The preoccupation of Cambodia's neighbors with internal…

The preoccupation of Cambodia's neighbors with internal or external strife during periods in the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries afford the beleaguered country a breathing spell.

The Vietnamese had been involved in a lengthy civil war until 1674, but upon its conclusion they had promptly annexed sizable areas of contiguous Cambodian territory in the region of the Mekong Delta.

For the next one hundred years they use  the alleged mistreatment of Vietnamese colonists in the delta as a pretext for their continued expansion.

By the end of the eighteenth century, they have extended their control to include the area encompassed today by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Vietnam).