Cambodia And Indonesia Post Colonialism

The Cambodian Genocide was the result of imperialism, ethnic supremacy, ultra-nationalism, anti-colonialism, a power grab, and religion. It began with the Cambodian people struggling against French colonization and grew in inspiration from Vietnam (end genocide). The French believed that Cambodia was a gateway into China to expand their trade with Southeast Asia. The French occupied southern Vietnam and wanted to expand their territory. There were many civil wars and invasions in Cambodia fought between the Vietnamese and Thai, and it greatly affected Cambodia. While the French did help Cambodia become independent and grew their infrastructure, while exploiting Cambodian labor, they failed to educate Cambodian people and establish a solid and effective judiciary system (Cambodia tribunal). Thus began their feelings of anti-colonialism. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. used Cambodia as a base to regroup, but also bombed the country to kill suspected Viet Cong targets. This began their feelings of imperialism and ultra-nationalism. The Khmer Rouge began feeling great animosity towards the West for their influenced corruption to Cambodian land and its people. Between January and August of 1973, 300,000 Cambodians were killed by American bombers that had joined forces with Lon Nol, head of the Khmer Republic.

There is an extensive history empirical power, repeatedly and successfully controlling another state or group of people in order to exploit it economically. In Southeast Asia there were 5 colonial powers; the United Kingdom, France, Dutch, America, and Japan, their primary motives for establishing colonies in the region was to get control of trade routes, to get access to the natural resources and raw materials, and the cheap labor, as well as to establish naval and military bases so that they could amass influence in the region. Prior to World War II, a third of the world 's area was colonized by European colonial powers between the 15th and 19th centuries, and another third of the world 's population were in colonies, dependencies, protectorates, or dominions. In this essay, I will focus on the British and French colonization in Southeast Asia. The British-controlled Burma, most of the Malayan peninsula, and Singapore, which was a strategic port and later became a naval base for the British. Meanwhile, the French controlled the adjoining countries of Vietnamese, Cambodia, and Laos, collectively known as French Indochina. This period of colonization in Southeast Asia brought many changes to the regions society, politics, and the economy. For instance, both colonial powers introduced political changes such as introducing a centralized form of government and changes to the justice systems in many of the colonized countries. There were also social impacts resulting from the

In the 1950s Cambodia gained its independence from France and became peacefully ruled by Prince Sihanouk. In the 1960s, Cambodia was dragged into the Vietnam War and in 1970, the prime minister General Lon Nol assumed power and announced the implementation of the Khmer Republic and sent the Khmer Republic’s army to fight the North Vietnamese in Cambodia (Smith-Hefner 264). Prince Sihanouk formed a communist guerrilla

Cambodia holds an affluent and alluring history. Throughout this paper the writer will discuss different topics impacting Cambodia’s history, positive and negative impact of colonization, economic, political, cultural and social legacies, and to answer if western countries or colonizer are responsible to help solve some of the lasting problems of colonization.

There exists a country in Southern Asia, known as Cambodia. This is a small and poor country that experienced dramatic changes in the past century. The Cambodian, or Khmer, society was a very capitalistic country consisted a small population of the rich and a large majority of the poor. The wealth gap between the rich and the poor proved to be fatal. This unreliable economic system soon became the cause of the Khmer Civil War in 1967. This civil war was started by the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), who later renamed themselves to Khmer Rouge. Led by Pol Pot, this Kampuchea party was made up of mainly the lower and middle class who greatly despised the rich, who they believed shared a narcissistic view and an extreme corruption. The Khmer Rouge was able to defeat the Khmer Republic and took over

In 1953 Cambodia gained independence after nearly a century of French rule. The country was ruled by a monarch, Prince Sihanouk. In 1970, Sihanouk was deposed in a coup while in a foreign country. General Lon Nol, gained power. He announced the plan of the Khmer Republic and sent the Army to fight the North Vietnamese in Cambodia. Sihanouk formed a small independent group with Cambodian Communists. The Khmer Rouge was lead by Pol Pot from 1962. During the early 1970s, the Cambodian Army faced two enemies: the North Vietnamese and Communist Khmer Rouge guerrillas.

Imperialism changed the society of the mother countries colonies. When British started establishing themselves in Southeast Asia in the 1800’s the people of Canton were not happy about their presence. They referred to the English “as nature's more greedy than anacondas or swine,” (The People of Canton, 3) and “Dogs, whose desires can never be satisfied.” (The People of Canton, 12) They thought that the only way to rebel against them, even if the gods are disappointed in them at the moment. Not all societies viewed the British as a “villainous,” and “beast-like.” The people of India thought the British helped their society for the better. The English helped them with the “destruction of dacoits, thugs, pindarees and other pests of Indian Society.”

However, my mother at the time was only sixteen and the media in Vietnam was primarily propaganda; therefore, she didn’t know much about foreign aspects. As a result, my grandmother joined us for assistance. I asked them why Vietnam allied the Soviet Union and why Cambodia allied China. After a while, my mother stated that Vietnam needed to protect themselves from the two countries; Cambodia was unquestionably the aggressor while China aided them. As a result, they need the ally to at least put the conflict to a stalemate. However, my mom added that Vietnam had a strong relationship with China; both nations only went to warfare years later due to both countries making a deal. The deal was that Vietnam would give their Islands to China and China would aid them in the Vietnam War. The issue was that Vietnam refused to transfer island sovereignty over; causing China to side with Cambodia to fight Vietnam. I then asked what happened to Cambodia’s king and their former prime ministers. After my mother and grandmother debated the question, they explained the complex situation. Both Vietnam and China strived to establish separate governments; Vietnam selected Heng Samrin to lead the newly established country. China on the other hand demanded of King Sihanouk, former Prime Minister Son Sann, and former Prime Minister Khieu Samphan to become the leading men. However, with

In the early 1950s Vietnam declared independence from the French rule, much like Cambodia had done in 1954 during the excitement of World War II. The product of Vietnam’s freedom was the division of a communist north and democratic south. The clashing differences of major powers resulted in a civil war that affected several different countries, including Cambodia. The United States intervened in the war on the behalf of southern Vietnam, who also embraced the Western culture. The United States offered a wide range of military aid in the form of bombs, airpower, and defoliants. The prince of Cambodia at the time, Sihanouk, attempted to play both north and south Vietnam to reserve neutrality between the three countries. Northern Vietnam was granted

The Communist Party of Kampuchea, also known as the Khmer Rouge, took control of Cambodia on April 17, 1975, which lasted until January 1979. For their three-year, eight-month, and twenty-one day rule of Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge committed some of the most heinous crimes in current history. The main leader who orchestrated these crimes was a man named Pol Pot. In 1962, Pol Pot had become the coordinator of the Cambodian Communist Party. The Prince of Cambodia, Norodom Sihanouk, did not approve of the Party and forced Pol Pot to flee to exile in the jungle. There, Pol formed a fortified resistance movement, which became known as the Khmer Rouge, and pursued a guerrilla war against Sihanouk’s government. As Pol Pot began to accumulate power,

To start, the Khmer Rouge rose to power during a turbulent time in Cambodia, and their policies were founded on false promises. Cambodia had been a French colony for years until 1953, when they finally received independence. Norodom Sihanouk soon took over the government, but Lon Nol, his general, later secured Cambodia in a military coup (Krkljes). The country’s tumultuous political history would allow the Khmer Rouge to establish control. Pol Pot, the leading figure of the Khmer Rouge, was a member of the Kampuchean

In 1940s, because of supporting by the Vietnamese, the Cambodian communist movement was created to fight against France colonization. In 1962, Pol Pot had become the leader of CPK was flee into the jungle to escape from King Norodom Sihanouk, because

The CPK had started its revolution; slowly taking over Cambodia had finally ruled it over by April 17, 1975. While doing so they had also been recruiting people who seemed worthy enough to help make this revolution happen. Their forces had grown up 700,000 some being children who were taken and forcibly recruited. During that time they had defeated Lol Nol (general of Cambodia) and his forces. They had controlled about 85 percent of the countries territory and had killed about 300,000 citizens for the next three years if they seemed to have any intellect who had seemed unworthy of the new world. It took about 20 years for the “roots” to take control and grow. After taking over and defeating the army, they

Some say that Pol Pot was responsible for the power and control of Cambodia because “Pol Pot cut Cambodia off from the world. He banned foreign and minority languages and attacked the neighboring countries of Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand in an attempt to regain ancient ‘lost territory’” (The life of Pol Pot- Cambodia 4). This statement is true because the Khmer Rouge did gain part of their power by isolating the country, but Pol Pot is not fully responsible for that. There were other people involved, like Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan all of these people were also leaders in the Khmer Rouge. Nuon Chea was the second leader in the Khmer Rouge he is known as “The evil genius of the movement” (Chandler 1), because he is the one who was in charge of the prison system. He was one of the one’s with a heartless mind, planning tortures and executing innocent people.

Accordingly, in 1877, French started the first reforming program of the Khmer society and the two vital factors that forced French to program this social reform were economic-business and political reform. In about 14 years, French couldn’t expand their business activities in Cambodia because Cambodia people were living in feudal tradition not free market policy. Indeed, because French expected to expand their power in Indochina as it already had the agreement system in both the regions and social structures, so French demanded to change society, traditions and transform Cambodia from feudalism to capitalist country which will practice the free market system like France. However, the officials, feudal lords and the local seemed to ignore this reforming program and it made French’s authority to be furious. The French officials complain that situation in Cambodia is still the worst, subsequently, in march 1884, they insisted on the thoroughing revision of 1863 treaty. Three months later, in June 1884, the French governor of Cochin china, Charles Anthoine Francois Thomas, went to Phnom Penh, Norodom’s capital, and demanded approval of a treaty with Paris that promised far reaching changes such as attempted to overthrow the monarched establish full French over Cambodia by sending a small force to the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, abolition of slavery, the institution of private land ownership, integration of 58 provinces into 8 provinces and the establishment of French residents in provincial cities. In brief, the essence of 1884 agreement continued the meaning of the program in 1877, but what farther adding was to change the control from protectorate into colonization. Regarding this, Governor Charles Thomas’s gunboat churned up the Mekong from Saigon with small army of French marines and Vietnamese rifleman aboard, causing the king reluctantly signed the agreement. However,