Cambodian irredentism is a nationalist movement in Cambodia that refers to the land that used to be part of the Khmer Empire. The movement is aimed against Thai, Vietnamese, and Laotian control over the territories. Both official and unofficial Cambodian claims on territories viewed as having been under some form of Cambodian sovereignty are rhetorically tied back to an accused expansionism.
Up until the establishment of the Thai and Laotian states, the Khmer Empire was the major land power and a dominant force in mainland Southeast Asia. The territory of Cambodia encompassed most of what would be now Thailand, Laos, part of Myanmar and Southern Vietnam; in an extent, it encroached to even mainland Malaysia. [1] However, subsequent problems and turmoils, as well as the rapid advance by the Vietnamese, Laotians and Thais brought Cambodia's empire into a declining state. Among all, the Thais and the Vietnamese were seen to have done the most harm to Cambodia, causing significant physical traumas for the people of the nation. [2] In order to survive, Cambodia came under a French protectorate, only to find itself being grouped within Vietnamese-dominated French Indochina, and with the French favoring Vietnamese instead of Cambodians. At the outbreak of the First Indochina War Khmer irredentism began to rise. [3] Nonetheless, it was not officially espoused until 1970 when Lon Nol overthrew the monarchy and replaced it with a Republic, where it became increasingly nationalistic and chauvinist, leading to the persecution and massacres of ethnic Vietnamese and Chams. [3] The Khmer Rouge later inherited these nationalistic sentiments which were part of the driving force for the persecution and massacres of Vietnamese in Cambodia as a part of the Cambodian Genocide, and which was one the motivations for Khmer Rouge incursions in Vietnam and occupations of Vietnamese territories which resulted in several massacres of Vietnamese civilians, the most notorious of which was the Ba Chúc massacre. [4]
The Cambodians hold a significant amount of hostility to Vietnam with regard to their loss of the Mekong Delta to the Vietnamese in history, and the subsequent enforced Vietnamization and conflicts which Vietnam repeatedly occupied the country, French favoritism to the Vietnamese, and the lack of cultural commonalities with Vietnam being part of the Sinosphere while Cambodia belongs to the Indosphere. This often drew Cambodian nationalist sentiments with the desire to reclaim territory from Vietnam. [5] [6] Both Lon Nol and Pol Pot utilized this grievance in order to spread Cambodian irredentism. [3]
Currently, Cambodian irredentists still feel strongly attached to the region, and as a result, they believe it is a lost territory which should be returned to Cambodia. The expression of this sentiment has frequently ignited various protests, notably the 2013–2014 Cambodian protests, and Vietnam is frequently blamed for all of the turmoil and problems which occur within Cambodia, partly because Hun Sen is closely affiliated with Vietnam. [7] This sentiment has sometimes driven Cambodia to forge close ties with China, a country which Vietnam has a strong feeling of enmity towards due to the fact that it was ruled by China for over one thousand years. [8]
In addition to the Mekong Delta, Cambodian nationalists seek to reclaim Phú Quốc, which Cambodians frequently call "Koh Trol", based on their belief that it was part of Cambodian territory before it was annexed by Vietnam, and it often attracts a number of Cambodian celebrities. [9] [10]
While tensions with Thailand are now receiving lesser attention, many Cambodians nonetheless have a long-standing hostility in regard to Thailand, due to the fact that most of Thailand used to be under Khmer control until the rise of the Sukhothai Kingdom, and subsequent conflicts which started the demise of Cambodia as a regional power and repeated Thai occupations of Cambodia. [11] [12] Therefore, a strong anti-Thai sentiment developed in Cambodia fueled by a persistent historical misconception among educated Thais and the ruling class that distinguishes a so-called Khom ethnic group and Khmer as separate peoples—a distinct Thai narrative known only to Thais—perpetuated to mask the significant historical influence of the Khmer on Thai culture, thereby resulting in a form of historical negationism. [13] [14] [15]
Cambodia and Thailand also engaged in border disputes from 2008 to 2011 with regard to Preah Vihear Temple. Eventually, Cambodia acquired the temple following the dispute. [16] There is also irredentism against Thailand with regard to Northern Khmer people, where Cambodians still see them part of Cambodian nation, and that lower part of northeastern Thailand should have been Cambodian. [17] [18]
Cambodian irredentism in Laos mainly focuses on the provinces of Champasak and Attapeu in Southern Laos. [19] The unclear border delimitation between the two countries led to some sporadic tensions from 2017 to 2019. [20] In 2019, Cambodia and Laos removed troops from the disputes area surrounding Stung Treng. [21]
Stung Treng is a province of Cambodia in the northeast. It borders the provinces of Ratanakiri to the east, Mondulkiri and Kratié to the south and Kampong Thom and Preah Vihear to the west. Its northern boundary is Cambodia's international border with Laos. The Mekong River bisects the province. The province is mostly covered by forest, but logging and fishing put high pressure on the forest and fishery reserves.
The post-Angkor period of Cambodia, also called the Middle Period, refers to the historical era from the early 15th century to 1863, the beginning of the French protectorate of Cambodia. As reliable sources are very rare, a defensible and conclusive explanation that relates to concrete events that manifest the decline of the Khmer Empire, recognised unanimously by the scientific community, has so far not been produced. However, most modern historians have approached a consensus in which several distinct and gradual changes of religious, dynastic, administrative and military nature, environmental problems and ecological imbalance coincided with shifts of power in Indochina and must all be taken into account to make an interpretation. In recent years scholars' focus has shifted increasingly towards human–environment interactions and the ecological consequences, including natural disasters, such as flooding and droughts.
The Third Indochina War was a series of interconnected armed conflicts, mainly among the various communist factions over strategic influence in Indochina after Communist victory in South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in 1975. The conflict primarily started due to continued raids and incursions by the Khmer Rouge into Vietnamese territory that they sought to retake. These incursions would result in the Cambodian–Vietnamese War in which the newly unified Vietnam overthrew the Pol Pot regime and the Khmer Rouge, in turn ending the Cambodian genocide. Vietnam had installed a government led by many opponents of Pol Pot, most notably Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge commander. This led to Vietnam's occupation of Cambodia for over a decade. The Vietnamese push to completely destroy the Khmer Rouge led to them conducting border raids in Thailand against those who had provided sanctuary.
The Cambodian–Vietnamese War was an armed conflict between Democratic Kampuchea, controlled by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge, and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The war began with repeated attacks by the Liberation Army of Kampuchea on the southwestern border of Vietnam, particularly the Ba Chúc massacre which resulted in the deaths of over 3,000 Vietnamese civilians. On 23 December 1978, the Khmer Rouge's military divisions opened fire along the shared Southwestern borderline with Vietnam with the goal of invading the Vietnamese provinces of Đồng Tháp, An Giang and Kiên Giang. On 25 December 1978, Vietnam launched a full-scale invasion of Kampuchea, and subsequently occupied the country and removed the government of the Communist Party of Kampuchea from power.
The Dângrêk Mountains, also the Dângrêk Range, is a mountain range forming a natural border between Cambodia and Thailand.
Preah Vihear Temple is an ancient Khmer Hindu temple that was built by the Khmer Empire and is on the top of a 525-metre (1,722 ft) cliff in the Dângrêk Mountains, in the Preah Vihear province, Cambodia.
The Khmer National Armed Forces were the official armed defense forces of the Khmer Republic, a short-lived state that existed from 1970 to 1975, known today as Cambodia. The FANK was the successor of the Royal Khmer Armed Forces (FARK) which had been responsible for the defense of the previous Kingdom of Cambodia since its independence in 1953 from France.
The largest of the ethnic groups in Cambodia are the Khmer, who comprise approximately 90% of the total population and primarily inhabit the lowland Mekong subregion and the central plains. The Khmer historically have lived near the lower Mekong River in a contiguous arc that runs from the southern Khorat Plateau where modern-day Thailand, Laos and Cambodia meet in the northeast, stretching southwest through the lands surrounding Tonle Sap lake to the Cardamom Mountains, then continues back southeast to the mouth of the Mekong River in southeastern Vietnam.
Cambodia–Vietnam relations take place in the form of bilateral relations between the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The countries have shared a land border for the last 1,000 years and share more recent historical links through being part of the French colonial empire. Both countries are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The Cambodian–Thai border dispute began in June 2008 as part of a century-long dispute between the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Kingdom of Thailand involving the area surrounding the 11th-century Preah Vihear Temple, in the Dângrêk Mountains between Choam Khsant District, Preah Vihear Province of northern Cambodia and the Kantharalak District, Sisaket Province of northeastern Thailand.
Bilateral relations between Cambodia and Thailand date to the 13th century during the Angkor Era. The Thai Ayutthaya Kingdom gradually displaced the declining Khmer Empire from the 14th century, importing much of its customs and culture. French protectorateship separated Cambodia from modern Thailand at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, and diplomatic relations between the modern states were established on 19 December 1950.
Khmer nationalism is a form of nationalism found in Cambodia, that asserts that Khmers (Cambodians) are a nation and promotes the cultural unity of the Khmer (Cambodian) race.
Anti-Vietnamese sentiment involves hostility or hatred that is directed towards Vietnamese people, or the state of Vietnam. This may be due to negative perceptions created by historical wars or xenophobic sentiments that emerged from the event of refugee Vietnamese. National or regional discrimination can also occur.
Prasat Ta Muen Thom or Prasat Ta Moan Thom is a Khmer temple located on Cambodian-Thai border.
Anti-Thai sentiment involves hostility or hatred that is directed towards people in Thailand, or the state of Thailand.
Anti-Khmer sentiment is a sentiment against Cambodia, the Khmers, overseas Khmer, or Khmer culture. As the Khmers are dominant in Cambodia, it can be attributed to anti-Cambodian sentiment and hatreds against Cambodians.
Vietnamese irredentism, also known as Ideology of Greater Vietnam, sometimes may be referred to as Baiyue Nationalism is an irredentist and nationalist claim concerning redemption of former territories of Vietnam and territories outside Vietnam that the Vietnamese have inhabited for centuries. Notable claims are usually made concerning territories of Laos, Cambodia, and Liangguang.
The Cambodia–Thailand border is the international border between Cambodia and Thailand. The border is 817 km (508 mi) in length and runs from the tripoint with Laos in the north-east to the Gulf of Thailand in the south.
The Cambodia–Laos border is the international border between Cambodia and Laos. The border is 555 km in length and runs from the tripoint with Thailand in the west to tripoint with Vietnam in the east.
The Dangrek genocide, also known as the Preah Vihear pushback, is a border incident which took place along the Dangrek Mountain Range on the Thai-Cambodian border which resulted in the death of many mostly Sino-Khmer refugees who were refused asylum by the Kingdom of Thailand in June 1979.