CAMBODIAN TIME LINE

CAMBODIAN TIME LINE

Collected by MEY Sopheaakdei, 2012

c. 5000 B.C. Evidence of cave-dwelling people in northwestern Cambodia.

c. 1000 B.C. Bronze-casting culture centered on Samrong Sen.

c. 200 B.C.-A.D 200 Trading center of Oc-Eo, on South Vietnamese coast, flourishes, while inland kingdom known by Chinese as Funan send tribute to China. This period also marked by early stages of Indianization of Cambodia. Beginnings of writing; implantation of Hindu religion.

5^th Century A.D: First stone inscriptions in Sanskrit and Khmer in Cambodia. Kingdoms known by Chinese as Zhenla send tribute to the Chinese court.

802 A.D.: King Jayavarman II inaugruration dynasty in northwestern Cambodia

802-1431: Hindu-Buddhist kindom known today as Angkor flourishes in northwestern Cambodia. Its influence extends into present-day Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam.

c. 1130: King Suryavarman II builds Angkor Wat, still the largest religious building in the world.

1178-1220: Jayavarman VII, a Buddhist monarch, reigns at Angkor, builds a Bayon and other temples. At his death, stone constructions cease, and inscriptions become rare.

1296: Chinese diplomat, Chou Ta-kuan, visists Angkor and reports his observation.

1430: Thai invasion of Angkor, the last of several, forces Cambodians to abandon it. Cambodia Capital shifts southward to Phnom Penh.

1767: Thai kingdom of Ayudhya defeated by Burmese army. Chaos spreads into Cambodia from Thailand and Vietnam.

1794:  New Thai regime in Bonkok places a teenaged Cambodian prince on the throne of Cambodia. He dies within three years, ushering in a period of Thai-Vietnamese conflict over Cambodia.

1841: A rebellion led by Cambodian officials against Vietnamese control brings on a Thai invasion. Six years later, Vietnamese troops withdraw; Cambodia regain its independence.

1858: Cambodia king, Duang, unsuccessfully seeks protection form the French against the Thai and Vietnames.

1863: France proclaims a protectorate over Cambodia, concluding a treaty with Duang’s son, King Norodom. Protectorate lasts until 1953.

1884-1886: Cambodians revolt against French rule. Rebellion put down by Norodom’s brother, Sisowath, who cooperates with the French.

1904: On Norodom’s death, the French same Sisowath king. He rules until 1927, presides over economic growth.

1927: Sisowath succeeded by his son, Monivong.

1941: Japanese forces occupy Cambodia with consent of French authorities, who remain in day to day control. Monivong dies and is succeeded by his grandson, Norodom Sihanouk, then only nineteen years old.

1945: Japanese imprison French authorities, give Cambodia its independence. At war’s end, French renew their protectorate.

1946-1953: Political parties flourish in Cambodia. French gradually withdraw, under pressure form Communist guerrillas and later from king Sihanouk.

1955: Sihanouk abdicates the throne, starts a political movement that gains all the seats in the National Assembly.

1955-1970: Sihanouk rules Cambodia almost single-handedly. Expands education, pursues neutralist foreign policy to avoid entanglement with Thailand and Vietnam.

1960: Communist Party of Cambodia founded. Three years later, it comes under the leadership of Saloth Sar, who later takes revolutionary name of Pol Pot.

1963: Sihanouk breaks off economic relations with the United States.

1966-1967: Communist insurgency in Cambodia forces Sihanouk to counter by installing pro-American government. In South Vietnam,  war between United States and its anti-communist allies against North Vietnam and South Vietnamese communists expands.

1969: U.S. planes, with Sihanouk’s secret approval, bomb Vietnamese supply lines inside Cambodia.

1970: Sihanouk overthrown, while overseas, by his own cabinet. Vowing revenge, Sihanouk takes command of Cambodian Communist forces pledged to overthrow new government, which is allied with United States.

1975: Communist forces capture Phnom Penh, control Cambodia, evacuate the cities, and inaugurate a far-reaching revolutionary program throughout the country.

1976-1978: Democratic Kampuchea (D.K.), the new Communist government in Cambodia, presides over at least a million deaths among Cambodians from starvation, overwork, diseases, and executions.

1977: D.K. forces conduct brutal raids into Communist Vietnam. Cambodia communist party purges many of its members, accusing them of working for the Vietnam. China supports Democratic Kampuchea.

1979: Vietnamese Communist army invades Cambodia and places a pro-Vietnamese government in power in Phnom Penh. Pol Pot and other D.K. figures flee to Thailand.

1981: Pol Pot, Sihanouk, and a former Cambodian prime minister, Son Sann, form a coalition government in exile that gains recognition from the United Nations. U.S.S.R., Soviet bloc, and India recognize Cambodia Vietnames-sponsored government in Phnom Penh.

1981-1989: Diplomatic isolation of Cambodia prevents its economic development, while Vietnamese military forces in Cambodia prevent Democratic Kampuchea and coalition from regaining power. People’s Republic of Kampuchea, founded by Vietnamese, gains domestic confidence and popularity.

1989: P. R. P. changes its name to State of Cambodia. Vietnamese withdraw their troops from Cambodia. Civil war breaks out soon afterward along Thai frontier.

1990: Several international conferences convened to seek peace in Cambodia.

1991:

1993:

1998:

2003:

2008:

2013