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Asia and Oceania
Cambodia |
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Last reviewed: 2 May 2008 |
Country information
HISTORY
The Khmer people have lived in the Indochina area for at least 2,000 years. The Khmer Kingdom, with its capital at Angkor from around 900 AD, was the most powerful mainland Southeast Asian state for most of the period from 802 to 1432. The Kingdom enjoyed its heyday around 1200, when it included much of present-day Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. From 1432 the Kingdom declined, losing much territory to increasingly powerful neighbours.
Cambodia was governed from Hanoi as part of French Indo-China from 1864 until 1953 when King Norodom Sihanouk, who had been placed on the throne by the French in 1941, achieved full independence. He ruled Cambodia until 1970, when Marshal Lon Nol ousted him in a coup. Prince Sihanouk, as he was known from 1955 to 1993, then linked up with the Khmer Rouge, an extreme left-wing party, led by Saloth Sar (later known as Pol Pot), which ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 when it is estimated around 1.7m Cambodians (over 20% of the population) died from starvation, disease or execution. In early 1979 Vietnam invaded Cambodia, ousted the Khmer Rouge and established the People’s Republic of Kampuchea (1979-1989), later renamed the State of Cambodia (SOC) (1989-91).
The Khmer Rouge regrouped their forces along the Thai border and waged a war against the Phnom Penh government. The Vietnamese eventually withdrew their forces from Cambodia in 1989, paving the way for the Paris Peace Agreements of 1991 and the establishment of UNTAC (the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia – the largest ever UN peacekeeping operation) from 1991-1993. The country adopted its current name of the Kingdom of Cambodia in 1993. FUNCINPEC (Royalists) won a narrow victory in the UNTAC organised democratic elections in 1993 and formed a coalition government with the Cambodian People's Party (CPP). Heavy fighting broke out between the 2 coalition partners in 1997 in advance of the 1998 elections, which established CPP as the dominant party. The subsequent 1998 elections were won by the CCP. A new coalition government between CPP and FUNCINPEC was formed in November 1998 with Hun Sen as Prime Minister. A Senate was established in 1998.