The Dawn of French Indochina: The Years of Calamity and Mouhot's Journey to Angkor

In 1860 a French naturalist named Henri Mouhot, in the region collecting beetles and birds, was guided to the ruins at Angkor. He died of fever in Laos the following year, and his journals were published posthumously in Paris and London. Within three years Cambodia was a French protectorate.

Time Period Covered: 1789 – 1887

What happened in the years leading up to the French colonisation of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam? How did Cambodian rulers become so dependent on either Siam or Vietnam for protection?

In this episode, Lachlan bridges the gap between Cambodia's 'middle period' and the dawn of French colonisation. We begin with the French Revolution and its links with the eventual Khmer Rouge revolution, then explore the imposition of Vietnamese control on Cambodia in the 19th century — the 'years of calamity', and the influence of that period on the psyche of a country dominated by an ascendant Siam and Vietnam.

Then Mouhot's journey, and the different ways in which the French conquered Cambodia and Vietnam. We also have an introduction to the early years of Saloth Sar, otherwise known as Pol Pot.

Sources
David Chandler A History of Cambodia
Henri Mouhot Travels in Siam, Cambodia and Laos
Philip Short Pol Pot: History of a Nightmare