Cambodia is located in the heart of Southeast Asia. The country shares borders to the north
and west with Thailand, to the northeast with Laos and to the east with Vietnam. The south
of the country has a long and beautiful coastline on the Gulf of Thailand. Cambodia covers an area of 181,035 sq km, which is about half the size of Germany. Water is a dominant feature of the Cambodian landscape and the mighty Mekong River cuts through the country from north to south. Cambodia is also
home to the Tonle Sap (Great Lake), Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake and a rich source of fish.
There are three main mountainous regions in the country. The Elephant and Cardamom
Mountains are in the southwest, the Dangkrek Mountains form the northern border with
Thailand, and the Eastern Highlands rise towards the Laotian and Vietnamese borders.
Climate
Some Cambodians joke that the country has three seasons: hot, hotter and hottest. There is some
truth to this, as Cambodia does have three main seasons: the wet season which usually starts in
May or June and continues until September or October; the windy season which starts in November
and continues through January; and the dry hot season which starts in February and lasts until
May. Even during the wet season, it rarely rains all day. Most downpours come in the afternoon and,
even then, only sporadically.
The history of Cambodia has been profoundly influenced by its location midway between the two
great cultures of India and China. Indian traders brought their great religions, Hinduism and
Buddhism, their written languages, Sanskrit and Pali, and their sculpture and arts. The Chinese
brought their scholars and diplomats who were the first to record the emerging kingdoms of the
Funan period. Eventually these disparate kingdoms were united under the reign of Jayavarman II and Cambodia entered the golden age of Angkor. Jayavarman II proclaimed himself a devaraja (God king), the earthly representative of Shiva, in 802 and set about consolidating his kingdom. The capital settled at Angkor and from the 9th to the 13th centuries, the Khmer kings created the largest empire mainland Southeast Asia has ever seen.
At its height it stretched from the borders of modern-day Burma in the west to the Mekong Delta in the east, from modern day Laos in the north to what is southern Thailand today. By the reign of Jayavarman VII in the late-12th century, Angkor had a population of almost one million when London was a city of just
40,000. However, disaster was lurking in the wings. Overpopulation, deforestation and siltation conspired to choke the vast hydraulic system that helped fuel and feed the empire.
Religious rivalry and dynastic intrigue sparked small-scale civil wars and ascendant neighbours began to conquer the outposts.
Siam sacked Angkor several times, but in 1431 there was to be no recovery. The Khmer kings decided to relocate the capital to the area around Phnom Penh, strategically safer and closer to the old trade routes that had created the empire. The period from the 15th to 19th centuries was a time of weakness and insecurity for Cambodia, as neighboring Thailand and Vietnam grew more powerful. Cambodia was in danger of disappearing from the map until the French entered in 1863 and made the country a protectorate. The French did little to develop Cambodia's infrastructure during their 90 years of rule, but they did help the country to survive as a recognized entity and negotiated the successful return of Angkor and the western provinces from Siam (now Thailand).
Cambodia achieved independence in 1953 and enjoyed a long period of prosperity and stability. However, as the conflict in Vietnam began to escalate, Cambodia found itself sucked into the vortex. Prince Sihanouk was overthrown in a coup in March 1970 and Lon Nol moved closer to the USA. Full scale civil war erupted: Prince Sihanouk and the Khmer Rouge on one side and Lon Nol and the Americans on the other. It was a bloody conflict with thousands killed on both sides, including many
victims of US bombing. Eventually the Khmer Rouge came to power on 17 April 1975 and embarked on one of the most radical revolutions the world has ever seen. Cities were evacuated, money abolished and the clocks turned back to Year Zero in a complete break from the past.
Cambodia became a prison without walls. By the time of their overthrow in January 1979, millions of
Cambodians were dead through execution, starvation, disease and overwork.
The Cambodian resistance and their Vietnamese allies took Phnom Penh on 7 January 1979 and set
about rebuilding the shattered country. It was an almost impossible task thanks to a desperate
famine and the geopolitics of the Cold War. A new phase of civil war rumbled on until 1991, when the
United Nations successfully negotiated a peace agreement with all sides. Free elections were held
in 1993 which saw the Cambodian People's Party and Funcinpec form a coalition which has continued
in one form or another until today. Cambodia became a member of ASEAN in 1999 and joined the WTO in 2005.
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