southeast Asia,
including Cambodia, had a comparatively sophisticated culture. THose finds include artificial circular earthworks thought to be from the 1st millennium BCE. Some scholars have even traced the first cultivation of rice and the first casting of bronze to the region.
Indian influences were the most important in Cambodia’s early history during the first centuries CE, when Chinese and Indian pilgrims and traders stopped along the coasts of present-day CAmbodia and Vietnam and exchanged silks and metals for spices, aromatic wood, ivory,
and gold. Written sources dating from that period are almost entirely in Chinese and describe a kingdom or group of kingdoms flourishing in southern Cambodia, known to Chinese writers as “Funan.” Over a period of 300 years , between the 3rd and 6th centuries CE, its ruler offered gifts from time to time to Chinese emperors. Chinese writers testified to the extent of Indian influence in the kingdom and accounted for it by citing a local story, dating from the 6th century, of an Indian Brahman named Kaundinya who went to the area and “changed its institutions to follow Indian models.” One consequence of that early contact with Indian civilization was introduction of large-scale irrigation, which allowed people to produce three or more crops of rice per year in some districts and brought previously unproductive areas under cultivation ANother was the worship of the Hindu god SHiva, who was conceptualized as a tutelary ancestor or spirit of the soil and was often represented by a stone lingam or phallus. A third was the relatively peaceful co-existence in Cambodia of Hinduism and Buddhism, which endured for more than a thousand years.
French control over Cambodia was an offshoot of French involvement in the neighboring provinces of Vietnam. France’s decision to advance into Cambodia came only when it feared that British and Siamese expansion might threaten its access to the largely unmapped Mekong River, which it assumed (incorrectly)would provide access to central China.
In 1863 French naval officers from Vietnam persuaded Norodom to sign a treaty that gave France control of Cambodia’s foreign affairs. The effect of the treaty was to weaken Siamese protection. A French admiral participated in Norodom’s coronation, with Siamese acquiescence,
in 1864 French naval officers from Vietnam persuaded Norodom to sign a treaty that gave France control of Cambodia’s foreign affairs. THe effect of the treaty was to weaken Siamese protection. A French admiral participated in Norodom’s coronation, with Siamese acquiescence, in 1864.
For the next 15 years or so, the French were not especially demanding, and Norodom benefited from French military help in putting down a series of rebellions. By the late 1870s, however, French officials in Cambodia were pressing for greater control over internal affairs,
shocked by what they regarded as the ineptitude and barbarity of Norodom’s court and eager to turn a profit in Cambodia, they sought to introduce fiscal and judicial reforms. In doing that, the French knew that Norodom’s half brother,
Sisowath, who had ambitions for the throne, would cooperate with them Norodom, however, resisted the reforms,
which he correctly perceived as infringements on his power. Exasperated by his intransigence, The French in 1884 forced him at gunpoint to sign a document that virtually transformed Cambodia into a colony. Soon thereafter provincial officials, feeling threatened, raised guerrilla armies to confront the French.
The rebellion, which lasted until mid-1886, was the only anti-French movement in the kingdom until after World War II.
The French succeeded in suppressing it after agreeing to some concessions to the king, but Norodom's apparent victory was hollow. What the French had been unable to achieve by the convention of 1884, they proceeded to gain through piecemeal action. As Norodom;s health declined and as senior Cambodian officials came to see their interests increasingly linked with French power,
the way was opened for greater French control. In 1897 the French representative in Phnom Penh assumed executive authority, reducing the king’s power to a minimum. Norodom died, embittered and overtaken by events, in 1904 The first 40 years of the French protectorate—whatever French motives may have been—had guaranteed the survival of the Cambodian state and had saved the kingdom from being divided between its two powerful neighbors. Norodom’s successor , Sisowath (ruled 1904–27), was more cooperative with the French and presided benignly over the partial modernization of the kingdom. The northwestern provinces of Bătdâmbâng and Siĕmréab were returned to Cambodia by the Siamese in 1907. By the time Sisowath died, 20 years later, hundreds of miles of paved roads had been built, and thousands of acres of rubber plantations had been established by the French. Resistance to French rule, in sharp contrast to what was happening in neighboring Vietnam, was almost nonexistent.
Sisowath’s eldest son, Monivong, who reigned until 1941, was even more of a figurehead than his father had been. During the 1930s a railway opened between Phnom Penh and the Siamese (Thai) border, while the first Cambodian-language newspaper, Nagara Vatta (“Angkor Wat”), affiliated with the Buddhist Institute in Phnom Penh, conveyed a mildly nationalistic message to its readers.