Indian influences 

as the most important

in Cambodia's early history
dr uday dokras

The economy of Cambodia currently follows an open market system (market

economy) and has seen rapid economic progress in the last decade. Cambodia had
a GDP of $24.57 billion in 2018. Per capita income, although rapidly increasing, is
low compared with most neighboring countries. Cambodia's two largest industries
are textiles and tourism, while agricultural activities remain the main source of
income for many Cambodians living in rural areas. The service sector is heavily
concentrated on trading activities and catering-related services. Recently,
Cambodia has reported that oil and natural gas reserves have been found off-shore

In 2019, 2.28 bn international tourists traveled to other countries worldwide.

The U.S. also enjoyed a handsome 166.01 m foreign visitors, resulting in
around $233.46 bn in revenue and 1st place in the global rankings. Cambodia
recorded a total of 7 m tourists in 2019, ranking 59th in the world in absolute
terms.

That smaller countries regularly perform lower in a comparison of the absolute

number of guests, is obvious. By putting the tourist numbers in relation to the
population of Cambodia, the result is much more comparable picture: With
0.40 tourists per resident, Cambodia ranked 110th in the world. In Southeast
Asia, it ranked 6th. Cambodia generated around 5.31 bn US Dollar in the
tourism sector alone. This corresponds to 21.00 percent of its the gross
domestic product and approximately 4 percent of all international tourism
receipts in Southeast Asia.

Year Numberof tourists Receipts

2019 6.61 m 5.31 bn $

2018 6.20 m 4.83 bn $

2017 5.60 m 4.02 bn $

2016 5.01 m 3.52 bn $

1
Tourism in Cambodia is one of the most important sectors in Cambodia's
economy. In 2013, tourism arrivals increased by 17.5 percent year on year, with
business travelers increasing 47 percent.

Tourists at Angkor Wat.

Tourism
Year Change
arrivals

2018 6,201,077  10.7%

2017 5,602,157  11.7%

2016 5,011,712  4.95%

2015 4,775,231  6.1%

2014 4,502,775  7.0%

2
 Tourism
Year Change
arrivals

2013 4,210,165  17.5%

2012 3,584,307  24.4%

2011 2,881,862  14.9%

2010 2,508,289  16.0%

2009 2,161,577  1.7%

2008 2,125,465  1.5%

2007 2,015,128  18.5%

2006 1,700,041  19.6%

2005 1,421,615  34.7%

2004 1,055,202  50.5%

Ranking of international visitor arrivals.

Hindu Culture: By the early centuries of the common era, most of the

principalities of Southeast Asia had effectively absorbed defining aspects of Hindu
culture, religion and administration. The notion of divine god-kingship was
introduced by the concept of Harihara, Sanskrit and other
Indian epigraphic systems were declared official, like those of the south
Indian Pallava dynasty and Chalukya dynasty. These Indianized Kingdoms, a term
coined by George Cœdès in his work Histoire ancienne des états hindouisés
d'Extrême-Orient, were characterized by surprising resilience, political integrity and
administrative stability.

3
Greater India, or the Indian cultural sphere, is an area composed of many
countries and regions in South and Southeast Asia that were historically
influenced by Indian culture, which itself formed from the various distinct
indigenous cultures of these regions. Specifically Southeast Asian influence on
early India had lasting impacts on the formation of Hinduism and Indian
mythology. Hinduism itself formed from various distinct folk religions, which
merged during the Vedic period and following periods. The term Greater India as a
reference to the Indian cultural sphere was popularised by a network of Bengali
scholars in the 1920s. It is an umbrella term encompassing the Indian
subcontinent, and surrounding countries which are culturally linked through a
diverse cultural cline. These countries have been transformed to varying degrees
by the acceptance and induction of cultural and institutional elements from each
other. Since around 500 BCE, Asia's expanding land and maritime trade had
resulted in prolonged socio-economic and cultural stimulation and diffusion of
Hindu and Buddhist beliefs into the region's cosmology, in particular in Southeast
Asia and Sri Lanka. In Central Asia, transmission of ideas were predominantly of a
religious nature. The spread of Islam significantly altered the course of the history
of Greater India.
Cambodia, country on the Indochinese mainland of Southeast Asia. Cambodia
is largely a land of plains and great rivers and lies amid important overland
and river trade routes linking China to India and Southeast Asia.

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.

Cambodia has been blessed with a variety of mineral resources that have the
potential to contribute significantly to the economy. Some of the most critical
minerals in Cambodia include iron ore, copper, and gold. Most of Cambodia's
mineral resources are yet to be adequately exploited due to several factors.
Southeast Asia was in the Indian sphere of cultural influence from 290 BCE to
the 15th century CE, when Hindu-Buddhist influences were incorporated into
local political systems. Kingdoms in the southeast coast of the Indian
Subcontinent had established trade, cultural and political relations with

4
Southeast Asian kingdoms in Burma, Thailand, Indonesia, Malay
Peninsula, Philippines, Cambodia and Champa. This led to
the Indianisation and Sanskritisation of Southeast Asia within the Indosphere,
Southeast Asian polities were the Indianised Hindu-
Buddhist Mandala (polities, city states and confederacies).
Unlike the other kingdoms which existed on the Indian subcontinent,
the Pallava empire which ruled the southeastern coast of the Indian peninsula
did not impose cultural restrictions on people who wished to cross the sea.
The Chola empire, which executed the South-East Asian campaign of Rajendra
Chola I and the Chola invasion of Srivijaya, profoundly impacted Southeast
Asia. This impact led to more exchanges with Southeast Asia on the sea routes.
Whereas Buddhism thrived and became the main religion in many countries of
Southeast Asia, it became a minority religion in India.
The peoples of maritime Southeast Asia — present-
day Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines -are thought to have migrated
southward from South China sometime between 2500 and 1500 BC. The
influence of the civilization which existed on the Indian Subcontinent gradually
became predominant among them, and it also became predominant among the
peoples which lived on the Southeast Asian mainland.
Southern Indian traders, adventurers, teachers and priests continued to be the
dominating influences in Southeast Asia until about 1500 CE. Hinduism and
Buddhism both spread to these states from India and for many centuries, they
existed there with mutual toleration. Eventually the states of the mainland
mainly became Buddhist.
The key drivers of the Indianisation of Southeast Asia were Indian maritime
trade especially the Spice trade, the emissaries of Ashoka, the Buddhist
missions of Emperor Ashoka - the Great,

Indian Navy; The first clear mention of a navy occurs in the mythological

epic the Mahabharata. Historically, however, the first attested attempt to
organise a navy in India, as described by Megasthenes (c. 350—290 BCE), is
attributed to Chandragupta Maurya (reign 322—298 BCE. The Mauryan
empire (322–185 BCE) navy continued till the times of emperor Ashoka (reign
273—32 BCE), who used it to send massive diplomatic missions to
Greece, Syria, Egypt, Cyrene, Macedonia and Epirus. Following nomadic
interference in Siberia—one of the sources for India's bullion—India diverted its
attention to the Malay peninsula, which became its new source for gold and
was soon exposed to the world via a series of maritime trade routes. The period
under the Mauryan empire also witnessed various other regions of the world
engage increasingly in the Indian Ocean maritime voyages.
Buddhist missions
In the Sri Lankan tradition, Moggaliputta-Tissa – who is patronised by Ashoka
– sends out nine Buddhist missions to spread Buddhism in the "border areas"

5
in c. 250 BCE. This tradition does not credit Ashoka directly with sending
these missions. Each mission comprises five monks, and is headed by an
elder. To Sri Lanka, he sent his own son Mahinda, accompanied by four other
Theras – Itthiya, Uttiya, Sambala and Bhaddasala. [5] Next, with Moggaliputta-
Tissa's help, Ashoka sent Buddhist missionaries to distant regions such as
Kashmir, Gandhara, Himalayas, the land of the Yonas (Greeks), Maharashtra,
Suvannabhumi, and Sri Lanka.
Early Common Era—High Middle Ages

Chola territories during Rajendra Chola I, c. 1030 CE.//Model of a Chola (200

—848 CE) ship's hull, built by the ASI, based on a wreck 19 miles off the coast
of Poombuhar, displayed in a Museum in Tirunelveli.

During this era, Hindu and Buddhist religious establishments of Southeast

Asia came to be associated with economic activity and commerce as patrons
entrusted large funds which would later be used to benefit local economy by
estate management, craftsmanship and promotion of trading
activities. Buddhism, in particular, travelled alongside the maritime trade,
promoting coinage, art and literacy.
1. Trade from India: In Java and Borneo, the introduction of Indian
culture created a demand for aromatics, and trading posts here later
served Chinese and Arab markets. The Periplus Maris Erythraei names
several Indian ports from where large ships sailed in an easterly direction
to Chryse. Products from the Maluku Islands that were shipped across
the ports of Arabia to the Near East passed through the ports of India
and Sri Lanka. After reaching either the Indian or the Sri Lankan ports,
products were sometimes shipped to East Africa, where they were used
for a variety of purposes including burial rites.

6
2. Maritime history of Odisha, known as Kalinga in ancient times,
started before 350 BC according to early sources. The people of this
region of eastern India along the coast of the Bay of Bengal sailed up and
down the Indian coast, and travelled to Indo China and
throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, introducing elements of their
culture to the people with whom they traded. The 6th
century Manjusrimulakalpa mentions the Bay of Bengal as 'Kalingodra'
and historically the Bay of Bengal has been called 'Kalinga Sagara' (both
Kalingodra and Kalinga Sagara mean Kalinga Sea), indicating the
importance of Kalinga in the maritime trade. The old traditions are still
celebrated in the annual Bali Jatra, or Boita-Bandana festival held for
five days in October / November.
3. The Chola dynasty (200—1279) reached the peak of its influence and
power during the medieval period. [19] Emperors Rajaraja Chola I (reigned
985-1014) and Rajendra Chola I (reigned 1012-1044) extended the Chola
kingdom beyond the traditional limits. At its peak, the Chola
Empire stretched from the island of Sri Lanka in the south to
the Godavari basin in the north. The kingdoms along the east coast of
India up to the river Ganges acknowledged Chola suzerainty. Chola
navies invaded and conquered Srivijaya and Srivijaya was the largest
empire in Maritime Southeast Asia. Goods and ideas from India began to
play a major role in the "Indianization" of the wider world from this
period.
4. Desinganadu- Quilon or Kollam in Kerala coast, once called
Desinganadu, has had a high commercial reputation since the days of
the Phoenicians and Romans. Fed by the Chinese trade, it was
mentioned by Ibn Battuta in the 14th century as one of the five Indian
ports he had seen in the course of his travels during twenty-four
years. The Kollam Port become operational in AD.825. opened
Desinganadu's rulers were used to exchange the embassies with Chinese
rulers and there was flourishing Chinese settlement at Quilon. The
Indian commercial connection with Southeast Asia proved vital to the
merchants of Arabia and Persia between the 7th and 8th centuries CE.
5. The kingdoms of Vijaynagara and Kalinga established footholds in
Malaya, Sumatra and Western Java
6. The Cholas excelled in foreign trade and maritime activity, extending
their influence overseas to China and Southeast Asia. Towards the end of
the 9th century, southern India had developed extensive maritime and
commercial activity. The Cholas, being in possession of parts of both the
west and the east coasts of peninsular India, were at the forefront of
these ventures. The Tang dynasty (618–907) of China,
the Srivijaya empire in Maritime Southeast Asia under the Sailendras,
and the Abbasid caliphate at Baghdad were the main trading partners.

7
 7. During the reign of Pandya Parantaka Nedumjadaiyan (765–790),
the Chera dynasty were a close ally of the Pallavas. Pallavamalla
Nadivarman defeated the Pandya Varaguna with the help of a Chera
king. Cultural contacts between the Pallava court and the Chera country
were common. Indian spice exports find mention in the works of Ibn
Khurdadhbeh (850), al-Ghafiqi (1150 CE), Ishak bin Imaran (907) and Al
Kalkashandi (14th century). Chinese traveler Xuanzang mentions the
town of Puri where "merchants depart for distant countries."

Angkor Wat

8. Funan: The first of these Hinduised states to achieve widespread

importance was the Kingdom of Funan founded in the 1st century CE
in what is now Cambodia — according to legend, after the marriage of a
merchant Brahmin Kaundinya I with princess Soma who was the
daughter of the chieftain of the local Nāga clan. These local inhabitants
were Khmer people. Funan flourished for some 500 years. It carried on a
prosperous trade with India and China, and its engineers developed an
extensive canal system. An elite practised statecraft, art and science,
based on Indian culture. Vassal kingdoms spread to southern Vietnam in
the east and to the Malay Peninsula in the west.
9. Chenla and Angkor
In late 6th century CE, dynastic struggles caused the collapse of the Funan
empire. It was succeeded by another Hindu-Khmer state, Chenla, which lasted
until the 9th century. Then a Khmer king, Jayavarman II (about 800-850)
established a capital at Angkor in central Cambodia. He founded a cult which
identified the king with the Hindu God Shiva – one of the triad of Hindu gods,
Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, Shiva the god symbolising
destruction and reproduction. The Angkor empire flourished from the 9th to
the early 13th century. It reached the peak of its fame under Jayavarman VII at
the end of the 12th century, when its conquests extended into Thailand in the
west (where it had conquered the Mon kingdom of Dwaravati) and into Champa
in the east. Its most celebrated memorial is the great temple of Angkor Wat,
built early in the 12th century. This summarises the position on the South
East Asian mainland until about the 12th century. Meanwhile, from about the
6th century, and until the 14th century, there was a series of great maritime
empires based on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java. In early days
these Indians came mostly from the ancient kingdom of Kalinga, on the

8
southeastern coast of India. Indians in Indonesia are still known as "Klings",
derived from Kalinga.
Indianised early kingdoms

A. Funan kingdom
The first indigenous kingdom to emerge in Indochina was referred to in
Chinese histories as the Kingdom of Funan and encompassed an area of
modern Cambodia, and the coasts of southern Vietnam and
southern Thailand since the 1st century CE. Funan was an Indianised
kingdom, that had incorporated central aspects of Indian institutions,
religion, statecraft, administration, culture, epigraphy, writing and
architecture and engaged in profitable Indian Ocean trade.
B. Champa kingdom
By the 2nd century CE, Austronesian settlers had established an
Indianised kingdom known as Champa along modern central Vietnam.
The Cham people established the first settlements near
modern Champasak in Laos. Funan expanded and incorporated
the Champasak region by the sixth century CE, when it was replaced by
its successor polity Chenla. Chenla occupied large areas of modern-day
Laos as it accounts for the earliest kingdom on Laotian soil.
C. Chenla kingdom
The capital of early Chenla was Shrestapura which was located in the
vicinity of Champasak and the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Wat
Phu. Wat Phu is a vast temple complex in southern Laos which
combined natural surroundings with ornate sandstone structures, which
were maintained and embellished by the Chenla peoples until 900 CE,
and were subsequently rediscovered and embellished by the Khmer in
the 10th century. By the 8th century CE Chenla had divided into “Land
Chenla” located in Laos, and “Water Chenla” founded by
Mahendravarman near Sambor Prei Kuk in Cambodia. Land Chenla was
known to the Chinese as “Po Lou” or “Wen Dan” and dispatched a trade
mission to the Tang Dynasty court in 717 CE. Water Chenla, would come
under repeated attack from Champa, the Medang sea kingdoms in
Indonesia based in Java, and finally pirates. From the instability the
Khmer emerged.
D. Khmer kingdom
Under the king Jayavarman II the Khmer Empire began to take shape in
the 9th century CE.
E. Dvaravati city state kingdoms
In the area which is modern northern and central Laos, and
northeast Thailand the Mon people established their own kingdoms

9
 during the 8th century CE, outside the reach of the
contracting Chenla kingdoms. By the 6th century in the Chao Phraya
River Valley, Mon peoples had coalesced to create the Dvaravati
kingdoms. In the 8th century CE, Sri Gotapura (Sikhottabong) was the
strongest of these early city states, and controlled trade throughout the
middle Mekong region. The city states were loosely bound politically, but
were culturally similar and introduced Therevada Buddhism from Sri
Lankan missionaries throughout the region

The French protectorate of Cambodia  French: Protectorat français du

Cambodge) refers to the Kingdom of Cambodia when it was a
French protectorate within French Indochina, a collection of Southeast Asian
protectorates within the French Colonial Empire. The protectorate was
established in 1863 when the Cambodian King Norodom requested the
establishment of a French protectorate over his country,
meanwhile Siam (modern Thailand) renounced suzerainty over Cambodia and
officially recognised the French protectorate on Cambodia.
Cambodia was integrated into the French Indochina union in 1887 along with
the French colonies and protectorates
in Vietnam (Cochinchina, Annam and Tonkin). In 1946, Cambodia was granted
self-rule within the French Union and had its protectorate status abolished in
1949. Cambodia later gained its independence and the independence day was
celebrated on 9 November 1953.
Poor and sometimes unstable administration in the early years of French
rule in Cambodia meant infrastructure and urbanisation grew at a much lesser
rate than in Vietnam and traditional social structures in villages still remained.

During the 19th century, the kingdom of Cambodia had been reduced to a
vassal state of the Kingdom of Siam (Rattanakosin rule) which had annexed its
western provinces, including Angkor while growing influence from the
Vietnamese Nguyễn dynasty threatened the eastern portion of the country.
After the French establishment of a colony in Cochinchina (present-day
southern Vietnam) in 1862, King Norodom of Cambodia requested a French
protectorate over his kingdom. At the time, Pierre-Paul de La Grandière,
colonial governor of Cochinchina, was carrying out plans to expand French rule
over the whole of Vietnam and viewed Cambodia as a buffer between French
possessions in Vietnam and Siam.
On 11 August 1863, Norodom signed a treaty acknowledging a French
protectorate over his kingdom. Under the treaty, the Cambodian monarchy was
allowed to remain, but power was largely vested in a resident general to be
housed in Phnom Penh. France was also to be in charge of Cambodia's foreign
and trade relations as well as provide military protection. Siam later recognised

10
the protectorate after France ceded the Cambodian province
of Battambang and recognised Thai control of Angkor.
Colonial Rule of France: The seat of the Governor-General for the whole of
French Indochina was based in Saigon until the capital moved to Hanoi in
1902. Cambodia, being a constituent protectorate of French Indochina, was
governed by the Résident Supérieur (Resident-General) for Cambodia, who was
directly appointed by the Ministry of Marine and Colonies in Paris. The
Resident-General was in turn assisted by Residents, or local governors, who
were posted in all the provincial centres, such as, Battambang, Pursat, Odong,
and Siem Reap. Phnom Penh, the capital, was under the direct administration
of the Resident-General.

Revolt of 1885–1887
The first decades of French rule in Cambodia included numerous reforms into
Cambodian politics, such as the reduction of the monarch's power and
abolition of slavery. In 1884, the governor of Cochinchina, Charles Antoine
François Thomson, attempted to overthrow the monarch and establish full
French control over Cambodia by sending a small force to the royal palace in
Phnom Penh. The movement was only slightly successful as the governor-
general of French Indochina prevented full colonisation due to possible
conflicts with Cambodians and the monarch's power was reduced to that of
a figurehead.

In 1885, Si Votha, half brother of Norodom and contender for the throne, led a
rebellion to dispose of the French-backed Norodom after coming back from
exile in Siam. Gathering support from opposers of Norodom and the French, Si
Votha led a rebellion that was primarily concentrated in the jungles of
Cambodia and the city of Kampot where Oknha Kralahom "Kong" led the
resistance. French forces later aided Norodom to defeat Si Votha under
agreements that the Cambodian population be disarmed and acknowledge the
resident-general as the highest power in the protectorate. [5] Oknha Kralahom
"Kong" was called back to Phnom Penh to discuss peace with King Norodom
and the French officials, but was taken captive by the French army and
subsequently killed, officially putting an end to the rebellion.

11
Administrative reorganisation

King  Sisowath greeting French officials in 1911//King Norodom, the monarch who

initiated overtures to France to make Cambodia its protectorate in 1863 to escape
Siamese pressure
In 1896, France and the British Empire signed an accord recognizing each
other's sphere of influence over Indochina, especially over Siam. Under this
accord, Siam had to cede the province of Battambang back to the now French-
controlled Cambodia. The accord acknowledged French control over Vietnam
(including the colony of Cochinchina and the protectorates of Annam and
Tonkin), Cambodia, as well as Laos, which was added in 1893 following French
victory in the Franco-Siamese War and French influence over eastern Siam.
The French government also later placed new administrative posts in the
colony and began to develop it economically while introducing French culture
and language to locals as part of an assimilation program.
In 1897, the ruling Resident-General complained to Paris that the current king
of Cambodia, King Norodom was no longer fit to rule and asked for permission
to assume the king's powers to collect taxes, issue decrees, and even appoint
royal officials and choose crown princes. From that time, Norodom and the
future kings of Cambodia were figureheads and merely were patrons of the
Buddhist religion in Cambodia, though they were still viewed as god-kings by
the peasant population. All other power was in the hands of the Resident-
General and the colonial bureaucracy. This bureaucracy was formed mostly of
French officials, and the only Asians freely permitted to participate in
government were ethnic Vietnamese, who were viewed as the dominant Asians
in the Indochinese Union.
In 1904, King Norodom died and rather than pass the throne on to Norodom's
sons, the French passed the succession to Norodom's brother Sisowath, whose
branch of the royal family was more submissive and less nationalistic to
French rule than Norodom's. Likewise, Norodom was viewed as responsible for
the constant Cambodian revolts against French rule. Another reason was that
Norodom's favourite son, who he wanted to succeed him as king, Prince

12
Yukanthor, had, on one of his trips to Europe, stirred up public opinion about
French colonial brutalities in occupied Cambodia.
France later tightened its control over Cambodia while expanding the
protectorate's territory in 1902 and 1904 through treaties with Siam, which
added Preah Vihear Province and Champasak Province to Cambodia and gave
France full control over the Bassac River respectively. Prior to Cambodia's
historical claim over Stung Treng Province, in 1904 an exchange occurred
wherein Cambodia ceded Champasak and obtained Stung Treng from French
Laos. Later territorial disputes between France and Siam
over Battambang and Siem Reap Provinces led to the accidental French
annexation of Trat Province in 1904.
Both France and Siam agreed to do a territorial exchange based on the Franco-
Siamese treaty of 1907. From this, the French gained the provinces
of Battambang and Siem Reap, originally Cambodian territory until the latter
part of the 18th century. The acquirement of these provinces would be the last
phase of French territorial expansion in Indochina as Siam would later co-
operate with the British in the region, who feared uncontrolled French
expansion and control of Siam would upset the balance of powers in Indochina.
Originally serving as a buffer territory for France between its more important
Vietnamese colonies and Siam, Cambodia was not initially seen as an
economically important area. The colonial government's budget originally relied
largely on tax collections in Cambodia as its main source of revenue, and
Cambodians paid the highest taxes per capita among the French colonies in
Indochina. Poor and sometimes unstable administration in the early years of
French rule in Cambodia meant infrastructure and urbanisation grew at a
much lesser rate than in Vietnam and traditional social structures in villages
still remained.
However, as French rule consolidated after the Franco-Siamese War,
development slowly began in Cambodia, where rice and pepper crops allowed
for the economy to grow. To foster exports, modern agricultural methods were
introduced, particularly by colonial entrepreneurs who had been granted land
concessions in the Battambang province (West).
As the French automobile industry grew, rubber plantations like the ones
already in Cochinchina and Annam were built and run by French investors.
Economic diversification continued throughout the 1920s, when corn and
cotton crops were also grown. Despite economic expansion and investment,
Cambodians still continued to pay high taxes and in 1916, protests broke out
demanding for tax cuts.
Infrastructure and public works were also developed under French rule, and
roads and railroads were constructed in Cambodian territory. Most notably, a
railway connected Phnom Penh with Battambang on the Thai border.

13
Industry was later developed but was primarily designed to process raw
materials for local use or for export. As in nearby British Burma and British
Malaya, foreigners dominated the work force of the economy due to French
discrimination against the Cambodians from holding important economic
positions. Many Vietnamese were recruited to work on rubber plantations and
later immigrants played key roles in the colonial economy as fisherman and
businessmen. Chinese Cambodians continued to be largely involved in
commerce but higher positions were given to the French.
Unlike in Vietnam, Cambodian nationalism remained relatively quiet during
much of French rule mostly due to lesser education influence, which helped
literacy rates remain low and prevented nationalist movements like those
taking place in Vietnam. However, among the French-educated Cambodian
elite, the Western ideas of democracy and self-rule as well as French
restoration of monuments such as Angkor Wat created a sense of pride and
awareness of Cambodia's once powerful status in the past.
In education, there was also growing resentment among Cambodian students
of the minority Vietnamese holding a more favoured status. In 1936, Son Ngoc
Than and Pach Choeun began publishing Nagaravatta (Notre cité) as a French
language anti-colonial and at times, anti-Vietnamese newspaper. Minor
independence movements, especially the Khmer Issarak, began to develop in
1940 among Cambodians in Thailand, who feared that their actions would
have led to punishment if they had operated in their homeland.
Following its independence from France in 1953, the Cambodian state has
undergone five periods of political, social, and economic transformation:

1. Kingdom of Cambodia (1953-1970)
2. Khmer Republic (1970–1975)
3. Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1982, ousted in 1979); became Coalition
Government of Democratic Kampuchea in exile (1982-1993)
4. People's Republic of Kampuchea (1979-1989), later renamed The State of
Cambodia (1989–1992)
5. Kingdom of Cambodia (1993–present)

14