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When it comes to Cambodia, the first thing that comes to mind is the words "poor" and "backward". Indeed, as a small country located on the Indochina Peninsula, Cambodia is not only backward in economic and scientific and technological development, but also not rich in natural resources, and will naturally become relatively poor in today's economic globalization.
But you know what? A long time ago, Cambodia was also a famous power in East Asia, creating the famous "Angkor civilization", which is a world-famous ancient culture, but why is it declining now?
1. Glorious Cambodia
Cambodia, fully known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a parliamentary monarchy located in the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia, bordering Thailand, Laos and other countries, with a total area of about 180,000 square kilometers and a population of about 16 million, making it one of the poorest countries in the entire Indochina Peninsula.
Although Cambodia's economy cannot catch up with Vietnam and other countries, in fact, from the perspective of geographical conditions, Cambodia has comparative advantages.
Its whole is a butterfly basin, three of which are hills and mountains, only one side is relatively gentle, but its middle is a large plain, not only the soil is fertile, conducive to the cultivation of crops, but also accounts for three-quarters of the entire Cambodian country area, that is, about 130,000 square kilometers, which is a treasure land.
In addition to the vast area, Cambodia has the existence of the "Mekong" and Tonle Sap Lake (also known as Phnom Penh Lake), which brings rich fresh water resources to Cambodia, you know, Tonle Sap Lake is known as the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, and its freshwater resources are second to none in Southeast Asia. Therefore, from these aspects, Cambodia's development has no small advantages.
But unfortunately, in the wave of economic globalization in the last century, Cambodia did not play its own advantageous conditions, making the domestic economic development difficult, and it is still one of the poorest countries in Southeast Asia and is often ridiculed.
However, although Cambodia's economic development is not good today, far behind Vietnam and other countries, but a long time ago, Cambodia was the premier powerful empire in Southeast Asia, with a developed civilization, and its history is even longer, dating back to around the first century AD.
Around the first century AD, after years of development, the local people of Cambodia, through their own efforts, finally established Cambodia's first unified dynasty, the Funan Dynasty.
Although compared with the Han Dynasty on the mainland at that time, Funan is not worth mentioning, but as an independently developed Funan Dynasty, it has an irreplaceable role for the Cambodian people and is a symbol of the Cambodian people who are truly united.
However, there is a saying in the mainland, "the general trend of the world, divided for a long time, must be divided for a long time", as the first unified dynasty in Cambodia, Funan gradually decayed and decayed over time, and was replaced by other dynasties that rose.
And the successors of the Funan Dynasty also repeated the old path of the Funan Dynasty: development - glory - loneliness. This continued until the establishment of the Angkor dynasty.
In the 9th century AD, under the rule of the rulers of the Angkor Dynasty, the Angkor Dynasty ushered in its own peak, reaching its peak in Cambodia.
Not only did he conquer everywhere, but he conquered a large territory and ruled more than half of the Indochina Peninsula. It has absorbed many foreign cultures and laid a solid foundation for the development of Cambodian civilization.
And unlike the flash in the pan of Cambodia's previous dynasties, the glory of the Angkor Dynasty lasted for hundreds of years, from the 9th century to the 14th century AD, which was the glory period of the Angkor Dynasty.
Angkor Wat
Even the world-famous Angkor Wat was built during this period, and the ancient Angkor culture developed and expanded at this time. It can be said that Cambodia at that time was the strongest and most developed country in the entire Indochina Peninsula, and it was the envy of other countries on the Indochina Peninsula.
But unfortunately, with the passage of time, the Angkor dynasty was also buried in the river of time, the glorious Angkor culture gradually declined, and now Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in the Indochina Peninsula. Have you ever wondered, why is that?
Second, the reasons for the decline
In fact, the earliest beginning of Cambodia's decline dates back to the mid-14th and 15th centuries. In the middle of the 14th century, the Angkor Dynasty at that time began to show signs of decline because it existed for too long and the country's political structure was corrupt.
At the same time, Thailand near Cambodia established the Sukhothai dynasty, and its national strength was a period of rise, and in the invasion of the Sukhothai dynasty, the Angkor dynasty gradually declined, and began to become an insignificant small country in Central and South Asia.
In the 19th century, due to the backwardness of weapons and equipment, and systems, Cambodia suffered from the invasion of Western powers, represented by France. After France invaded Vietnam and other countries, it has always been very excited about Cambodia's fertile soil, and after finding a reason, it brazenly invaded Cambodia.
And the Cambodian ruler at that time, because of corruption and incompetence, the people of the country did not support him, and when the French colonists called, the Cambodian people not only did not resist, but also welcomed the French colonization. In this way, under the blow of internal and external troubles, the last dynasty of Cambodia collapsed.
However, France did not cancel the Cambodian royal family, but retained Cambodia's royal status, good food and drink, and nominally Cambodia is still royal management, in fact, in layman's terms, it is the British constitutional monarchy.
Setting up a puppet king on the surface can not only loot all kinds of resources for France, exploit the people, but also reduce the anger of the local people against France, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone. This situation continued until World War II.
During World War II, Japan marched into Cambodia to fight the French colonial forces. In order to protect their homeland, the local Cambodian people also formed guerrilla groups and began to deal with the Japanese army.
According to statistics, during World War II, Cambodia invested a total of more than 100,000 soldiers to resist Japan, which was the most invested by soldiers in the Cambodian War of Resistance.
After the end of World War II, Cambodia joined forces with France to drive out the Japanese army, and in order to completely become independent, Cambodian guerrillas began to confront the French army again.
It was not until 1953, after years of war, that Cambodia finally drove the French colonists out of Cambodia and established an independent state.
But soon, the so-called color revolutions in the United States rose around the world, and Cambodia suffered greatly, and in 1970, Lang No, with the support of the United States, staged a coup d'état and established the Khmer Rouge regime.
Although the Khmer Rouge regime flaunts the banner of independence, democracy and freedom, it is in fact an extremely brutal regime that has no intention of developing the economy and is bent on fighting for power.
During the Khmer Rouge regime, more than 2 million Cambodians were executed and starved to death, causing anger and resistance among the Cambodian people.
In 1978, because of the great increase in strength of Vietnam, taking advantage of Cambodia's civil strife, it took the opportunity to send troops to invade Cambodia and began a new round of colonial rule over Cambodia.
Although Vietnam's colonial rule was more relaxed than that of France, as a colony, Cambodia's economic development would naturally lag behind. On the contrary, Vietnam has developed better and better by plundering Cambodia and has become a power in Southeast Asia.
It was not until the late 90s of the last century that Cambodia, with its own resistance and the support of the United Nations, freed itself from Vietnamese colonization and established a new independent state, now the Kingdom of Cambodia.
However, for many reasons, where Cambodia was first founded, the domestic political situation was turbulent, the struggle for power, or coups d'état occurred one after another, and no leader was single-mindedly thinking about the country's development.
Therefore, Cambodia at that time naturally missed the wave of economic globalization, and its domestic economic development was very backward, and it was once one of the least developed countries in the world.
It was not until around the new century, after Cambodia's political situation stabilized, that the Cambodian government had the time and energy to develop the domestic economy and improve the living standards of the people.
In 2016, with the efforts of the Cambodian people, it finally got rid of the title of global least developed country and became a lower-middle-income country.
However, its economic level is still poor, the annual gross national product is only about 27 billion US dollars, and the per capita GDP is only about 1700 US dollars, which is far from many countries, and it is within the scope of still need to be worked on.