Kingdom of Cambodia
| Kingdom of Cambodia ព្រះរាជាណាចក្រកម្ពុជា | |
|---|---|
|
Coat of arms
| |
|
Motto: ជាតិ សាសនា ព្រះមហាក្សត្រ "Nation, Religion, King" | |
|
Anthem: "នគររាជ" | |
|
Map of the Kingdom of Cambodia. | |
| Capital and largest city |
Phnom Penh |
| Official languages | Khmer |
| Mode of production | Bureaucrat capitalism |
| Government | Unitary constitutional monarchy |
| Legislature | Parliament |
The Kingdom of Cambodia, also known simply as Cambodia or by its native name Kampuchea, is a peripheral country located in Southeast Asia. It operates as a liberal constitutional monarchy. It is bordered by Thailand to its west, Vietnam to its east, and Laos to its north. It has a population of about 17 million people, the majority of which are ethnically Khmer. Its capital and most populous city is Phnom Penh, followed by Siem Reap and Battambang.
The land which would become Cambodia was ruled for millennia by various monarchic regimes, with the first major one being Chenla in the 6th centuries CE, followed by the Khmer Empire by the 9th century CE. In the mid-19th, Cambodia would come under French colonialism along with the rest of Indochina. Following Japanese occupation during the Second World War, Cambodia declared independence from France in 1953. The Vietnam War embroiled the country in civil war during the 1960s, culminating in a 1970 coup which installed the US-aligned Khmer Republic, which would be disposed by a socialist revolution led by Pol Pot of the Communist Party of Kampuchea. The CPK would found Democratic Kampuchea and would rule as a socialist state until 1979, when it was overthrown by a Soviet-backed Vietnamese invasion which led to the installation of a puppet state which would exist for over a decade.