Country Profiles: Cambodia

Official name: Kingdom of Cambodia

Official language: Khmer

Land area: 69,898 sq mi/181,035 sq kim

Population: 15,211,000

Dominant religion: Buddhism

Capital: Phnom Penh

Current leader: King Norodom Sihamoni

Cambodia is a country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Laos to the north, Vietnam to the east and southeast, the Gulf of Thailand to the south and Thailand to the north and northwest. Low mountains form most the country’s boundaries.

 Most Cambodian are Khmer, one of the oldest ethnic groups in Southeast Asia. They speak Khmer, which has its own alphabet. Vietnamese make the second largest ethnic group. Most Cambodians live in villages where they are employed as farmers and laborers and the country’s economy is mainly dependent on agriculture. Much of the nation’s income is from garment manufacturing and tourism.

 Roughly one-third of Cambodians cannot read or write and many parts of the country lack schools.

 Cambodia has been a monarchy throughout most of its history and Angkor was once its capital, where the Khmer built Angkor Wot. In the 1800’s France took control of Vietnam and Cambodia and the region became known as French Indochina. Cambodia won independence in 1953. Although Cambodia declared itself neutral during the Cold War it was drawn into the Vietnam War and communist targets in the country were heavily bombed by the United States. At the same time, the Khmer Rouge were engaged in a full-scale civil war with the government and took control of Cambodia in April 1975.

 Cambodia suffered brutally under the rule of Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge. Religion and education was outlawed. Most government officials, monks and educated people were killed. Nearly the entire population was forcefully relocated to countryside where they were forced to work the farms long hours with meager food rations. An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died from starvation, overwork, torture and disease. A full-scale Vietnamese invasion in 1979 ended the rule of the Khmer Rouge although it would continue to fight the government until the mid-1990’s.