Edward Ochanas
Ms. Zeserman
World History Period 5
May 31st 2016
French Imperialism in Cambodia
As a country, both with and without imperialism, Cambodia’s existence has been disastrous. After being imperialised by the French in 1863, Cambodia was poor and treated unjustly, and now, after declaring independence in 1953, Cambodia is poor and it’s government is unmanageable. It is a small Southeast Asian country, bordered by Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and th. e Gulf of Vietnam. It is largely agricultural and it’s largest exports are timber, rice, rubber, and fish. Other than agriculture, Cambodia prospers off of tourism to the various temples and to the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh.
Cambodia has a population of about 13 million, 1.1 million of which live in the country’s capital, Phnom Penh. It’s national religion is Theravada Buddhist with the less common, but still accepted religions, of Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity. The official language of Cambodia is Khmer; however, many people in Cambodia can speak French and/or English. The government of Cambodia has changed a lot within the past 50 years. In 1970, Cambodia was dragged into the Vietnam War and a pro western military government took control of the country by overthrowing Prince Norodom Sihanouk. In 1975, Pol Pot’s regime overtook the county and killed millions of Cambodians whilst forcing communism upon the country. A few years later, Vietnam occupied Cambodia until 1989, and then in 1991, UN peace treaties were signed, causing the country to be fine for the most part. After 2 more years, Sihanouk returned to Cambodia, and reclaimed his place as king.
Cambodia was imperialised in 1863 by the French. A protectorate was established over them after King Norodom of Cambodia requested one. Norodom asked for a protectorate because he feared tensions with the Thai and the Vietnamese. The French accepted the request for three main reasons: the natural resources in the area, the fact that Cambodia was on the sea route to China, and the surrounding land on the Pacific Rim. It was important for it to be on the sea route to China because of all the trade opportunities within it. The natural resources in the area include bananas, cacao, rubber, and sugar.
In Cambodia, life under the French rule was quite saddening. Underneath the protectorate, Cambodia was allowed to have it’s monarchy stay; however, they were stripped of most of their rights to trade or perform significant political activities. They couldn’t create treaties, nor could they decide to create a pact with a foreign nation without French approval. Cambodia was given high taxes and many of their jobs were taken away and given to the Vietnamese.
The end of imperialism in Cambodia wasn’t as easy to end as one might think. Since it is a protectorate, and it is controlled mainly by the French, one would expect that they could just agree with them to allow Cambodia to be free. This, however, was not the case. After World War II, when the French reestablished the protectorate and drove out the Japanese occupiers, Communist fighters started a campaign against the French rule. After 7 years of this campaign, the Cambodians finally claimed independence from the French protectorate. Sadly, this was to little avail, as peace only lasted for 16 years after the end of the protectorate.
In the 16 years of peace, a lot changed for Cambodia. Sihanouk and his father rule the country, with his father as king and Sihanouk as prime minister. Sadly, in 1960, his father does die; however, he becomes head of state. In the next 5 years, the Cambodians cut off all relations with the United States and allied with the North Vietnamese against the South Vietnamese. Then, 4 years later, in 1969, the peace stopped in Cambodia. The United States launched secret bombings against the North Vietnamese housed on Cambodian soil. The following year, Lon Nol overtook the government and forced the military to fight against their once allies, the North Vietnamese. The Cambodians lose tons of land to the North Vietnamese and go through about 20 more years of horrid tension, in which about 2 million Cambodians died from war, torture, malnutrition, or disease, until 1991 when a treaty is finally signed with the UN, allowing Sihanouk to return as king and allowing peace to return to the country.
Free and Imperialised Cambodia both faced many, many issues; however, in is quite clear that until at least the late 90s, life under the French-Cambodian protectorate was much better. There was a lot less bloodshed and tension over these 90 years than the 40 years that followed. Instead of being plagued by the wars and torture of the heavily communist government, they had their government’s authority limited and their taxes raised. Instead of having their weak army being pressured by Vietnam and Thailand, they were defended with the strong French military.
Nonetheless, there were a multitude of positive effects from Cambodia becoming free from French rule. The positive effects such as: the Cambodian people having more money, the country being able to do what is in it’s own interests, and it gave the country more technologically advanced things once they became free. The Cambodian people would have more money because they are no longer heavily taxed by the French and because they have more freedom to perform different jobs, like becoming merchants and dignitaries. After being free, the Cambodian people and the country itself could focus more on it’s own interests. Instead of being largely limited to producing crops for the French, they could get other jobs, like those stated above. The country could also have it’s own decision on whether it wanted to be a monarchy, aristocracy, or autocracy and also it could decide it’s own political values and what countries it wanted to fight against and with. Being free also allowed the country to more easily utilise the technology that the French had left after/during World War II.
The negative effects of becoming free included, but wasn’t limited to the disruption and unmanageability of the government, war, and the encroachment of Cambodian land. The government of Cambodia rapidly changed views after various changes in leadership and rulers. It went from a monarchy to a socialist state to a democracy to a communist state and finally back to a democracy, with the different leaders wanting to be allies with North Vietnam and others that kicked North Vietnam out of Cambodia and began fighting them. War in Cambodia was widespread. There were many wars surrounding and affecting the area, such as: the Vietnam War, Indochina War, World War II, the Cambodian Civil War, and the Cambodian genocide. The encroachment of Cambodian land was also another negative effect of becoming free, as when they went to war with the North Vietnamese, they actually lost their own land to them.
In conclusion, most of Cambodia’s history has been disastrous, including war, instability in the government, and pressure from other nations. French imperialism in Cambodia definitely was not as bad as after the French left because without it, Cambodia is left unprotected from the surrounding countries and also unprotected from their own government. The line of rulers succeeding the French rule were so extraordinarily different in what they wanted for the country that they kept the nation in constant turmoil. The French protectorate over the country gave them exactly what they needed, which was stability. Although they did take away power from Cambodia and treated them unfairly, it is certainly better than what came after the protectorate ended.