An Analysis On The Relationship Between Cambodia And The Neighboring Countries Between The 14^th And 19^th Century

The Cambodian Royal Chronicle is an important historical material compiled by Cambodians and a historical document which is impossible to be ignored when studying the historical development of Cambodia.However,the academia,especially the Chinese academia has relatively limited research on the Cambodian Royal Chronicles for various constraints.With "the historical relations between Cambodia and its neighboring countries" as its theme,this article collects,collates,translates and makes a comparative study of original historical documents in Khmer from the perspective of the Cambodian Royal Chronicle.Based on Cambodian history books,Chinese historical materials and research results of scholars at home and abroad,this article,in the effort to probe into the reality of history,restores and evaluates important historical events in Cambodian history from the 14th to the 19th century in an objective and comprehensive way and clarifies a series of issues about the relations between Cambodia and its neighboring countries in historical development.Through studying three different versions of the Cambodian Royal Chronicle,the author,in light of its contents and characteristics of the Cambodian historical development,analyzes the basic situation and characteristics of Cambodian foreign relations from the 14th century to the 19th century from the following five aspects:"the relations between the Angkor Dynasty and its neighboring countries in the age of chronicle","the relations between Cambodia and Siam in the post,Angkor period","the relations between Cambodia and other countries in the post-Angkor period","Cambodia’s foreign relations under the influence of Siam and Vietnam" and "Cambodia’s foreign relations in the early days of the French colonial rule".In the discussion and conclusion of the relations between Cambodia and its neighboring countries,the author,according to the characteristics of Cambodia’s foreign relations in different periods and existing researches concerning this topic,approaches this research by consulting historical records from neighboring countries and comparing different versions of the Cambodian Royal Chronicles to make verifications and provide more original materials for researches on Cambodian history and new evidence for the settlement of remaining controversial problems in the study of Cambodian history.Based on this,the author sums up and analyzes changes in domestic and external environments that Cambodia faced,adjustments of Cambodia’s foreign policies and evolution of relations between Cambodia and neighboring countries from the 14th century to the 9th century.After the 13th century,the political landscape in the indo-China Peninsula underwent major changes.Different forces rose,fell and competed,resulting in a complex situation.With new forces emerging,wars mainly aimed to acquire people and resources never stopped.Thai people got rid of Khmer rule and established their independent dynasty;Vietnamese annexed Champa and gradually expanded to Cambodia;and the Angkor Dynasty gradually declined under the oppression of Siam and Vietnam.The changes of the objective environments caused three major changes in Cambodia during this period:falls of Angkor Royal City,frequent capital relocating and weakening of the royals7 control,which forced the Cambodian authorities to gradually shift their foreign policy from "active attack" to "strategic defense" and eventually over-depend on "mutual restraint" strategy.As to Cambodia,the history of its foreign relations during this period is actually a history about its interactions with all forces and their mutual influence reflected in wars and foreign strategy adjustments resulted from wars as illustrated by the Cambodian Royal Chronicle.Cambodia accepted the French "protection" to avoid the adversity of being carved up by Siam and Vietnam,but ultimately failed to escape the fate of becoming a French colony.This is both a conscious choice made by Cambodia to deal with the threat of subjugation and the inevitable result of the "mutual restraint" strategy adopted by Cambodia in response to internal and external factors.Despite the fact that Cambodia lost its status as an independent country,this choice somewhat brought a chance,by seizing which the Khmer made sure that Cambodia survived as a nominal "state" instead of being torn apart or being annexed to Siam and Vietnam.We must see that historical reasons.formed unique relations between Cambodia and its neighbors,and the influence is still relevant today.Historical experience tells us that"mutual restraint" is only an alternative approach and a constant pursuit of capacity building is the only way to survive.