Land and Resources

Known mineral resources are limited; phosphate and gemstones are most important. Cambodia has an enormous hydroelectric power potential, but since the 1970s, its development has been hindered by warfare, civil strife, and political unrest.

Climate

Cambodia has a tropical monsoon climate. The average annual temperature is about 26.7° C (about 80° F). A rainy season extends from mid-April through mid-October. Average annual rainfall is about 1400 mm (about 55 in) on the central plains and more than 3800 mm (about 150 in) in mountainous areas and along the coast.

Plants and Animals

About three-fourths of Cambodia is forested. The densest forests are found in the mountains and along the southwestern coast. Savannas, covered with high, sharp grass, are present in the higher plains and plateaus. Such trees as rubber, kapok, palm, coconut, and banana are common.

Wildlife is varied and includes elephant, deer, wild ox, buffalo, panther, bear, and tiger. Cormorant, crane, pheasant, and wild duck are also found, as are poisonous snakes, including cobras.

Population

About 94 percent of the people are Cambodians, ethnically known as Khmer. Minorities such as Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, and Cham-Malays (who inhabit the mountainous regions) make up most of the remaining 6 percent. The population is more than 85 percent rural.

Population Characteristics

The population of Cambodia (1995 estimate) is about 9,447,000. The overall population density is about 52 persons per sq km (35 per sq mi). During the late 1970s the larger cities were depopulated, with residents fleeing or being relocated to rural areas.

Language and Religion

The official language is Khmer, or Cambodian. French was formerly an important secondary language, but its use has been discouraged.

Theravada (Hinayana) Buddhism is the dominant religion and is adhered to by about 90 percent of the population. Other religions include Roman Catholicism, Islam, and Mahayana Buddhism; the mountain tribes are animists.

Education

About 48 percent of the Cambodian population is literate. All public education is free. In the 1990-1991 academic year about 1.3 million pupils attended some 4600 primary schools. Secondary and higher education remains limited, however. Institutions of higher education were closed due to warfare in the late 1970s, and many instructors were murdered or died of starvation or disease. By 1990 seven institutions of higher education were open, with a total enrollment of about 6600 students.

The cultural heritage of the Khmer dynasties is reflected in many facets of contemporary Cambodia. Many buildings, such as the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, are decorated in the Khmer architectural style and use such motifs as the garuda, a mythical symbolic bird in the Hindu religion. Handicraft items, often in woven gold or silver lamé, also reflect ancient motifs. The classical Cambodian dance mimes in the most traditional style the legendary lives of ancient religious deities.

The ruins of the ancient Khmer empire, found in northwestern Cambodia, constitute one of the richest and most remarkable archaeological sites in the world. Particularly noteworthy are the temples of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. These temples were both in the Khmer capital of Angkor, which existed from the 9th to the 15th century.

Economy

Agriculture is the mainstay of the Cambodian economy. Before the onset of warfare and civil disorder in the 1970s, Cambodia was largely self-sufficient in food products, and in spite of low yields per unit area and the planting of only one crop a year, the country exported sizable amounts of rice. By 1974 rice had to be imported. Production of rubber, the other major crop, also fell. In 1975 the new Khmer Rouge government nationalized all means of production, and agriculture was collectivized. Crop production rose slightly until warfare in 1978 and 1979 disrupted the harvesting and planting of rice. Widespread famine followed. Fighting also disrupted the manufacturing sector and destroyed transportation and communication links. By the mid-1980s both agriculture and manufacturing had begun to recover from the effects of years of warfare. Nonetheless, in the early 1990s, Cambodia's economy was performing at only 40 to 50 percent of its prewar capacity, and the country remained one of the world's poorest nations. In the early 1990s Cambodia's per-capita gross national product was about $200, among the lowest in the world.

Agriculture

Rice is the most important crop of Cambodian agriculture. In peacetime some 80 percent of the cultivated land is planted in rice; annual production during the early 1990s was estimated at 2.25 million metric tons. Rubber, the other leading crop, is primarily grown in the eastern plateaus. Other important agricultural products include corn, cassava, soybeans, sesame, palm sugar, and pepper. Mangoes, bananas, and pineapples are grown for local consumption.

Forestry, Fishing, and Mining

Until 1995 timber was one of Cambodia's principal exports; however, exports of logs and timber were banned after problems with deforestation. Before the ban, the annual timber harvest was about 6.4 million cu m (226 million cu ft).

Fishing is an important economic activity; most of the annual fish catch (111,100 metric tons in the early 1990s) is consumed locally. The Tonle Sap provides one of the largest freshwater fishery resources in Southeast Asia. Carp, perch, and smelt are the principal varieties of fish caught.

Zircons, sapphires, and rubies are mined in limited amounts in the west, and salt is found in the central provinces. Other mineral resources include bauxite and phosphates. In the early 1990s Cambodia launched petroleum exploration projects with foreign investors.

Manufacturing

Cambodia's limited industry was severely damaged during the 1970s and has been only partially rebuilt since that time. Industrial products in the late 1980s included 50,000 metric tons of cement and 28,000 metric tons of processed rubber.

Currency and Banking

The unit of currency is the new riel, consisting of 100 sen. The exchange rate for the new riel has been unstable. The average exchange rate in 1991 was 700 riels per U.S. $1; by spring 1994, close to 3500 riels equaled U.S.$1. The National Bank of Kampuchea (1980) is the sole bank of issue. Money, which had been officially abolished in 1978, was reintroduced in 1980.

Commerce and Trade

In peacetime the principal Cambodian exports are rice and rice products, rubber, and corn. The total annual value of exports dropped from about $60 million in the early 1970s to about $12 million in the mid-1980s. By the late 1980s, however, exports had risen to about $32 million annually. The chief imports were metals, machinery, textiles, mineral products, and foodstuffs; their total value was about $147 million annually in the late 1980s.

Transportation

Communications

All major Cambodian communications systems are controlled by the government. Radio services link the large cities; telephone, telegraph, and postal services were resumed in 1979. In the early 1990s the country had some 955,000 radios and 70,000 television sets.

Labor

Nearly 75 percent of the Cambodian labor force is engaged in agriculture. The Cambodian Federation of Trade Unions is the leading labor organization.

Government

In April 1975, Cambodia came under the rule of the Khmer Rouge, as Democratic Kampuchea, thus ending its 600-year-old monarchy. In 1979 a rebel organization, the Kampuchean National United Front for National Salvation (KNUFNS), deposed the Khmer Rouge government with the backing of Vietnamese troops and established the People's Republic of Kampuchea; the country's official name was changed to the State of Cambodia in 1989.

The KNUFNS established a 14-member People's Revolutionary Council to govern the country. A draft constitution was promulgated in March 1981, and in May elections were held for the 117 seats of the National Assembly. Executive power was vested in the chairman of the Council of State and the chairman of the Council of Ministers (the premier). Remnants of the Khmer Rouge and other groups organized the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea in opposition to the Vietnamese-backed regime and were able to retain Cambodia's seat at the United Nations (UN). Continued armed conflict between these factions made it virtually impossible to govern the country effectively.

In October 1991 an agreement was signed providing for the UN and a 12-member Supreme National Council to share power until the election of a 120-member constituent assembly. Prince Norodom Sihanouk was elected council chairman. The popular election, in May 1993, resulted in a new coalition government. In September 1993 the government ratified a new constitution that provided for a pluralistic democratic government with a limited monarchy. Under the new constitution, the constituent assembly was converted to a legislature whose members serve 5-year terms.

Political Parties

More than 20 political parties participated in the 1993 election; however, two parties—the royalist FUNCINPEC (Front National pour un Cambodge Indépendant, Neutre et Pacifique) and the Cambodia People's party (CPP)—obtained more than 80 percent of the vote. The Buddhist Liberal Democratic party and the National Liberation Movement of Cambodia also secured seats in the election.

Defense

In the late 1980s Cambodia had an estimated 99,300 people in the armed forces. A force of about 140,000 Vietnamese troops occupied the country from 1979 to 1989.

History

The Mon and the Khmer peoples moved into Southeast Asia before the Christian era, probably from the north, arriving before their present neighbors—the Vietnamese, Lao, and Thai. The early Cambodian kingdom was transformed by Indian culture, which provided a writing system, architectural styles, religions (Hinduism and Buddhism), the concept of the god-king (deva-raja), and a highly stratified class system.

The Khmer Kingdoms

Funan, the first kingdom to occupy the present area of Cambodia, was formed in the 1st century AD, probably by Mon-Khmer peoples. Funan's culture, however, came mainly from India. Its port, Oc Eo, on the Gulf of Thailand, was a major trade link between China and India. Chenla, located northeast of the Tonle Sap, was originally a vassal state of Funan, but in the 6th and 7th centuries it conquered that kingdom. In 706, however, Chenla was split in two. The northern half, Land Chenla, was in Laos, and the southern half, called Water Chenla, in the area of modern Cambodia, fell under the sovereignty of Java. See Chenla, Kingdom of.

Angkor Era

The reign of Jayavarman II (reigned about 802-850) began the Angkor era in Khmer history. In the early 9th century he returned from exile in Java, rejected Javanese pretensions, and strengthened the cult of the god-king. The great temples of the Angkor era were built by his successors to house their royal lingas, the phallic emblems of the Hindu god Shiva. The kings of Angkor ruled over much of the Southeast Asian mainland until the early 15th century. Their capital was the center of a network of reservoirs and canals that controlled the supply of water for rice farming and enabled the people to produce a surplus of wealth to finance wars and monumental construction. One king, Jayavarman VIII, built hospitals and rest houses along the roads that crisscrossed his kingdom during the 12th and early 13th centuries.

Early signs of imperial weakening could be seen in the rebellions of the 1100s. These were caused by the rulers' excessive demands on their people and by neglect of the irrigation system. Epidemics of malaria, plague, and other diseases undermined the population. The introduction of Theravada Buddhism—which taught that all could hope for spiritual advancement through meditation—may also have upset Angkor's imperial drive and its rigid social order. Loss of control in the Chao Phraya River Basin in present-day Thailand signified further weakening of the Angkor Empire.

Decline

After Thailand—or Siam, as it was then called—defeated Angkor in 1431, the Cambodian court was moved southeastward to Phnom Penh. Despite almost constant fighting with Siam in the west, everyday life in Cambodia's interior was little changed until Siam took Phnom Penh in 1594 and established a degree of political control. Vietnam's slow advance southward reached the Mekong delta a few years later. In 1620 the Khmer king Chetta II married a Vietnamese princess and allowed Vietnam to set up a customs collection house on the site of present Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). Thereafter, Siam and Vietnam each tried to control the Khmer kingdom by military occupation and the enthronement of puppet monarchs.

French Rule

In 1863 France, by then rapidly expanding its penetration of Indochina, intervened to slow the process of Cambodia's dismemberment by Vietnam and Siam, proclaiming a protectorate over the country. French rule in Cambodia, nominally indirect, was exercised through advisers whose word was final on major subjects. The Cambodian monarchy was retained, and a Khmer civil service was gradually trained. Roads, port facilities, and other public works were built, with emphasis on internal security and the export of rubber and rice. The restoration of the vast temple complex at Angkor Wat in the 1930s helped rekindle the Khmer people's pride in their past. During World War II (1939-1945), when Japanese forces were permitted into Indochina in 1940, the compliant French administration was left in place. On the verge of defeat in 1945, the Japanese removed their French collaborators and installed a nominally independent Khmer government under the young king, Norodom Sihanouk. France quickly reestablished control after the war, but Sihanouk gained full independence for his country in 1953.

The Modern State