Cambodia (Republic Triumph!)

Cambodia (/kæmˈboʊdiə/ ( listen ) also Kampuchea /ˌkæmpʊˈtʃiːə/; Khmer: កម្ពុជា Khmer: [kam.pu.ciə]; French: Cambodge) officially the Khmer Republic (Khmer: សាធារណរដ្ឋខ្មែរ, Sathéaranakrâth Khmer) is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is 181,035 square kilometers (69,898 square miles) in area, bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the northeast, Vietnam to the east and the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest.

The sovereign state of Cambodia has a population of over 16 million. The official religion is Theravada Buddhism, practiced by approximately 95 percent of the population. The country's minority groups include Vietnamese, Chinese, Chams and 30 hill tribes. The capital and largest city is Phnom Penh, the political, economic and cultural center of Cambodia. The Republic is a Presidential republic With a president, currently Sourn Serey Ratha as the head of state. The head of government is the Prime Minister, currently, Soung Sophorn, both the current President and the Prime Minister are from the ruling Khmer Power Party

In 802 AD, Jayavarman II declared himself king, uniting the warring Khmer princes of Chenla under the name "Kambuja". This marked the beginning of the Khmer Empire, which flourished for over 600 years, allowing successive kings to control and exert influence over much of Southeast Asia and accumulate immense power and wealth. The Indianised kingdom facilitated the spread of first Hinduism and then Buddhism to much of Southeast Asia and undertook many religious infrastructural projects throughout the region, including the construction of more than 1,000 temples and monuments in Angkor alone. Angkor Wat is the most famous of these structures and is designated as a World Heritage Site.

After the fall of Angkor to Ayutthaya in the 15th century, a reduced and weakened Cambodia was then ruled as a vassal state by its neighbors. In 1863, Cambodia became a protectorate of France, which doubled the size of the country by reclaiming the north and west from Thailand.

Cambodia gained independence in 1953. The Vietnam War extended into the country with the US bombing of Cambodia from 1969 until 1973. Following the Assassination of Prince Norodom Sihanouk than the country Head of State in 1969 left Cambodia with a power vacuum. The country's ancient monarchy, which the Thorne was vacant for sometime was abolished one year later. Paved the way for the Proclamation of the Republic Amidst of the Civil War Which will last well into the end of the 90s and the beginning of Cambodian perception in the Vietnam War

Following the Withdrawal of U.S. forces from Vietnam Cambodia was the first country to face the War with Vietnam Which, at that time have a goal to unite all of Indochina under the same banner. This goal, however, has failed because Cambodia, along with Support from Thailand and the United States have successfully defended the border.

Cambodia is a member of the United Nations since 1955, sASEAN, the East Asia Summit, the WTO, the Non-Aligned Movement and La Francophonie.

Name
The "Khmer Republic" is the official English name of the country. The English "Cambodia" is an anglicization of the French "Cambodge", which in turn is the French transliteration of the Khmer កម្ពុជា kampuciə. Kampuchea is the alternative to the country's official name in Khmer សាធារណរដ្ឋខ្មែរ Sathéaranakrâth Khmer. The Khmer endonym Kampuchea derives from the Sanskrit name कम्बोजदेश kambojadeśa, composed of देश deśa ("land of" or "country of") and कम्बोज kamboja, which alludes to the foundation myths of the first ancient Khmer kingdom. The term Cambodia was already in use in Europe as early as 1524, since Antonio Pigafetta (an Italian explorer who followed Ferdinand Magellan in his circumnavigation of the globe) cites it in his work Relazione del primo viaggio intorno al mondo (1524-1525) as Cambogia.

Colloquially, Cambodians refer to their country as either ស្រុកខ្មែរ srok khmae (IPA srok ˈkʰmae), meaning "Khmer's Land", or the slightly more formal ប្រទេសកម្ពុជា prɑteih kampuciə (IPAprɑ.ˈteih kam.pu.ciə), literally "Country of Kampuchea". The name "Cambodia" is used most often in the Western world while "Kampuchea" is more widely used in the East.

Pre-history
There exists sparse evidence for a Pleistocene human occupation of present-day Cambodia, which includes quartz and quartzite pebble tools found in terraces along the Mekong River, in Stung Treng and Kratié provinces, and in Kampot Province, although their dating is unreliable. Some slight archaeological evidence shows communities of hunter-gatherers inhabited the region during Holocene: the most ancient archaeological discovery site in Cambodia is considered to be the cave of L'aang Spean, in Battambang Province, which belongs to the Hoabinhian period. Excavations in its lower layers produced a series of radiocarbon dates around 6000 BC. Upper layers in the same site gave evidence of transition to Neolithic, containing the earliest dated earthenware ceramics in Cambodia

Archaeological records for the period between Holocene and Iron Age remain equally limited. A pivotal event in Cambodian prehistory was the slow penetration of the first rice farmers from the north, which began in the late 3rd millennium BC. The most curious prehistoric evidence in Cambodia are the various "circular earthworks" discovered in the red soils near Memot and in the adjacent region of Vietnam in the latter 1950s. Their function and age are still debated, but some of them possibly date from 2nd millennium BC.