Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Lovek and Oudong
Thai records suggest that the capital may have returned briefly to Angkor around 1467,
but by the early sixteenth century
Ang Chan
(1505/1516-56) had set up court at
Lovek
. While the Thais were busy fending off advances from invading Burmese, Ang
Chan gathered an army and made a successful attack on the Thais, managing to regain
control of towns such as Pursat and Battambang, which had been lost when Angkor
was abandoned.
The sixteenth century saw the arrival of the first
Western
missionaries and explorers in
Cambodia; though the former were utterly unsuccessful in gaining converts, some of
the latter became influential within the Khmer establishment, such as the Spanish
adventurers Blas Ruiz and Diego Veloso, whose knowledge of firearms would
eventually earn them marriages with Cambodian princesses and provincial
governorships under
King Satha
(1575-94). Accounts of the time, by Spanish and
Portuguese colonials from the Philippines and Malacca respectively, report
multicultural trading settlements at Lovek and Phnom Penh, with quarters for
Chinese, Arabs, Japanese, Spanish and Portuguese; the area around these two towns
was the most prosperous in the country, trading in gold, animal skins and ivory, silk
and precious stones.
The Khmer court continued to face threats from the
Thais
, however, forcing King
Satha to ask the Spanish in the Philippines for help, although this aid never
materialized and Satha fled to Laos (where he subsequently died), while Lovek was
sacked by the Thais in 1594. The succession subsequently passed rapidly to a number
of kings, including
Chey Chettha
, who established a new capital at
Oudong
, between
Lovek and Phnom Penh, where it would remain for some two hundred years.
Towards the end of the seventeenth century, the
Vietnamese
began to move south
into Champa and, before long, into the Mekong delta. Cambodia was now squeezed
between two powerful neighbours, and over the next century the royal family
aggravated matters by splitting into pro-Vietnamese and pro-Thai factions, the crown
changing hands frequently. The populace, without a strong king to look to, paid scant
regard to what was said in Oudong, which further aggravated the king's inability to
resist invasions.
Events took a turn for the worse in 1767 when a Thai prince sought refuge in
Cambodia, intending to set up a government in exile. This incensed the Thai general,
Taksin, who launched an invasion, destroyed Phnom Penh and assumed control of
Cambodia for several decades. The Thais put a 7-year-old prince,
Ang Eng
(1779-97),
on the throne under a Thai regent, and then reinforced their influence by taking him
to Bangkok, where he stayed for four years. On his return, he installed himself at
Oudong, where he died in 1797, leaving four sons and a lineage that lasts to this day.
The run-up to the French protectorate
Worsening to-ing and fro-ing between the Thais and Vietnamese ultimately led to the
Cambodians appealing to France for protection. Ang Eng's eldest son and heir,
Ang
Chan
, was only 6 at the time of his father's death and didn't assume the throne for nine
years. Meanwhile, the Thais annexed the province of Battambang, which then stretched
as far as Siem Reap, and which remained under Thai rule until 1907. By the time he
was crowned monarch,
Ang Chan (1806-34) had become fervently anti-Thai and
Early to mid-12th century
1177
Late 12th-early 13th century
Suryavarman II (1113-50) commissions the
building of Angkor Wat, along with numerous
other works. The empire of Angkor now
stretches from Burma to Vietnam
Cham invade
Angkor and
sack Angkor
Thom
Jayavarman VII (1181-1218) defeats Cham in a
great naval battle on Tonle Sap, rebuilds Angkor
Thom and embarks on a spree of construction
works including Ta Prohm and the Bayon
