ABSTRACT
From the ninth to the fifteenth century, the Khmer Empire ruled most of the Southeast Asian mainland between Vietnam and Myanmar from its capital at Angkor. Two of its greatest twelfth-century rulers, Suryavarman II (d. ca. 1150) and Jayavarman VII (r. 1181-ca. 1215), built the extensive Buddhist temples of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. Beginning in the thirteenth century, the empire suffered invasions from Siam (now Thailand) and Champa, a historic kingdom in Vietnam. Chan I (r. 1516-1566) briefly restored Angkor’s glory, but beginning in the seventeenth century, Cambodia’s kings alternately fell under Thai and Vietnamese influence. In the nineteenth century, French colonial power increased on the Indochi-
nese peninsula, and in 1863, King Norodom (r. 1860-1904) signed a treaty placing Cambodia under the protection of France.
