Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge & the Hun Sen Regime
เขมร เป็นเมืองขึ้นมาตลอด 400 ปี เพิ่งได้เอกราชไม่นานนี้
Summary
From 1594, when Naresuan took Lawaek, Cambodia was a Siamese vassal continuously through Ayutthaya, Thonburi and into the early Bangkok period.
Under Rama II and III, Vietnam contested it, and Cambodia paid tribute to both — hence the saying that Thailand was the father and Vietnam the mother.
In 1863 France took over, the third phase of those four hundred years.
Key points
Four hundred years is longer than many countries have existed
At that length, vassalage becomes the normal condition rather than an interlude.
Paying tribute both ways is a strategy
Not weakness alone, but a way of surviving between two larger neighbours.
France changed the form rather than starting outside rule
What differed was that a European power reached far deeper into internal administration than a tributary relationship ever had.
This context explains present sensitivities
A country with that history is bound to be alert to anything resembling a claim of authority over it.