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This is a timeline of Cambodian history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in Cambodia and its predecessor states. To read about the background to these events, see History of Cambodia. See also the list of kings of Cambodia.
| Century | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 2,500 years ago | The walled city of Angkor Borei in Takéo province is Cambodia's first known city, with archaeological excavations unearthing moats, reservoirs, brick monuments, and glass beads that were traded in from the Near East and India. |
| Century | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1st–6th | Funan period – early state-like polities in delta and coastal regions, trading contact with India and China, "Indianisation" of Khmer society begins. | |
| 7th–8th | Chenla period – shift in trade patterns causes decline of Funan, emergence of large kingdoms in inland area, Indianisation continues. | |
| 7th | Isanavarman I of the Chenla Kingdom expanded Khmer influence to the Chao Phraya valley through his campaigns around the 7th century. Dvaravati cities that fell under Khmer hegemony became Lavo. |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 802 | Jayavarman II declared independence from Srivijaya under the Sailendra, proclaiming himself the divine king of Kambuja. | |
| 835 | Jayavarman II died. His son Jayavarman III succeeded him. | |
| 877 | Jayavarman III died. He was succeeded by his cousin Indravarman I. | |
| 890 | Indravarman died. His son Yasovarman succeeded him. |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 968 | Jayavarman V succeeded Rajendravarman II as ruler of Kambuja, now the Khmer Empire. |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1001 | Jayavarman V died. He was succeeded by Udayadityavarman I. | |
| 1002 | The king died. A civil war ensued between Jayaviravarman and Suryavarman I, both of whom claimed the throne. | |
| 1010 | Suryavarman became the uncontested king of the Khmer Empire. | |
| 1050 | Suryavarman died. He was succeeded by Udayadityavarman II, a descendant of Yasovarman's wife. | |
| 1066 | Udayadityavarman died. Harshavarman III succeeded him. |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1107 | Jayavarman VI died. He was succeeded by Dharanindravarman I. | |
| 1113 | Dharanidravarman died, possibly murdered by his great nephew Suryavarman II who succeeded him. | |
| 1132 | An attempted invasion of Vietnam was defeated. | |
| 1150 | Suryavarman II died, possibly in a military campaign against the Cham of Central Vietnam. Dharanindravarman II succeeded him. | |
| 1160 | Dharanindravarman died. He was succeeded by Yasovarman II. | |
| 1177 | Cham invaders took control of Yasodharapura, the Khmer capital, and executed the king. |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1203 | Jayavarman VII forcibly annexed the south of Champa. | |
| 1219 | Jayavarman VII died. He was succeeded by Indravarman II. | |
| 1238 | Two Thai chieftains in the city of Sukhothai declared the establishment of the Sukhothai Kingdom and its independence from Angkorian dominion. | |
| 1243 | Indravarman II died. Jayavarman VIII succeeded him. | |
| 1283 | Jayavarman VIII agreed to pay tribute to the Mongol Empire in lieu of suffering invasion. | |
| 1295 | Jayavarman VIII was allowed to abdicate after being deposed by his son-in-law Indravarman III (Srindravarman), the first king to make Theravada Buddhism the state religion. |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1351 | The Siamese Ayutthaya Kingdom laid siege to Angkor for a year and a half, then invaded and conquered it, leaving an Ayutthayan prince to rule. | |
| 1357 | King Suryavong led the Khmer army in retaking Angkor from the Siamese. |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1431 | The Thai invade Angkor. The Khmer capital is relocated to Srei Santhor and next year to Phnom Penh. | |
| 1471 | Thousands of Cham settle in Cambodia as refugees from the fall of Vijaya (northern section of Champa) to the Vietnamese. |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1505 | The royal Khmer court moves to Oudong. | |
| 1525 | The royal Khmer court moves to Longvek. | |
| 1593 | King Sattha requested protection from the Spanish governor of the Philippines against the Thai. | |
| 1594 | The Thai captured the Cambodian capital, Longvek, and installed a military governor there. | |
| 1595 | Sattha died in Laos | |
| 1597 | Spanish adventurers install a son of King Sattha on the throne. | |
| 1599 | The Spanish in Cambodia were massacred by Malay warlords. |
Note that names vary considerably from source to source, as do dates.
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1602 | King Suriyopear (nephew of Sattha) installed with help of Ayutthaya. | |
| c.1616 | Nguyen Phuoc Nguyen, king of Hue, approaches Suriyopear to form a military alliance directed at their enemies Ayutthaya (for Suriyopear) and the Trinh dynasty of Hanoi (for Nguyen). | |
| 1618 | Suriyopear abdicates, enters a monastery (dies next year). His son Chey Chettha II becomes king. | |
| 1623 | According to the Chronicles and popular Cambodian belief, in this year King Chettha II allowed Vietnamese refugees from the Trịnh–Nguyễn Civil War to settle in the Khmer sea port of Prey Nokor. Professional scholars do not believe this happened. | |
| 1628 | Death of Chettha II; followed as king by his son Ponhea Tu, while his younger brother Outhei takes the title Ubhayoraj, or senior king. | |
| 1632 | Ponhea Tu killed after rebelling against the Ubhayoraj. Followed by his younger half-brother Ponhea Nur | |
| 1640 | Death of Ponhea Nur in suspicious circumstances. Followed by Padumaraja I, son of Outhei. | |
| 1642 | Murder of Padumaraja and Outhei by Ramadhipadi, son of Chettha II. Ramadhipati converts to Islam and takes the name Ibrahim. | |
| 1658–59 | Two sons of Outhei rebel against Ramadhipati/Ibrahim and call on Vietnamese help. First Vietnamese intervention in Cambodia, four more in the course of the century. Ramadhipati/Ibrahim captured and removed to Hue, where he dies. Ang Sur, son of Outhei, becomes king. | |
| 1690 | The Mekong Delta region of Cambodia (from Prey Nokor to Psar Dek and Moat Chrouk) was officially annexed by Vietnam. | |
| 1698 | An emissary arrived in Prey Nokor to establish Vietnamese administration over the expatriate population. |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1749 | The Vietnamese conquered the Mekong Delta. | |
| 1779 | A new Khmer king, Ang Eng, was installed under Thai protection. |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1820 | A Khmer revolt took place against Vietnamese rule . | |
| 1841 | Ang Duong becomes king. | |
| 1851 | Cambodia successfully overthrew the Vietnamese occupation. | |
| 1856 | November 25 | Ang Duong dispatches a letter to French Emperor Napoleon III requesting intervention to protect Cambodia's territorial integrity. |
| 1860 | In January, Angkor Wat is "rediscovered" by French naturalist and explorer Henri Mouhot. | |
| 1860 | Ang Duong dies. His son Norodom succeeds him. | |
| 1863 | Faced with a domestic rebellion, Norodom was forced to accept an offer of protection from the French. | |
| 1887 | October | Cambodia was subsumed into the Indochinese Union. |
| 1897 | The Résident supérieur was granted the royal powers of tax collection, rule by decree, and appointment of royal officials and crown princes. |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1941 | Japanese occupation of Cambodia : Japanese troops occupied Cambodia. | |
| King Sisowath Monivong died. The French chose his grandson Norodom Sihanouk to succeed him. | ||
| 1945 | After its defeat in World War II, Japan relinquished its Indochinese territories. | |
| 1953 | 9 November | Cambodia officially gained its independence from France. |
| 1955 | 2 March | King Sihanouk abdicated in favour of his father, Norodom Suramarit. |
| 1963 | 27 August | Cambodia severed ties with South Vietnam. |
| 1970 | 18 March | General Lon Nol overthrew Sihanouk and established a republic. Start of the Cambodian Civil War and the US Cambodian Campaign |
| 1975 | 17 April | The Khmer Rouge allied with Sihanouk captured Phnom Penh and declared the establishment of Kingdom of Cambodia. |
| 1976 | 2 April | Sihanouk exiled and establishment of Democratic Kampuchea under total Khmer Rouge control. |
| 1977 | 31 December | Cambodia broke relations with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. |
| 1979 | 7 January | Cambodian-Vietnamese War : Vietnamese troops captured Phnom Penh establishing the People's Republic of Kampuchea. The rule of the Khmer Rouge is over. |
| 1989 | 26 September | The last Vietnamese troops withdrew from Cambodia. |
| 1992 | 16 March | A United Nations peacekeeping force, the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), began monitoring Cambodia. |
| 1993 | May | Cambodia held free elections. The Khmer Rouge boycotted them. |
| 24 September | A new constitution was ratified, under which the Cambodian monarchy was restored. Norodom Sihanouk returned to the throne. | |
| 1997 | The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, a tribunal for the Khmer Rouge, was established. | |
| 1998 | 15 April | Death of Pol Pot. |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | 18 January | An Angkor newspaper reported that Suvanant Kongying, a Thai actress, had claimed that Angkor Wat rightfully belonged to Thailand. |
| 28 January | Thai television programs were banned from broadcasting in Cambodia. | |
| 29 January | 2003 Phnom Penh riots: Nationalist rioters destroyed the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh. | |
| 7 July | Cambodian parliamentary election: Prime Minister Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party won a majority of seats in the National Assembly. | |
| 2004 | 14 October | King Norodom Sihanouk abdicated. His son Norodom Sihamoni was crowned as his successor. |
| 2008 | June | 2008 Cambodian-Thai stand-off: Clashes began with Thailand over territory immediately adjacent to the Preah Vihear Temple. |
| 2012 | 15 October | Former King of Cambodia Norodom Sihanouk died in Beijing at the age of 89. |
| 2014 | 3 January | Military police opened fire at opposition protesters, leaving 3 people dead and more than 20 injured. |
The history of Cambodia, a country in mainland Southeast Asia, can be traced back to Indian civilization. Detailed records of a political structure on the territory of what is now Cambodia first appear in Chinese annals in reference to Funan, a polity that encompassed the southernmost part of the Indochinese peninsula during the 1st to 6th centuries. Centered at the lower Mekong, Funan is noted as the oldest regional Hindu culture, which suggests prolonged socio-economic interaction with maritime trading partners of the Indosphere in the west. By the 6th century a civilization, called Chenla or Zhenla in Chinese annals, firmly replaced Funan, as it controlled larger, more undulating areas of Indochina and maintained more than a singular centre of power.
The Khmer Rouge is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and by extension to the regime through which the CPK ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. The name was coined in the 1960s by then Chief of State Norodom Sihanouk to describe his country's heterogeneous, communist-led dissidents, with whom he allied after the 1970 Cambodian coup d'état.
Marshal Lon Nol was a Cambodian military officer and politician who served as Prime Minister of Cambodia twice, as well as serving repeatedly as defence minister and provincial governor. As a nationalist and conservative, he led the military coup of 1970 against Prince Norodom Sihanouk, abolished the monarchy, and established the short-lived Khmer Republic. Constitutionally a semi-presidential republic, Cambodia was de facto governed under a military dictatorship. He was the commander-in-chief of the Khmer National Armed Forces during the Cambodian Civil War. On April 1, 1975, 16 days before the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh, Lon Nol fled to the United States, first to Hawaii and then to California, where he remained until his death in 1985.
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Year Zero is an idea put into practice by Pol Pot in Democratic Kampuchea that all culture and traditions within a society must be completely destroyed or discarded and that a new revolutionary culture must replace it starting from scratch. In this sense, all of the history of a nation or a people before Year Zero would be largely deemed irrelevant, because it would ideally be purged and replaced from the ground up.
The equestrian events at the 1956 Summer Olympics were held in Stockholm due to the Australian quarantine regulations and included dressage, eventing, and show jumping. All three disciplines had both individual and team competitions. The competitions were held from 11 to 17 June 1956 at Stockholm Olympic Stadium. There were 158 entries from 29 National Olympic Committees: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Soviet Union, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, USA and Venezuela. This would be the first appearance for Australia, Cambodia and Venezuela in equestrian events.
The 1970 Cambodian coup d'état was the removal of the Cambodian Chief of State, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, after a vote in the National Assembly on 18 March 1970. Emergency powers were subsequently invoked by the Prime Minister Lon Nol, who became effective head of state, and led ultimately to the removal of Queen Sisowath Kossamak and the proclamation of the Khmer Republic later that year. It is generally seen as a turning point in the Cambodian Civil War. No longer a monarchy, Cambodia was semi-officially called "État du Cambodge" in the intervening six months after the coup, until the republic was proclaimed.
Buddhism in Cambodia or Khmer Buddhism has existed since at least the 5th century. In its earliest form it was a type of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Today, the predominant form of Buddhism in Cambodia is Theravada Buddhism. It is enshrined in the Cambodian constitution as the official religion of the country. Theravada Buddhism has been the Cambodian state religion since the 13th century. As of 2019 it was estimated that 97.1 percent of the population are Buddhists.
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The Cambodian campaign was a series of military operations conducted in eastern Cambodia in mid-1970 by South Vietnam and the United States as an expansion of the Vietnam War and the Cambodian Civil War. Thirteen operations were conducted by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) between April 29 and July 22 and by U.S. forces between May 1 and June 30, 1970.
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Ang Mey was a monarch of Cambodia. Her official title was Samdech Preah Mahā Rājinī Ang Mey. She was one of the few female rulers in Cambodia's history, and the first one since Queen Tey. Installed on the Cambodian throne by the Vietnamese, her reign was dominated by the Siamese-Vietnamese War (1841–1845).
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