Khmer Collapse

The Indus River Valley Civilization also known as the Harappa civilization was a thriving civilization in its time, form about 2500-1700 BCE, until its mysterious disappearance. The Indus River Valley Civilization was anchored by two major cities Harappa in the north and Mohenjo-Daro in the southwest and extending from the upper Ganges rivers to the Arabian Sea, which is a region encompassed by modern India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. This Civilization also traded extensively with Asia, Mesopotamians, and Egypt. The Indus civilization had fertile soil but also had annual flooding which both fertilized and destroyed their farmlands, their stable foods were wheat, barley, cattle domestic animals. Additionally, the Indus Valley Civilization displayed

introduction: The Mongol Empire was the largest country in the world around early 1200s. But the Mongol Empire was finally declined. The history of the Mongols is interesting because the rise and decline of Mongols was so quick. The history of the Mongol Empire shows a lot of political skills, such as the leadership of Genghis Khan, the political of Kublai Khan, and the two aspects between civilization and barbarian of the Mongols.

The collapse of the Han and the Roman Empires during the classical era has some similar factors on the social and economic aspects, namely the decline in the trade and the widespread epidemic disease. However, each faced unique factors contributing to their collapse. In the Han Empire, the weak emperors didn't have a proper position as a emperor while the influence of army generals rise up gradually, whereas Rome’ ineffective later emperors concerned more with a life of pleasure than a desire to rule wisely.

Those who refused to vacate their towns, were slaughtered, as were those who were physically unable to do so. The Khmer Rogue also began to implement their radical Maoist and Marxist ideologies, with their ultimate goal being to transform Cambodia into a rural, classless society with no gap in wealth or status. Essentially all foreign influence, and any traces of traditional Cambodian culture were abolished and erased from history. All political and social rights were neglected, with families being torn apart and intentionally sent to separate labour camps. Infrastructure was dissolved, and professionals in any field, were murdered in addition to their family. Religion was suppressed, and all temples and religious structures demolished. The Khmer Rogue were so antagonistic towards traditional and foreign influences, that it was possible for someone to be shot simply for knowing a foreign language, or displaying outward expressions of emotion such as laughing. Their indifference towards the lives of others is shown in one of their popular slogans “To spare you is no profit, to destroy is no loss.”

During the civil war the Khmer Rouge didn’t want to create too many inconsistencies in the culture and so they instead tried to slowly introduce communism to the Buddhist monks. However, they also knew if the Buddhists were free to do as they pleased they would eventually start an uprising. Pol Pot knew in order for his revolution to be successful he would need full control over the entire population. In order to do that he first needed to disband the hierarchies in Cambodian society. This way he would have no obstacles, no one would be able to seize power. The intellects and wealthy people were killed. In addition, because the Buddhists were some of the most prominent and highest ranked people in the Cambodian society Pol Pot also sought to get rid of them. However, during the civil war the Khmer Rouge was still trying to gain support, which they desperately needed from the Buddhist monks because they made up a sizeable portion of the population and had the support of the citizens. This was because in Cambodia everyone turned to the monastery for guidance, education,

To look first at the economic side of the equation, the Khmer Rouge, upon their rise to power, greatly altered the economic trajectory of Cambodia, reorienting the nation towards a heavily state-driven approach. Such an approach was a profound shift in direction from the prior

A part of the struggle was trying to stay alive, the Khmer Rouge had documents of jobs of the people, and if you were an intellectual you would be killed. The people had to hide from their former lives, they practically couldn’t talk. If they had glasses, they would have to go without them. Due to all the murder, disease, exhaustion, and starvation well over than 2 million lives were claimed by the Khmer Rouge. An issue was that not many people seemed to do anything about it, the conflict ended when the North Vietnamese invaded the country and took control, using a puppet government that was pro Vietnamese. This showed that countries like America or other countries in Europe did not try to stop the slaughter.

The Cambodian Genocide started in 1975 and ended in 1979. During that period of time the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia. About 1.7 million people died out of a total population of seven to eight million. People died of starvation, disease, overwork and or execution. Unlike in other genocides or conflicts, no one was immune from being branded an enemy of the country. Even if someone was on the right side that could change the next day. The Khmer Rouge attempted to socially engineer a classless peasant society. The Khmer Rouge targeted certain groups. People the leader of the Khmer Rouge Lon Nol thought was weak and different. The Khmer Rouge had a lot to do with what happened in Cambodia. The Cambodian Genocide was based of the Khmer Rouge and how they took over cambodia in 1975. The Khmer Rouge saw cities as the heart of capitalism and therefore they had to be eliminated. 1.7 million people died during the cambodian genocide. The Khmer rouge targeted certain people of class to pray on such as people of education, different race, ethnicity, and even people who wore glasses. The Khmer Rouge planned to create a form of agrarian socialism meaning they wanted them to be more of farmers and have more agriculture instead of a society where

There have been many powerful and great Empires throughout history. They have all played a part in creating the world we live in today. They all also, however, went into decline and fell. Two examples of this include the Khmer Empire (802 -1431 CE) and the Roman Empire (753 BCE-476/1453 CE). Comparing these two empires will provide evidence to the statement ‘All empires and civilisations will rise and fall,’ this can be seen by examining the rise, fall, and achievements of both empires.

New Kingdom resumed after Ahmose came to power in Thebe and lasted from 1540 BC to 1075 BC. Pharaohs such as Thutmose 1, Amenhotep 2 and Ramesses 2 held the state together. It became wealthier due to access to Nubian gold as their kingdom expanded. An army was created as well as priests taking a more important role; tombs along the valley of kings became normal. Mummification and religious practiced were stratified and important for lesser people as well as kings and rulers. The new kingdom was prosperous and full of successful leaders; the fall came at the end of the New Kingdom seeing a considerable shrink of Egypt's control (Shaw 208-214). This leads into the third intermediate period and repaired by the reunification of

With Cambodia?s fragile political and economic structure, the establishment of the Khmer Rouge was not a difficult task. Prince Sihanouk appointed General Lon Nol as Prime Minister of the nation in an attempt to gain support from the rest of the country. Once in power, Lon Nol led a harsh put-down of a peasant revolt, which led to the repression in cities. The revolt forced left-wingers such as Khieu Samphan who was the chairman of the state presidium of Cambodia from 1976 until 1979, to join the Communists in the jungle. In 1970 Prince Sihanouk was deposed in a military coup. The leader of the new right-wing government was General Lon Nol, who became President of the Khmer Republic (Peace Pledge Union 2007). Lon Nol abolished the monarchy in Cambodia, and became a virtual dictator of the country. One of the main reasons that the Khmer Rouge was established was because the Lon Nol government allowed the United States to enter Cambodia in 1970 to liquidate communist sanctuaries (Dennis 1988, p. 127). When the United States began bombing Cambodia in 1969, the Khmer Rouge had only four thousand members. This number rapidly increased as the bombing forced communists deeper into Cambodia (Sutherland 1990). John Pilger, a

As a result, the Vietnameses settled for limited rewards, and have repeatedly accused China of their national ideals such as a unified Indochina. However, the alliance of China and Cambodia really caused Vietnam to be insecure. Both nations strongly approve of separate, independent nations in Indochina; and, China endorsed for an independent Cambodia during the Geneva Conference in 1952. It’s not a surprise that both nations held secure relations, and that China lavishly provided aid to the country. However, this alliance was threatening to Vietnam; with China’s strong support, the Khmer Rouge could invade Vietnam, make accusations, and kill their citizens securely. After the fall of Phnom Penh, many nations repudiated the outcome to this conflict; specifically, Thailand held strong oppositions. For many years, Cambodia acted as a “buffer zone” to Thailand because they feared Vietnamese expansion and the unification of Indochina. However,

Prior to the 1960s Cambodia was considered a peaceful, neutral and to an extent prosperous country, however, nowadays it is known as one of the most tragic empires of all time. Geographically squeezed between Thailand and Vietnam, Cambodia suffered a great blow with the wakening of the Vietnam War. Essentially, the fighting in neighboring Vietnam spread to Cambodia when the Americans started suspecting that various Vietnamese Communists were hiding in bases along different areas of Cambodia’s border. The American bombings killed thousands of innocent civilians and more importantly destroyed much of Cambodia’s existing social and economic structures. The devastating situation gave way to a wicked revolutionary Pol Pot who led the Khmer Rouge forces in Cambodia from 1963 until 1997. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge were in pursuit of transforming the Cambodian society to a utopian one and bringing the country to ‘’year zero’’ as Pol Pot put it. In only four years, from 1975 to 1979, the Khmer Rouge forces killed two million people while the devastation Pol Pot wreaked on his country remains hard to comprehend. The rise to power of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge was inseparable from US intervention. Although it was indigenous, Pol Pot’s revolution would not have won power without US economic and military destabilization of Cambodia. Civilian casualties in Cambodia drove an enraged populace into the arms of an insurgency that had enjoyed relatively little support until

During the 1970s, Cambodia was under the communist government and started to have the war within the own nation. Begin of 1975 Khmer Rouge (pol pot) got the chance to control the whole nation and started to evacuate all the rich and educated residents from the capital city (Phnom Penh) to live in every far villages from the city. The prime minister of Khmer Rouge put the order for the soldiers killed all the educated such as professors, singers, actors, reporters, and included the doctors.

There are many genocides that people are not aware of. One of them is the attempted genocide carried out by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge was able to gain power and remain in control of Cambodia for years without interference because they isolated the country from any foreign influence. Other countries had no idea what was happening inside Cambodia until years later. The Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot, wanted to create their own ideal communist society. So how did The Khmer Rouge gain so much power and control? Some argue that Pol Pot was the only one responsible for the power and control gained by the Khmer Rouge. On the other hand, others say that the notion of social hierarchy was