A renewed struggle between Thailand and Vietnam…

A renewed struggle between Thailand and Vietnam for control of Cambodia in the nineteenth century results in a period when Vietnamese officials, working through a puppet Cambodian king, rule the central part of the country and attempt to force Cambodians to adopt Vietnamese customs.

Several rebellions against Vietnamese rule ensue.

The most important of these occurs in 1840 to 1841 and spreads through much of the country.

After two years of fighting, Cambodia and its two neighbors reach an accord that places the country under the joint suzerainty of Thailand and Vietnam.

At the behest of both countries, a new monarch, Ang Duong (1848-59), ascends the throne and brings a decade of peace and relative independence to Cambodia.

In their arbitrary treatment of the Khmer population, the Thai and the Vietnamese are virtually indistinguishable.

The suffering and the dislocation caused by war are comparable in many ways to similar Cambodian experiences in the 1970s, but the Thai and the Vietnamese have fundamentally different attitudes concerning their relationships with Cambodia.

The Thai share with the Khmer a common religion, mythology, literature, and culture.

The Chakri kings at Bangkok want Cambodia's loyalty and tribute, but they have no intention of challenging or changing its people's values or way of life.

The Vietnamese view the Khmer people as barbarians to be civilized through exposure to Vietnamese culture, and they regard the fertile Khmer lands as legitimate sites for colonization by settlers from Vietnam.