Cambodia After Angkor (Part One): Caught Between Siam and Vietnam

After Angkor was abandoned, the Khmer court moved south to the Mekong and spent the next four centuries surviving. By the eighteenth century, Cambodian kings were being installed and removed by Bangkok or Hue, and sometimes paying tribute to both at once. This is the part of Cambodian history that almost nobody covers, and it sets the terms for everything that follows.

Time Period Covered: 1431 – 1800

How did the Khmer go from a civilisation which dominated most of mainland Southeast Asia to a reduced vassal state of either the Siamese or the Vietnamese? Why did the capital move from Angkor? And why are the Vietnamese the 'hereditary enemy' of the Khmer?

In this episode, Lachlan covers the 'middle period' or 'dark ages' — the move south, the courts at Longvek and Oudong, and the slow closing of the vice between Siam to the west and Vietnam to the east.

The second half is a brief history of Vietnam: the long march south, the Trinh and the Nguyen, and a political culture built on entirely different foundations to the Khmer one. This eastern neighbour plays a vital role in the story of the region in the 20th century, and no history of the Khmer Rouge works without it.

Sources
 David Chandler A History of Cambodia
Christopher Goscha Vietnam: A New History