1.
Flag of the Khmer Republic
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The flag of the Khmer Republic is one of the historical flags of the Kingdom of Cambodia. It consists of a field with a red rectangle in the canton. The red rectangle bears the Angkor Wat silhouette, three large white stars are aligned horizontally on the upper corner of the blue field. The flag of the Khmer Republic was introduced on 9 October 1970 by the Lon Nol regime replacing the Royal Flag. It was the flag of Cambodia for almost five years. Even though their government had surrendered, loyalist Khmer Republic soldiers continued to hold their ground for nearly a month after the fall of Phnom Penh. Finally that outpost fell to the Khmer Rouge on 22 May 1975, the flag of Democratic Kampuchea became the flag of Cambodia after the ousting of the republican government. Khmer scholar Keng Vannsak commented that, according to Cambodian superstition, the flag of the Khmer Republic kept the white three-towered Angkor Wat silhouette, as well as the blue and red colors of the royal flag that had preceded it, but in a different pattern
2.
Royal arms of Cambodia
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The royal coat of arms of the Kingdom of Cambodia is the symbol of the Cambodian monarchy. They have existed in some close to the one depicted since the establishment of the independent Kingdom of Cambodia in 1953. It is the symbol on the Royal Standard of the monarch of Cambodia. The two royal animals of the gajasingha and the rajasingha holding two royal five-tiered umbrellas representing the King and the Queen. The Khmer language phrase ព្រះចៅ ក្រុង កម្ពុជា on the banner beneath the royal arms translates to, Preah Chau - Krong - Kampuchea, the royal arms were discontinued with the overthow of the monarchy in the Republican Era. They were restored for use in 1993 with the reinstatement of the monarchy under HM Norodom Sihanouk. Other arms were used during succeeding periods, Democratic Kampuchea, the Peoples Republic of Kampuchea, and the State of Cambodia
3.
Phnom Penh
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Phnom Penh, formerly known as Chaktomuk, is the capital and most populous city of the Southeastern Asian country of Cambodia. Once known as the Pearl of Asia, it was considered one of the loveliest French-built cities in Indochina in the 1920s, Phnom Penh, along with Siem Reap and Sihanoukville, are significant global and domestic tourist destinations for Cambodia. Founded in 1434, the city is noted for its beautiful and historical architecture, there are a number of surviving French colonial buildings scattered along the grand boulevards. Situated on the banks of the Tonlé Sap, Mekong and Bassac rivers, Phnom Penh takes its name from the present Wat Phnom. Legend has it that in 1372, a widow named Lady Penh found a Koki tree floating down the Tonle Sap river after a storm. Inside the tree were four bronze Buddha statues and a statue of Vishnu. The temple became known as Wat Phnom Daun Penh, which is now known as Wat Phnom, Phnom Penhs official name, in its short form, is Krong Chaktomok meaning City of Four Faces. This loosely translates as The place of four rivers that gives the happiness and success of Khmer Kingdom, the highest leader as well as impregnable city of the God Indra of the great kingdom. First recorded a century after it is said to have taken place, the legend of the founding of Phnom Penh tells of a woman, Penh, living at Chaktomuk. It was the late 14th century and the Khmer capital was still at Angkor near Siem Reap 350 km to the north, gathering firewood along the banks of the river, Lady Penh spied a floating koki tree in the river and fished it from the water. Inside the tree she found four Buddha statues and one of Vishnu, the discovery was taken as a divine blessing, and to some a sign that the Khmer capital was to be brought to Phnom Penh from Angkor. To house the new found sacred objects, Penh raised a small hill on the west bank of the Tonle Sap River and crowned it with a shrine, now known as Wat Phnom at the north end of central Phnom Penh. Phnom is Khmer for hill and Penhs hill took on the name of the founder, and the area around it became known after the hill. Phnom Penh first became the capital of Cambodia after Ponhea Yat, king of the Khmer Empire, there is a stupa behind Wat Phnom that house the remains of Ponhea Yat and the royal family as well as the remaining Buddhist statues from the Angkorean era. In the 17th century, Japanese immigrants also settled on the outskirts of present-day Phnom Penh, a small Portuguese community survived in Phnom Penh until the 17th century, undertaking commercial and religious activity in the country. Phnom Penh remained the capital for 73 years, from 1432 to 1505. It was abandoned for 360 years by subsequent kings due to fighting between the royal pretenders. Later kings moved the capital several times and established their capitals at various locations in Tuol Basan, Pursat, Longvek, Lavear Em
4.
Khmer language
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Khmer /kmɛər/ or Cambodian is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia. With approximately 16 million speakers, it is the second most widely spoken Austroasiatic language, Khmer has been influenced considerably by Sanskrit and Pali, especially in the royal and religious registers, through Hinduism and Buddhism. The vast majority of Khmer speakers speak Central Khmer, the dialect of the plain where the Khmer are most heavily concentrated. Within Cambodia, regional accents exist in remote areas but these are regarded as varieties of Central Khmer, outside of Cambodia, three distinct dialects are spoken by ethnic Khmers native to areas that were historically part of the Khmer Empire. The Northern Khmer dialect is spoken by over a million Khmers in the regions of Northeast Thailand and is treated by some linguists as a separate language. Khmer is primarily an analytic, isolating language, there are no inflections, conjugations or case endings. Instead, particles and auxiliary words are used to indicate grammatical relationships, general word order is subject–verb–object, and modifiers follow the word they modify. Classifiers appear after numbers when used to count nouns, though not always so consistently as in languages like Chinese, in spoken Khmer, topic-comment structure is common and the perceived social relation between participants determines which sets of vocabulary, such as pronouns and honorifics, are proper. Khmer differs from neighboring languages such as Thai, Burmese, Lao, words are stressed on the final syllable, hence many words conform to the typical Mon–Khmer pattern of a stressed syllable preceded by a minor syllable. The language has been written in the Khmer script, an abugida descended from the Brahmi script via the southern Indian Pallava script, approximately 79% of Cambodians are able to read Khmer. Khmer is a member of the Austroasiatic language family, the family in an area that stretches from the Malay Peninsula through Southeast Asia to East India. Austroasiatic, which also includes Mon, Vietnamese and Munda, has been studied since 1856 and was first proposed as a family in 1907. Despite the amount of research, there is doubt about the internal relationship of the languages of Austroasiatic. Diffloth places Khmer in a branch of the Mon-Khmer languages. In these classification schemes Khmers closest genetic relatives are the Bahnaric and Pearic languages, more recent classifications doubt the validity of the Mon-Khmer sub-grouping and place the Khmer language as its own branch of Austroasiatic equidistant from the other 12 branches of the family. Khmer is spoken by some 13 million people in Cambodia, where it is the official language and it is also a second language for most of the minority groups and indigenous hill tribes there. Additionally there are a million speakers of Khmer native to southern Vietnam and 1.4 million in northeast Thailand, Khmer dialects, although mutually intelligible, are sometimes quite marked. The dialects form a continuum running roughly north to south, the following is a classification scheme showing the development of the modern Khmer dialects
5.
French language
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French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
6.
Buddhism
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Buddhism is a religion and dharma that encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. Buddhism originated in India sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, from where it spread through much of Asia, two major extant branches of Buddhism are generally recognized by scholars, Theravada and Mahayana. Buddhism is the worlds fourth-largest religion, with over 500 million followers or 7% of the global population, Buddhist schools vary on the exact nature of the path to liberation, the importance and canonicity of various teachings and scriptures, and especially their respective practices. In Theravada the ultimate goal is the attainment of the state of Nirvana, achieved by practicing the Noble Eightfold Path, thus escaping what is seen as a cycle of suffering. Theravada has a following in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Mahayana, which includes the traditions of Pure Land, Zen, Nichiren Buddhism, Shingon, rather than Nirvana, Mahayana instead aspires to Buddhahood via the bodhisattva path, a state wherein one remains in the cycle of rebirth to help other beings reach awakening. Vajrayana, a body of teachings attributed to Indian siddhas, may be viewed as a branch or merely a part of Mahayana. Tibetan Buddhism, which preserves the Vajrayana teachings of eighth century India, is practiced in regions surrounding the Himalayas, Tibetan Buddhism aspires to Buddhahood or rainbow body. Buddhism is an Indian religion attributed to the teachings of Buddha, the details of Buddhas life are mentioned in many early Buddhist texts but are inconsistent, his social background and life details are difficult to prove, the precise dates uncertain. Some hagiographic legends state that his father was a king named Suddhodana, his mother queen Maya, and he was born in Lumbini gardens. Some of the stories about Buddha, his life, his teachings, Buddha was moved by the innate suffering of humanity. He meditated on this alone for a period of time, in various ways including asceticism, on the nature of suffering. He famously sat in meditation under a Ficus religiosa tree now called the Bodhi Tree in the town of Bodh Gaya in Gangetic plains region of South Asia. He reached enlightenment, discovering what Buddhists call the Middle Way, as an enlightened being, he attracted followers and founded a Sangha. Now, as the Buddha, he spent the rest of his teaching the Dharma he had discovered. Dukkha is a concept of Buddhism and part of its Four Noble Truths doctrine. It can be translated as incapable of satisfying, the unsatisfactory nature, the Four Truths express the basic orientation of Buddhism, we crave and cling to impermanent states and things, which is dukkha, incapable of satisfying and painful. This keeps us caught in saṃsāra, the cycle of repeated rebirth, dukkha
7.
Republic
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It is a government where the head of state is not a monarch. Both modern and ancient republics vary widely in their ideology, composition, in the classical and medieval period of Europe, many states were fashioned on the Roman Republic, which referred to the governance of the city of Rome, between it having kings and emperors. The Italian medieval and Renaissance political tradition, today referred to as humanism, is sometimes considered to derive directly from Roman republicans such as Sallust. Republics were not equated with classical democracies such as Athens, but had a democratic aspect, Republics became more common in the Western world starting in the late 18th century, eventually displacing absolute monarchy as the most common form of government in Europe. In modern republics, the executive is legitimized both by a constitution and by popular suffrage, for instance, Article IV of the United States Constitution guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican form of Government. The term originates as the Latin translation of Greek word politeia, cicero, among other Latin writers, translated politeia as res publica and it was in turn translated by Renaissance scholars as republic. The term politeia can be translated as form of government, polity, or regime, and is therefore not always a word for a specific type of regime as the modern word republic is. And also amongst classical Latin, the term republic can be used in a way to refer to any regime. In medieval Northern Italy, a number of city states had commune or signoria based governments, in the late Middle Ages, writers, such as Giovanni Villani, began writing about the nature of these states and the differences from other types of regime. They used terms such as libertas populi, a free people, the terminology changed in the 15th century as the renewed interest in the writings of Ancient Rome caused writers to prefer using classical terminology. To describe non-monarchical states writers, most importantly Leonardo Bruni, adopted the Latin phrase res publica. While Bruni and Machiavelli used the term to describe the states of Northern Italy, which were not monarchies, the term can quite literally be translated as public matter. It was most often used by Roman writers to refer to the state and government, in subsequent centuries, the English word commonwealth came to be used as a translation of res publica, and its use in English was comparable to how the Romans used the term res publica. Notably, during The Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell the word commonwealth was the most common term to call the new monarchless state, likewise, in Polish, the term was translated as rzeczpospolita, although the translation is now only used with respect to Poland. Presently, the term republic commonly means a system of government which derives its power from the rather than from another basis. After the classical period, during the Middle Ages, many cities developed again. The modern type of itself is different from any type of state found in the classical world. Nevertheless, there are a number of states of the era that are today still called republics
8.
Presidential system
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A presidential system is a system of government where a head of government is also head of state and leads an executive branch that is separate from the legislative branch. The United States, for instance, has a presidential system, the executive is elected and often titled president and is not responsible to the legislature, which cannot in normal circumstances dismiss it. Presidential systems are numerous, but the following are true, The executive can veto legislative acts and, in turn. The veto is generally derived from the British tradition of royal assent in which an act of parliament can only be enacted with the assent of the monarch, the president has a fixed term of office. Members of the cabinet serve at the pleasure of the president, cabinet ministers or executive departmental chiefs are not members of the legislature. However, presidential systems often need legislative approval of executive nominations to the cabinet, judiciary, a president generally can direct members of the cabinet, military, or any officer or employee of the executive branch, but cannot direct or dismiss judges. The president can often pardon or commute sentences of convicted criminals, countries that feature a presidential system of government are not the exclusive users of the title of president. For example, a dictator, who may or may not have been popularly or legitimately elected may be, likewise, leaders of one-party states are often called presidents. Most parliamentary republics have presidents, but this position is ceremonial, notable examples include Germany, India, Ireland, Israel. The title is used in parliamentary republics with an executive presidency. In a full-fledged presidential system, a president is chosen directly by the people or indirectly by the party to be the head of the executive branch. Presidential governments make no distinction between the positions of head of state and head of government, both of which are held by the president, a few countries have powerful presidents who are elected by the legislature. These executives are titled president, whereas in practice they are similar to prime ministers, other countries with the same system include Botswana, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, and Suriname. By contrast, national presidents are figurehead heads of state, like constitutional monarchs, such symbolic presidents can be directly elected by the people or indirectly by a legislative vote. Only a few nations, such as Ireland, have a popularly elected ceremonial president, subnational governments, usually states, may be structured as presidential systems. All of the governments in the United States use the presidential system. On a local level, many cities use Council-manager government, which is equivalent to a parliamentary system, some countries without a presidential system at the national level use a form of this system at a subnational or local level. Supporters generally claim four basic advantages for presidential systems, Direct elections — in a presidential system and this makes the presidents power more legitimate than that of a leader appointed indirectly
9.
Lon Nol
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Marshal Lon Nol was a Cambodian politician and general who served as Prime Minister of Cambodia twice, as well as serving repeatedly as Defense Minister. He led the coup of 1970 against Prince Norodom Sihanouk and became the self-proclaimed President of the newly created Khmer Republic. He was the founder and leader of the short-lived Social Republican Party, Nol was born in Prey Veng Province on November 13,1913, to a family of mixed Khmer-Chinese descent. His maternal grandfather was a Chinese immigrant from Fujian province who later became the governor of Prey Veng, Nol was educated in the relatively privileged surroundings of the Lycée Chasseloup-Laubat in Saigon, followed by the Cambodian Royal Military Academy. Nol found employment with the French colonial civil service in 1937 and he became a magistrate, and soon proved himself as an efficient enforcer of French rule against a series of anti-colonial disturbances in 1939. By 1946, he had risen to the post of Governor of Kratie Province, joining the army in 1952, he carried out military operations against the Viet Minh. After independence, Nols nationalist Khmer Renovation party became the core of the Sangkum, Sangkum won the elections and Sihanouk became Prime Minister. Nol was appointed the Army Chief of Staff in 1955, and commander-in-chief of the forces in 1960. At the time, he was a supporter of Sihanouk, his police being instrumental in the suppression of the small. He was appointed deputy Premier in 1963, Lon Nol became Prime Minister, and the following year troops carried out a savage repression of a leftist-inspired revolt, the Samlaut Uprising, in Battambang Province. Nol was injured in a car crash later in 1967, Sihanouk later claimed that the 1970 coup against him was the result of an alliance between his longstanding enemy, exiled politician Son Ngoc Thanh and Sirik Matak, with CIA support and planning. While Sihanouk was abroad during March 1970, there were riots in Phnom Penh. However, the Prime Minister remained uncertain as to whether to instigate a vote in the National Assembly. On the night of 17 March, Sirik Matak, accompanied by three officers, went to the Prime Ministers residence and compelled a weeping Lon Nol to sign the necessary documents at gunpoint. A vote was taken in the National Assembly on 18 March in which Sihanouk was stripped of his power, General Lon Nol assumed the powers of the Head of State on an emergency basis. On 28 and 29 March there were popular demonstrations in favour of Sihanouk in several provincial cities. The Khmer Republic was formally declared that October, and Sihanouk – who had formed a government-in-exile, in the meantime during the Cambodian Campaign of April 1970, US and South Vietnamese forces entered Cambodian territory in pursuit of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops. The Khmer Republic abandoned Sihanouks neutrality policies, especially with regards to the Vietnamese, ultimately, the republic proved disastrous both militarily and politically
10.
Peter Khoy Saukam
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Peter Khoy Saukam was Acting President of the Khmer Republic for 12 days in April 1975. He was President of the Senate from 1972 to 1975, born on 2 February 1915, Saukam Khoy enlisted into the Khmer Royal Army in 1940, when he was 25. He achieved the rank of lieutenant-colonel in 1953 and subsequently, lieutenant-general, khoys time in office was short. Khoy died at the age of 93 in Stockton, California, United States on 14 November 2008
11.
Sisowath Sirik Matak
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Sisowath Sirik Matak was a member of the Cambodian royal family, the Varman dynasty, under the House of Sisowath. Sirik Matak was born in Phnom Penh, and was a member of the Sisowath branch of the Varman Dynasty and he was recruited into the colonial civil service in 1930. In 1941, after the death of King Sisowath Monivong, the French authorities selected Sirik Mataks cousin Norodom Sihanouk to be King, believing him to be relatively pliant and he even had a notion that he himself should have been chosen. After the Second World War, Sirik Matak became increasingly involved in Cambodian politics, as a part of the right-wing Khmer Renovation party headed by Lon Nol, he took part in the National Assembly elections in 1947, though the party failed to win any seats. Throughout the 1960s, Sihanouk attempted to minimize Sirik Mataks leverage on domestic politics by appointing him as Ambassador to China, the Philippines. Sirik Mataks power increased substantially after Lon Nol became Prime Minister in August 1969, Sirik Matak even visited Hanoi secretly to find out what could be done to remove Vietnamese troops from Cambodian soil. He was infuriated when he was shown documents signed by Sihanouk agreeing to the establishment of Vietnamese bases, on March 18, Sirik Matak assisted Lon Nol in organising a vote of the National Assembly to depose Sihanouk as head of state. The pretext was given by a series of anti-Vietnamese riots - likely encouraged by the Prime Minister and it was even reported that Sirik Matak compelled Lon Nol at gunpoint to commit to deposing Sihanouk. Sihanouk also assumed his cousin to be the force behind the coup. For the first year of the Republic, during which Lon Nol was often in poor health and it had an overtly military character, Sirik Matak usually appearing in his full uniform as a Major-General and carrying a swagger stick. By April 1973, Lon Nol had been compelled to remove Lon Non and suspended the National Assembly, appointing a High Political Council composed of himself, Sirik Matak, Cheng Heng and In Tam. On being informed of this, an enraged Sihanouk called Sirik Matak one of the worst reactionaries and traitors of the history of Cambodia we are going to him, quite simply hang him. The Khmer Rouge communists initiated their offensive to capture the beleaguered Cambodian capital on January 1,1975. Sirik Mataks written response to the stated, I thank you very sincerely for your letter. I cannot, alas, leave in such a cowardly fashion, as for you and in particular for your great country, I never believed for a moment that you would have this sentiment of abandoning a people which has chosen liberty. You have refused us your protection and we can do nothing about it and you leave us and it is my wish that you and your country will find happiness under the sky. But mark it well that, if I shall die here on the spot and in my country that I love, it is too bad because we are all born, I have only committed the mistake of believing in you, the Americans. Please accept, Excellency, my friend, my faithful
12.
In Tam
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In Tam was a former Prime Minister of Cambodia. He served in that position from May 6,1973 to December 9,1973, in Tam was born in Prek Kak village in Stung Treng district, Kampong Cham Province, in eastern Cambodia. As a child he studied Pali at Stung Treng Pagoda, before going on to study at the Lycee Sisowath, after serving as an inspector of the provincial militia, he eventually reached the rank of Brevet-General and rose to the position of governor of Takeo Province. During the 1960s Tam served in posts in the Sangkum government of Prince Norodom Sihanouk. He was involved in the arrest of his own nephew Preap In, who was accused of membership of an anti-Sihanouk, rightist guerrilla organisation, the Khmer Serei, Preap In was later executed. Despite his former loyalty to Sihanouk, however, In Tam was one of the figures behind the Cambodian coup of 1970. As President of the National Assembly, In Tam personally proclaimed the Khmer Republic in October 1970, after 1970, Tam came into increasing conflict with the coups leader, Lon Nol. In 1972, Tam ran in presidential elections against Lon Nol and he was succeeded as Prime Minister by Long Boret. When the Khmer Rouge gained control of Cambodia in April 1975 and he almost certainly would have been executed, but he fled to Thailand and attempted to organise a rebellion against the Khmer Rouge in the border areas. This did not last long, however, as the Thai authorities deported him and he went to France and then in 1976 moved to the United States where he received asylum. He was one of three ministers of National Defense of the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea and he refounded the Cambodian Democratic Party, which failed to win seats in Parliament in the 1993 elections. In 1997 he made an alliance with the Cambodian Peoples Party, in Tam died in Chandler, Arizona in the southwestern United States
13.
Parliament of the Khmer Republic
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The Parliament of the Khmer Republic was the official name of the bicameral legislature of Cambodia during the Republican period. Elections were held for 32 members of the Senate and all the members of the National Assembly, newly established pursuant to the Constitution approved by referendum on April 30,1972. The Senate consisted of 40 members elected for 6 years, half of whom were renewable every 3 years, three-fifths of the Senators were elected indirectly in the countrys different regions, one-fifth by the civil administration, and the remaining fifth by the Council of the Armed Forces. The National Assembly consisted of 126 members elected directly for 4 years by popular sovereignty. All citizens of either sex who are at least 18 years of age, registered on the electoral lists, the age requirement is 40 to vote for Senators. Electoral lists were revised every 4 years and voting was not compulsory
14.
Cold War
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The Cold War was a state of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc and powers in the Western Bloc. Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but a common timeframe is the period between 1947, the year the Truman Doctrine was announced, and 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed. The term cold is used there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two sides, although there were major regional wars, known as proxy wars, supported by the two sides. The Cold War split the temporary alliance against Nazi Germany, leaving the Soviet Union. The USSR was a Marxist–Leninist state ruled by its Communist Party and secret police, the Party controlled the press, the military, the economy and all organizations. In opposition stood the West, dominantly democratic and capitalist with a free press, a small neutral bloc arose with the Non-Aligned Movement, it sought good relations with both sides. The two superpowers never engaged directly in full-scale armed combat, but they were armed in preparation for a possible all-out nuclear world war. The first phase of the Cold War began in the first two years after the end of the Second World War in 1945, the Berlin Blockade was the first major crisis of the Cold War. With the victory of the communist side in the Chinese Civil War and the outbreak of the Korean War, the USSR and USA competed for influence in Latin America, and the decolonizing states of Africa and Asia. Meanwhile, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was stopped by the Soviets, the expansion and escalation sparked more crises, such as the Suez Crisis, the Berlin Crisis of 1961, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The USSR crushed the 1968 Prague Spring liberalization program in Czechoslovakia, détente collapsed at the end of the decade with the beginning of the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979. The early 1980s were another period of elevated tension, with the Soviet downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, the United States increased diplomatic, military, and economic pressures on the Soviet Union, at a time when the communist state was already suffering from economic stagnation. In the mid-1980s, the new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the reforms of perestroika and glasnost. Pressures for national independence grew stronger in Eastern Europe, especially Poland, Gorbachev meanwhile refused to use Soviet troops to bolster the faltering Warsaw Pact regimes as had occurred in the past. The result in 1989 was a wave of revolutions that peacefully overthrew all of the communist regimes of Central, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union itself lost control and was banned following an abortive coup attempt in August 1991. This in turn led to the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. The United States remained as the only superpower. The Cold War and its events have left a significant legacy and it is often referred to in popular culture, especially in media featuring themes of espionage and the threat of nuclear warfare
15.
Cambodian Civil War
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The struggle was complicated by the influence and actions of the allies of the two warring sides. The Cambodian coup of 18 March 1970 put a pro-American, anti-North Vietnamese government in power, the North Vietnamese Army was now threatened by a newly unfriendly Cambodian government. The North Vietnamese turned over some of their conquests and provided assistance to the Khmer Rouge. The Cambodian government hastened to expand its army to combat the North Vietnamese, the U. S. was motivated by the desire to buy time for its withdrawal from Southeast Asia, to protect its ally in South Vietnam, and to prevent the spread of communism to Cambodia. American and both South and North Vietnamese forces directly participated in the fighting, the U. S. assisted the central government with massive U. S. aerial bombing campaigns and direct material and financial aid. After five years of fighting, the Republican government was defeated on 17 April 1975 when the victorious Khmer Rouge proclaimed the establishment of Democratic Kampuchea. The Cambodian civil war led to the Cambodian Genocide, one of the bloodiest in history, during the early-to-mid-1960s, Prince Norodom Sihanouks policies had protected his nation from the turmoil that engulfed Laos and South Vietnam. On 3 May 1965, Sihanouk broke diplomatic relations with the U. S. ended the flow of American aid, and turned to the PRC, by the late 1960s, Sihanouks delicate domestic and foreign policy balancing act was beginning to go awry. He had also agreed to allow the use of the port of Sihanoukville by communist-flagged vessels delivering supplies and these concessions made questionable Cambodias neutrality, which had been guaranteed by the Geneva Conference of 1954. Sihanouk was convinced that the PRC, not the U. S, on 11 September, Cambodia held its first open election. Through manipulation and harassment the conservatives won 75 percent of the seats in the National Assembly, the prince then found himself in a political dilemma. One of Lon Nols first priorities was to fix the economy by halting the illegal sale of rice to the communists. Soldiers were dispatched to the areas to forcibly collect the harvests at gunpoint. On 11 March 1967, while Sihanouk was out of the country in France, a rebellion broke out in the area around Samlaut in Battambang, with the probable encouragement of local communist cadres, the insurrection quickly spread throughout the whole region. Lon Nol, acting in the absence, responded by declaring martial law. Hundreds of peasants were killed and whole villages were laid waste during the repression, simultaneously, Sihanouk ordered the arrest of Chinese middlemen involved in the illegal rice trade, thereby raising government revenues and placating the conservatives. Lon Nol was forced to resign, and, in a typical move, the immediate crisis had passed, but it engendered two tragic consequences. First, it drove thousands of new recruits into the arms of the maquis of the Cambodian Communist Party
16.
Cambodian riel
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The riel is the currency of Cambodia. There have been two distinct riel, the first issued between 1953 and May 1975, between 1975 and 1980, the country had no monetary system. A second currency, also named riel, has issued since March 20,1980. The symbol is encoded in Unicode at U+17DB ៛ KHMER CURRENCY SYMBOL RIEL, popular belief suggests that the name of the currency comes from the Mekong river fish, the riel. It is more likely that the name derives from the silver content Mexican real used by Malay, Indian. In 1953, the Cambodia branch of the Institut dÉmission des États du Cambodge, du Laos et du Vietnam issued notes denominated in piastre. At the same time, the two branches of the Institut had similar arrangements with the đồng in South Vietnam and the kip in Laos. The piastre itself was derived from Spanish pieces of eight, the riel was at first subdivided into 100 centimes but this changed in 1959 to 100 sen. For the first few years, the riel and piastre circulated alongside each other, indeed, the first riel banknotes were also denominated in piastres. First issue, 1955–56,1 riel,5 riels,10 riels,50 riels, second issue,1956,1 riel,20 riels,50 riels,100 riels,500 riels. Third issue,1963,5 riels,10 riels,100 riels, fourth issue,1972,100 riels*,500 riels,1,000 riels*,5,000 riels*. The 10,20 and 50 centimes of 1953 and sen coins were minted in aluminium and were the size as the corresponding att and xu coins of Laos. A1 riel coin about the size of a U. S, since 1994, the 50,100, and 200-riel coins have been made of steel, while the 500-riel coin is bimetallic, with a brass outer ring and a steel center disc. Although the Khmer Rouge printed banknotes, these notes were not issued as money was abolished after the Khmer Rouge took control of the country. Fifth issue,1975,0.1 riel,0.5 riel,1 riel,5 riels,10 riels,50 riels,100 riels, in 1993 they printed a series of coloured banknotes for limited use on territories controlled by them. After the Vietnamese invasion in 1978, the riel was re-established as the Cambodian currency on April 1,1980 and it is subdivided into 10 kak or 100 sen. Because there was no money for it to replace and a severely disrupted economy, sixth issue,1979,0.1 riel,0.2 riel,0.5 riel,1 riel,5 riels,10 riels,20 riels,50 riels. Seventh issue,1987,5 riels,10 riels, eighth issue, 1990-92,50 riels,100 riels,500 riels
17.
Democratic Kampuchea
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Kampuchea, officially known as Democratic Kampuchea from 5 January 1976, was the name of the Khmer Rouge -controlled state that, between 1975 and 1979, existed in present-day Cambodia. It was founded when the Khmer Rouge forces defeated the Khmer Republic of Lon Nol in 1975, during its rule between 1975 and 1979, the state and its ruling Khmer Rouge regime was responsible for the deaths of millions of Cambodians through forced labour and genocide. After losing control of most of Cambodian territory to Vietnamese occupation, in June 1982, the Khmer Rouge formed the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea with two non-communist guerilla factions, which retained international recognition. The state was renamed Cambodia in 1990 in the run up to the UN-sponsored Paris Peace Agreement conference of 1991, in 1970, Premier Lon Nol and the National Assembly deposed Norodom Sihanouk as the head of state. Sihanouk, opposing the new government, entered into an alliance with the Khmer Rouge against them, thus, with large popular support in the countryside, the capital Phnom Penh finally fell on 17 April 1975 to the Khmer Rouge. The KR continued to use Sihanouk as a figurehead for the government until 2 April 1976 when Sihanouk resigned as head of state, the context of war destabilised the country and displaced Cambodians while making available to the KR the weapons of war. The KR leveraged on the devastation caused by the war to recruit members and used this past violence to justify the similarly – if not more – violent and radical policies of the regime. Early explanations for the KR brutality suggest that the KR had been radicalised during the war years and later turned this radical understanding of society and this backdrop of violence and brutality arguably also affected everyday Cambodians, priming them for the violence that they themselves perpetrated under the KR regime. Phnom Penh fell on 17 April 1975, Sihanouk was given the symbolic position of Head of State for the new government Democratic Kampuchea and, in September 1975, returned to Phnom Penh from exile in Beijing. After a trip abroad, during which he visited several communist countries and recommended the recognition of Democratic Kampuchea, Sihanouk returned again to Cambodia at the end of 1975. A year after the Khmer Rouge takeover, Sihanouk resigned in mid-April 1976 and was placed under house arrest, where he remained until 1979, in January 1976 the Communist Party of Kampuchea promulgated the “Constitution of Democratic Kampuchea”. The KPRA met only once, a session in April 1976. The members of the KPRA, however, were never elected, plans for elections of members were discussed, but the 250 members of the KPRA were in fact appointed by the upper echelon of CPK. It was known also as the “Centre”, the “Organisation, ” or “Angkar”, for almost two years after the takeover, the Khmer Rouge continued to refer to itself as simply Angkar. It was only in a March 1977 speech that Pol Pot revealed the CPKs existence and it was also around that time that it was confirmed that Pol Pot was the same person as Saloth Sar, who had long been cited as the CPKs general secretary. The Khmer Rouge government did away with all former Cambodian traditional administrative divisions, the regions were subdivided into smaller areas or damban. These were known by numbers, which were assigned without a coherent pattern. Villages were also subdivided into groups of 15–20 households who were led by a group leader, the Khmer Rouge destroyed the legal and judicial structures of the Khmer Republic
18.
Cambodia
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Cambodia, officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is 181,035 square kilometres in area, bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the northeast, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia has a population of over 15 million. The official religion is Theravada Buddhism, practiced by approximately 95 percent of the population, the countrys minority groups include Vietnamese, Chinese, Chams, and 30 hill tribes. The capital and largest city is Phnom Penh, the political, economic, the kingdom is a constitutional monarchy with Norodom Sihamoni, a monarch chosen by the Royal Throne Council, as head of state. The head of government is Hun Sen, who is currently the longest serving leader in South East Asia and has ruled Cambodia for over 25 years. In 802 AD, Jayavarman II declared himself king, uniting the warring Khmer princes of Chenla under the name Kambuja. The Indianized kingdom built monumental temples including Angkor Wat, now 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 neighbours. In 1863 Cambodia became a protectorate of France which doubled the size of the country by reclaiming the north, the Vietnam War extended into the country with the US bombing of Cambodia from 1969 until 1973. Following the Cambodian coup of 1970, the king gave his support to his former enemies. Following the 1991 Paris Peace Accords, Cambodia was governed briefly by a United Nations mission, the UN withdrew after holding elections in which around 90 percent of the registered voters cast ballots. The 1997 coup placed power solely in the hands of Prime Minister Hun Sen and the Cambodian Peoples Party, important sociopolitical issues includes widespread poverty, pervasive corruption, lack of political freedoms, low human development, and a high rate of hunger. While per capita income remains low compared to most neighbouring countries, agriculture remains the dominant economic sector, with strong growth in textiles, construction, garments, and tourism leading to increased foreign investment and international trade. Cambodia scored dismally in an annual index ranking the rule of law in 102 countries, placing 99th overall, Cambodia also faces environmental destruction as an imminent problem. The most severe activity in this regard is considered to be the countrywide deforestation, the Kingdom of Cambodia is the official English name of the country. The English Cambodia is an anglicisation of the French Cambodge, which in turn is the French transliteration of the Khmer Kampuchea, Kampuchea is the shortened alternative to the countrys official name in Khmer, Preah Reacheanachak Kampuchea. The Khmer endonym Kampuchea derives from the Sanskrit name Kambujadeśa, composed of देश, desa and कम्बोज, Kambujas, colloquially, Cambodians refer to their country as either Srok Khmer, meaning Khmers Land, or the slightly more formal Prateh Kampuchea, literally Country of Kampuchea. The name Cambodia is used most often in the Western world while Kampuchea is more used in the East. Excavations in its lower layers produced a series of dates as of 6000 BC
19.
History of Cambodia
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The history of Cambodia, a country in mainland Southeast Asia, can be traced back to at least the 5th millennium BC. Centered at the lower Mekong, Funan is noted as the oldest regional Hindu culture, the Khmer Empire was established by the early 9th century. Sources refer here to an initiation and consecration ceremony to claim political legitimacy by founder Jayavarman II at Mount Kulen in 802 C. E. A succession of powerful sovereigns, continuing the Hindu devaraja cult tradition, a new dynasty of provincial origin introduced Buddhism, which according to some scholars resulted in royal religious discontinuities and general decline. The royal chronology ends in the 14th century, although the Hindu cults had by then been all but replaced, the monument sites at the old capital remained an important spiritual centre. Maritime trade was the basis for a very prosperous 16th century, but, as a result foreigners - Muslim Malays and Cham, Christian European adventurers and missionaries - increasingly disturbed and influenced government affairs. Ambiguous fortunes, a robust economy on the one hand and a disturbed culture and these powers had perceived, understood and increasingly followed the imperative of controlling the lower Mekong basin as the key to control all Indochina. A weak Khmer kingdom only encouraged the strategists in Ayutthaya and in Huế, attacks on and conquests of Khmer royal residences left sovereigns without a ceremonial and legitimate power base. Interference in succession and marriage policies added to the decay of royal prestige, Oudong was established in 1601 as the last royal residence of the Middle Period. Cambodia, although largely neglected, had entered the Indochinese Union as an entity and was capable to carry. The Kingdom of Cambodia, independent since 1953, struggled to remain neutral in a world shaped by polarisation of the nuclear powers USA, as the Indochinese war escalates, Cambodia becomes increasingly involved, the Khmer Republic is one of the results in 1970, another is civil war. Radiocarbon dating of a cave at Laang Spean in Battambang Province, northwest Cambodia confirmed the presence of Hoabinhian stone tools from 6000-7000 BC and pottery from 4200 BC. Starting in 2009 archaeological research of the Franco-Cambodian Prehistoric Mission has documented a complete cultural sequence from 71.000 years BP to the Neolithic period in the cave, skulls and human bones found at Samrong Sen in Kampong Chhnang Province date from 1500 BC. Heng Sophady has drawn comparisons between Samrong Sen and the circular earthwork sites of eastern Cambodia and these people may have migrated from South-eastern China to the Indochinese Peninsula. Scholars trace the first cultivation of rice and the first bronze making in Southeast Asia to these people, the graves also contain a quantity of swords and other offensive weapons used in conflict. By the 1st century settlers have developed complex, organised societies and a varied religious cosmology, by the second century C. E. Funan controlled the strategic coastline of Indochina and the maritime trade routes. Cultural and religious ideas reached Funan via the Indian Ocean trade route, trade with India had commenced well before 500 BC as Sanskrit hadnt yet replaced Pali. Indian author Dr. Pragya Mishra observes, Funan Was One Of The Colonies Established By Indians Within Cambodia, in his essay Cultural History of Indian Diaspora in Cambodia
20.
Early history of Cambodia
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The Early history of Cambodia follows the prehistoric and protohistoric development of Cambodia a country in mainland Southeast Asia. Thanks to archaeological work carried out since 2009 this can now be traced back to the Neolithic period, centered at the lower Mekong, Funan is noted as the oldest regional Hindu culture, which suggests prolonged socio-economic interaction with maritime trading partners of the Indosphere in the west. The Khmer Empire was established by the early 9th century in an initiation and consecration ceremony to claim political legitimacy by founder Jayavarman II at Mount Kulen in 802 C. E. A succession of powerful sovereigns, continuing the Hindu devaraja cult tradition, the royal chronology ends in the 14th century. The earliest traces of human presence in Cambodia have been found at Laang Spean, equally significant is the site Samrong Sen in Kampong Chhnang Province which was occupied since around 1500 BC and the relative recent site of Phum Snay. These original inhabitants spoke advanced Austroasiatic languages and participated in the exchange of contemporary technologies, one day the princess saw the Brahman on a boat and went to speak with him, but was shot by one of his magic arrows which made her fall in love with him. Her father drank all the water that inundated the land and gave the new land to them as a dowry, the Nāga are a pan-Asian mythical race of reptilian beings, who in Cambodia were believed to possess a large empire or kingdom in the Pacific Ocean region. Cambodians today still say that they are Born from the Naga See, the Indianization of Southeast Asia happened as a consequence of the increasing trade in the Indian Ocean. Vedic and Hindu religion, political thought, literature, mythology, the caste system was never adopted, but Indianization stimulated the rise of highly organised, centralised states. Funan, the earliest of the Indianised states, is considered to have been the first kingdom in the area. Found in the 1st century CE, Funan was located on the reaches of the Mekong River delta area, in what is today southeast Cambodia. Its capital, Vyadhapura, probably was located near the town of Ba Phnom in Prey Veng Province. The earliest historical reference to Funan is a Chinese description of a mission visited the country in the 3rd century. The name Funan is largely believed to be derived from the old khmer word Phnom meaning mountain, the Funanese were likely of Austroasiatic origin. What the Funanese called themselves, however, is not known, during this early period in Funans history, the population was probably concentrated in villages along the Mekong River and along the Tonlé Sap River below the Tonlé Sap. Traffic and communications were mostly waterborne on the rivers and their delta tributaries, the area was a natural region for the development of an economy based on fishing and rice cultivation. There is considerable evidence that the Funanese economy depended on rice surpluses produced by an extensive irrigation system. By the 5th century, the state exercised control over the lower Mekong River area and it also commanded tribute from smaller states in the area now comprising northern Cambodia, southern Laos, southern Thailand, and the northern portion of the Malay Peninsula
21.
Funan
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Like the very name of the kingdom, the ethno-linguistic nature of the people is the subject of much discussion among specialists. The leading hypotheses are that the Funanese were mostly Mon–Khmer, or that they were mostly Austronesian, the available evidence is inconclusive on this issue. Michael Vickery has said that, even though identification of the language of Funan is not possible, the results of archaeology at Oc Eo have demonstrated no true discontinuity between Oc Eo and pre-Angkorian levels, indicating Khmer linguistic dominance in the area under Funan control. Excavations at Angkor Borei in southern Cambodia have likewise delivered evidence of an important settlement, since Óc Eo was linked to a port on the coast and to Angkor Borei by a system of canals, it is possible that all of these locations together constituted the heartland of Funan. Some scholars have advanced speculative proposals regarding the origin and meaning of the word Funan and it is often said that the name Funan represents a transcription from some local language into Chinese. For example, French scholar Georges Coedès advanced the theory that in using the word Funan ancient Chinese scholars were transcribing a word related to the Khmer word bnaṃ or vnaṃ. Thus, Funan may be an originally Chinese word meaning something like Pacified South, scholars critical of Pelliots Chinese sources have expressed scepticism regarding his conclusions. Archeological evidence shows that human settlement in the region may go back as far as the 4th century BCE. The ethnic and linguistic origins of the Funanese people have been subject to scholarly debate, the Funanese may have been Cham or from another Austronesian group, or they may have been Khmer or from another Austroasiatic group. It is possible that they are the ancestors of those indigenous people dwelling in the part of Vietnam today who refer themselves as Khmer or Khmer Krom. It is also possible that Funan was a society, including various ethnic and linguistic groups. In the late 4th and 5th centuries, Indianization advanced more rapidly, in part through renewed impulses from the south Indian Pallava dynasty and these inscriptions give no information about the ethnicity or vernacular tongue of the Funanese. Funan may have been the Suvarnabhumi referred to in ancient Indian texts, in the morning, he proceeded to the temple, where he found a bow at the foot of the genies tree. He then boarded a ship, which the genie caused to land in Fúnán, the queen of the country, Liǔyè wanted to pillage the ship and seize it, so Hùntián shot an arrow from his divine bow which pierced through Liǔyès ship. Frightened, she gave herself up, and Hùntián took her for his wife, but unhappy to see her naked, he folded a piece of material to make a garment through which he made her pass her head. Then he governed the country and passed power on to his son, however, the name Kaundinya appears in a number of independent sources and seems to point to a figure of some importance in the history of Funan. A person of that name is mentioned in the Book of Liang in a story that appears somewhat after the story of Hùntián, there a voice told him, ʻyou must go reign over Fúnán, ʼ and he rejoiced in his heart. In the south, he arrived at Pánpán 盤盤, the people of Fúnán appeared to him, the whole kingdom rose up with joy, went before him, and chose him king
22.
Chenla
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Chenla or Zhenla is the Chinese designation for the successor polity of the Kingdom of Funan preceding the Khmer Empire that existed from around the late sixth to the early ninth century in Indochina. The name was used in the 13th century by the Chinese envoy Zhou Daguan. However, modern historiography applies the name exclusively to the period from the late 6th to the ninth century. It is dubious if Chenla ever existed as a kingdom or if this is a misconception by Chinese chronists. Most modern historians assert that Chenla was in fact just a series of loose, the origins of Chenlas aristocracy, whom author Michael Vickery called the Dângrêk Chieftains, are obscure. The first known princes are mentioned in early inscriptions. His successors continued this tradition, thus conveying the idea of a correlation between political and religious authority, the New Book of Tang asserts that shortly after 706, the country was split into Land Chenla and Water Chenla. The names signify a northern and a half, which may conveniently be referred to as Upper and Lower Chenla. By the late 8th century Water Chenla had become dependent on the thalassocratic Shailendra dynasty on Java, the last of Water Chenlas kings seems to have been killed and the polity incorporated into the Javanese monarchy around the year 790. Land Chenla maintained its integrity under Jayavarman II, who proclaimed the Khmer Empire in 802, Chenla or Zhenla was the name given in Chinese accounts of an entity that sent tributes to Chinese emperors. The word Chenla or Zhenla and likewise Funan are unknown in the Old Khmer language, folk etymology attempts to link Chenla to a translation of its Chinese name as Pure Beeswax, which was one of its regional commodities mentioned in Chinese annals. However, it has pointed out that this derivation is problematic as conflicts between Siam and Cambodia occurred centuries after the name was first used. Therefore although the names Chenla and Siem Reap could perhaps be related, similar explanation however may apply to a later variant form Zhanla, according to author Peter Harris, It very likely means Defeated Chams since Zhan is the word in Chinese for Cham. He also noted the explanation given in Mingshi, During the qingyuan reign period of the Song Dynasty, Cambodia wiped out Champa, because of this, the country changed its name to Zhanla. But during the Yuan Dynasty it went on being called Zhenla and this approach explains why there was a noticeable increase in stone inscriptions during the seventh century. Multiple independent territories would produce their own recordings and written regulations, the local Vat Phou stele mentions the name of King Devanika, king of kings - yet researchers do not relate the monarch to the Dangrek Chieftains. The king Srutavarman was born of this couple, who was followed by his son and this king gave his name to Sreshthapura - believed to be Vat Phou. At the end of the century, Bhavavarman and Chitrasena attacked Funan together
23.
Khmer Empire
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The Khmer Empire, officially the Angkor Empire, the predecessor state to modern Cambodia, was a powerful Hindu-Buddhist empire in Southeast Asia. The empire, which out of the former kingdoms of Funan and Chenla. Its greatest legacy is Angkor, in present-day Cambodia, which was the site of the city during the empires zenith. Satellite imaging has revealed that Angkor, during its peak in the 11th to 13th centuries, was the largest pre-industrial urban centre in the world, the beginning of the era of the Khmer Empire is conventionally dated to 802 CE. In this year, King Jayavarman II had himself declared chakravartin on Phnom Kulen, the empire ended with the fall of Angkor in the 15th century. The history of Angkor as the area of settlement of the historical kingdom of Kambujadesa is also the history of the Khmer kingdom from the 9th to the 13th centuries. From Kambuja itself — and so also from the Angkor region — no written records have survived other than stone inscriptions, according to Sdok Kok Thom inscription, circa 781 Indrapura was the first capital of Jayavarman II, located in Banteay Prei Nokor, near todays Kompong Cham. He then moved his court northwest to Mahendraparvata, far north from the great lake of Tonle Sap. At that ceremony Prince Jayavarman II was proclaimed a universal monarch or God King and he declared himself Chakravartin, in a ritual taken from the Indian-Hindu tradition. Thereby he not only became the divinely appointed and therefore uncontested ruler, at that time, Sailendras allegedly ruled over Java, Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula and parts of Cambodia, around the Mekong delta. The first pieces of information on Jayavarman II came from the K.235 stone inscription on a stele in Sdok Kok Thom temple, Isan region, dating to 1053. It recounts two and a half centuries of service members of the temples founding family provided for the Khmer court. This classical theory was revisited by scholars, such as Claude Jacques and Michael Vickery. Moreover, Jayavarmans political career began at Vyadhapura in eastern Cambodia, finally, many early temples on Phnom Kulen shows both Cham and Javanese influences, even if their asymmetric distribution seems typically khmer. He thereby laid the foundation of Angkor, which was to arise some 15 km to the northwest, Jayavarman II died in the year 835 and he was succeeded by his son Jayavarman III. Jayavarman III died in 877 and was succeeded by Indravarman I, the successors of Jayavarman II continually extended the territory of Kambuja. Indravarman I managed to expand the kingdom without wars, and he began extensive building projects, thanks to the wealth gained through trade, foremost were the temple of Preah Ko and irrigation works. Indravarman I developed Hariharalaya further by constructing Bakong circa 881, Bakong in particular bears striking similarity to the Borobudur temple in Java, which strongly suggests that it served as the prototype for Bakong
24.
Dark ages of Cambodia
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The term Dark ages of Cambodia, also the Middle Period refers to the historical era from the early 15th century to 1863, the year that marks the beginning of the French Protectorate of Cambodia. In recent years focus has shifted increasingly towards human–environment interactions. Recording of the Royal Chronology discontinues with King Jayavarman IX Parameshwara, there exists not a single contemporary record of even a king’s name for over 200 years. Construction and maintenance of monumental temple architecture had come to a standstill after Jayavarman VIIth reign, historians relate the event to the shift of Cambodias political centre southward to the river port region of Phnom Penh and later Longvek. Sources for the 16th century are more numerous, although coming from outside of Cambodia. The kingdom is centred at the Mekong, prospering as an part of the Asian maritime trade network. Wars with the Siamese resulted in loss of territory in the West, the Vietnamese on their Southward March reached Prei Nokor/Saigon at the Mekong Delta in the 17th century. This event initiates the process of Cambodia losing access to the seas. Both powers alternately demanded subservience and tribute from the Cambodian court, in the early 19th century with dynasties in Vietnam and Siam firmly established, Cambodia was placed under joint suzerainty, having lost its national sovereignty. British agent John Crawfurd states. the King of that ancient Kingdom is ready to throw himself under the protection of any European nation, the Khmer Empire had steadily gained hegemonic power over most of mainland Southeast Asia since its early days in the 8th and 9th centuries. Rivalries and wars with its neighbour, the Pagan Kingdom of the Mon people of modern-day Burma were less numerous. The Sukhothai Kingdom and later the Ayutthaya kingdom were established and. conquered the Khmers of the upper and central Menam valley, other authors criticise this rigid overall assessment, though. Linguist Jean-Michel Filippi concludes, The chronology of Cambodian history itself is more a chrono-ideology with a role offered to Angkor. Similarities apply to Thai chronological records, with the example of the Ramkhamhaeng controversy. According to the Siamese Royal chronicles of Paramanuchitchinorot, clashes occurred in 1350, Author Michael Vickery debates the degree of importance of this subject in his publication, Two Historical Records of the Kingdom of Vientiane - Land or People. It is not at all certain that Angkor desired manpower in central Thailand, and. whether the political economy of early Southeast Asia resulted in rulers being more concerned with control of land or control of people. And. both sides of this discussion have offered ad hoc, case-by-case pronunciamentos, which are then repeated like mantra, critical discussion of the question is long overdue. Contrary views, Author Akin Rabibhadana, who quotes Ram Khamhaeng, the need for manpower is well illustrated by events following each war between Thailand and her neighbours
25.
Longvek
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Longvek or Lavek was a city in ancient Cambodia, the capital city of the country after the sacking of Angkor by the Siamese in 1431. Little more than a village today in Kampong Chhnang Province, it lies just north of Oudong, Longvek was chosen by King Ang Chan I after the sacking of Angkor by the Siamese as a new capital because of its more readily defensible terrain. As a result, there was a time when Cambodia was often referred to as Longvek by foreign travellers, during the 14th and 15th centuries Cambodia was in a state of eclipse. Following the almost total destruction of Angkor, Longvek was chosen as the new capital of the now state of Cambodia. Longvek was located halfway between Phnom Penh and the end of the Tonle Sap and it was chosen by King Ang Chan as his official capital. King Ang Chan ordered his palace to be built in Longvek in 1553, Longvek became the nations capital in the 16th century after the civil war between Ney Khan and Ang Chan I. After Ponhea Chans victory, he became the new king of Cambodia, spanish and Portuguese adventurers and missionaries, like Blas Ruiz de Hernán González from Ciudad Real, first visited the kingdom during this period. Blas became friends with King Satha of Longvek, who was well-disposed towards foreigners, the Iberians referred to present-day Phnom Penh as Churdumuco and to Srei Santhor as Sistor. Not long thereafter Longvek was invaded by the Siamese ruler of Ayutthaya, King Naresuan of Siam conquered Longvek in 1593. This conquest marked a downturn in the kingdoms fortunes, in the historical period that followed Cambodia became a pawn in power struggle between its two increasingly powerful neighbours, Siam and Vietnam. In 1618, the capital of Cambodia was once again relocated and was moved to Oudong, ben Kiernan, Blood and soil ISBN 978-0-300-10098-3 ISBN0300100981 Sanjay Subrahmanyam & Marie-José Capelle, LEmpire portugais dAsie, 1500–1700, Histoire politique et économique. Maisonneuve & Larose ISBN 2-7068-1252-4 ISBN 978-2706812521 Cambodia in the Writings of Diego Aduarte and Gabriel Quiroga de San Antonio Le voyage en Indochine de F. Garnier en 1866-68 - part 2
26.
Oudong
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Oudong is a town in Cambodia, situated in the north-western part of Kampong Speu Province. Located at the foothill of the mountain Phnom Udong, about 40 km northwest of the modern capital Phnom Penh, Oudong was royal residence and Cambodias capital for more than 250 years until 1866. A monumental royal necropolis of sovereigns of several centuries is scattered on top the prominent bisected mountain, the citys name is derived from the Sanskrit word uttuṅga, meaning tall, which probably refers to the mountain. As it had gained religious merit and significance it might have undergone extension towards, Oudong was founded by King Srei Soryapor in 1601, after the abandonment of Longvek. Under the reign of King Ang Duong, he constructed canals, terraces, bridges, Oudong was later abandoned by King Norodom in 1866 in favor of Phnom Penh. From 1618 until 1866 it was formally called Oudong Meanchey, home to a succession of kings deposed from the capital of Lovek by the invading Thais. In 1866, it was abandoned by King Norodom, taking his court along with him to the current capital. It was extensively damaged by the Khmer Rouge in 1977, along with the temples, monuments. In the 18th century, locals say, a Chinese emperor sent his people out across Asia to identify potential threats. When they came to Oudong, they saw a mountain shaped like a naga, with a cavern on top of the Arthaross end, and they observed the wealth and power of Khmer society. The Chinese told their emperor that the Khmers were already a powerful race, the Chinese emperor did not want this, nor did he want a war. Instead, he asked the Khmer king if he could build a temple above the cavern and this was named the Arthaross temple, which means eighteen corners, because there are 18 points, or corners, built into the temples structure. Henri Mouhot, Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China 1864, dark ages of Cambodia History of Cambodia The Rough Guide Southeast Asia Rough Guides,2002 ISBN 1-85828-893-2 Brief History of Oudong Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China, Cambodia, and Laos
27.
Khmer Krom
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The Khmer Krom are ethnically Khmer people living in the South-western part of Vietnam, where they are recognized as one of Vietnams fifty-three ethnic minorities. This marks the stage of the Vietnamese March to the South. The Vietnamese term is Khơ-me Crộm or Khơ-me dưới, which literally means Khmers from below, according to Vietnamese government figures, there are 1,260,640 Khmer Krom in Vietnam. Other estimates vary considerably, with up to 7 million reported to Taylor in his The Khmer lands of Vietnam, according to the US-based Human Rights Watch the Khmer Krom face serious restrictions of freedom of expression, assembly, association, information, and movement. The Khmer Krom identify ethnically with the Khmer people who constitute a people at least since the late eighth century. They retain deep linguistic, religious, customary and cultural links to Cambodia proper, the Mekong Delta region constituted for more than 800 years an integral part of the empire and the subsequent kingdom. The regions economic center was the city Prey Nokor, now Ho Chi Minh City, in the 17th century a weakened Khmer state left the Mekong Delta poorly administered after repeated warfare with Siam. Concurrently Vietnamese refugees fleeing the Trịnh–Nguyễn War in Vietnam migrated into the area, in 1623 Cambodian king Chey Chettha II officially sanctioned the Vietnamese immigrants to operate a custom house at Prey Nokor, then a small fishing village. The settlement steadily grew soon becoming a regional port, attracting even more settlers. By 1757 the Vietnamese had absorbed the provinces of Psar Dèk on the Mekong itself, Minh Mạng enacted assimilation policies upon the Khmer such as forcing them to adopt Sino-Vietnamese surnames, culture, and clothing. Minh Mang declared that We must hope that their barbarian habits will be dissipated. These policies were directed at the Khmer and hill tribes, on June 4,1949 the French President Vincent Auriol signed the accord reincorporating Cochin-China to Vietnam. This was done without consulting the indigenous Khmer-Krom, the legal transfer of control cut Cambodia off from the sea via the Mekong River as the Delta administered by an independent Vietnam. Left within the borders of Vietnam were the communities of Khmer people, Khmer nationalist Son Ngoc Thanh was a Khmer krom, born in Trà Vinh, Vietnam. Thanh was active in the movement for Cambodia. With Japanese support he became the minister of Cambodia in March 1945 but was then quickly ousted with the return of the French later that year. During the Vietnam War and direct American involvement between 1964 and 1974, the Khmer Krom were recruited by the US military to serve in MIKE Force. The force fought on the side of South Vietnam against the Viet Cong, headed by a Khmer Krom Buddhist monk, Samouk Sen, the group was nicknamed the White Scarves and allied itself with FULRO against South Vietnam
28.
French Protectorate of Cambodia
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Cambodia was integrated into the French Indochina union in 1887 along with the French colonies and protectorates in Vietnam. In 1946, Cambodia was granted self-rule within the French Union and had its protectorate status abolished in 1949, Cambodia later gained its independence and the independent day was celebrated on 9 November 1953. After the French establishment of a colony in Cochinchina in 1867, on 11 August 1863, Norodom signed a treaty acknowledging a French protectorate over his kingdom. Under the treaty, the Cambodian monarchy was allowed to remain, France was also to be in charge of Cambodias foreign and trade relations as well as provide military protection. Siam later recognised the protectorate after France ceded the Cambodian province of Battambang, the seat of the Governor-General for the whole of French Indochina was based in Saigon until the capital moved to Hanoi in 1902. Cambodia, being a constituent protectorate of French Indochina, was governed by the Résident Supérieur for Cambodia, who was directly appointed by the Ministry of Marine and Colonies in Paris. The Resident-General was in turn assisted by Residents, or local governors, who were posted in all the centres, such as, Battambang, Pursat, Odong. Phnom Penh, the capital, was under the administration of the Resident-General. The first decades of French rule in Cambodia included numerous reforms into Cambodian politics, such as the reduction of the monarchs power and abolishment of slavery. In 1885, Si Votha, half brother of Norodom and contender for the throne, gathering support from opposers of Norodom and the French, Si Votha led a rebellion that was primarily concentrated in the jungles of Cambodia and the city of Kampot. French forces later aided Norodom to defeat Si Votha under agreements that the Cambodian population be disarmed, in 1896, France and the British Empire signed an accord recognising each others sphere of influence over Indochina, especially over Siam. Under this accord, Siam had to cede the province of Angkor back to the now French-controlled Cambodia. The accord acknowledged French control over Vietnam, Cambodia, as well as Laos, all other power was in the hands of the Resident-General and the colonial bureaucracy. Likewise, Norodom was viewed as responsible for the constant Cambodian revolts against French rule, originally serving as a buffer territory for France between its more important Vietnamese colonies and Siam, Cambodia was not initially seen as an economically important area. However, as French rule straightened after the Franco-Siamese War, development slowly began in Cambodia, as the French automobile industry grew, rubber plantations like the ones already in Cochinchina and Annam were built and run by French investors. Economic diversification continued throughout the 1920s, when corn and cotton crops were also grown, despite economic expansion and investment, Cambodians still continued to pay high taxes and in 1916, protests broke out demanding for tax cuts. Infrastructure and public works were developed under French rule. Most notably, a railway connected Phnom Penh with Battambang on the Thai border, industry was later developed but was primarily designed to process raw materials for local use or for export
29.
Japanese occupation of Cambodia
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The 1940–41 Franco-Thai War left the French Indochinese colonial authorities in a position of weakness. The Vichy government signed an agreement with Japan to allow the Japanese military transit through French Indochina, as a result, Cambodia had lost almost half a million citizens and one-third of its former surface area to Thailand. In August 1941, the Imperial Japanese Army entered the French protectorate of Cambodia, despite their military presence, the Japanese authorities allowed Vichy French colonial officials to remain at their administrative posts. On 20 July 1942, there was a major demonstration in Phnom Penh after a prominent monk. The French authorities arrested the leader, Pach Chhoeun. Another of the men behind Nagaravatta, Son Ngoc Thanh was also blamed for the demonstration, in 1945, in the closing stages of World War II, Japan made a coup de force that temporarily eliminated French control over Indochina. The French colonial administrators were relieved of their positions, and French military forces were ordered to disarm, the aim was to revive the flagging support of local populations for Tokyos war effort by encouraging indigenous rulers to proclaim independence. On 9 March 1945 young king Norodom Sihanouk proclaimed an independent Kingdom of Kampuchea, shortly thereafter the Japanese government nominally ratified the independence of Cambodia and established a consulate in Phnom Penh. On 13 March king Sihanouk changed the name of the country in French from Cambodge to Kampuchea. The new government did away with the romanisation of the Khmer language that the French colonial administration was beginning to enforce and this measure taken by the short-lived governmental authority would be popular and long-lasting, for since then no government in Cambodia has tried to romanise the Khmer language again. Son Ngoc Thanh returned to Cambodia in May and he was initially appointed foreign minister and would become Prime Minister two months later. The Cambodian puppet state of Japan lasted from March to October 1945, the Japanese occupation of Cambodia ended with the official surrender of Japan in August 1945. After Allied military units entered Cambodia, the Japanese military forces present in the country were disarmed and repatriated, the French were able to reimpose the colonial administration in Phnom Penh in October the same year. After arresting Son Ngoc Thanh for collaboration with the Japanese, the French colonial authorities exiled him to France, some of his supporters went underground and escaped to Thai-controlled northwestern Cambodia, where they were eventually to join forces in a pro-independence group, the Khmer Issarak. This anti-French, politically heterogeneous nationalist movement was organised with Thai backing, but would later split into factions
30.
Khmer Rouge rule of Cambodia
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The four-year period cost approximately 2 million lives through the combined result of political executions, disease, starvation, and forced labor. Due to the numbers, the deaths during the rule of the Khmer Rouge are commonly known as the Cambodian Holocaust or Cambodian genocide. Most of Cambodia remained under Vietnamese occupation for over a decade, by the 17 April 1975 Khmer Rouge victory, Pol Pot and his associates occupied the most important positions in the Communist Party of Kampuchea and in the state hierarchies. Pol Pot had been CPK general secretary since February 1963 and his associates functioned as the partys Political Bureau, and they held a majority of the seats on the Central Committee. Through the 1970s, and especially after mid-1975, the party was shaken by factional struggles, punitive measures resulted in 1977 and 1978 when hundreds of thousands of people, including some of the most important CPK leaders, were executed. The Khmer Rouge abolished the Royal Government of National Union of Kampuchea, Cambodia did not have any sort of government until the proclamation of the Constitution of Democratic Kampuchea on January 5,1976. The Khmer Rouge continued to use King Norodom Sihanouk as a figurehead for the government until April 2,1976, the rights and duties of the individual were briefly defined in Article 12. They included none of what are regarded as guarantees of political human rights except the statement that men and women are equal in every respect. The document declared, however, that all workers and all peasants were masters of their factories, an assertion that there is absolutely no unemployment in Democratic Kampuchea rings true in light of the regimes massive use of force. The Constitution defined Democratic Kampucheas foreign policy principles in Article 21, the documents longest, in terms of independence, peace, neutrality and it pledged the countrys support to anti-imperialist struggles in the Third World. Governmental institutions were outlined very briefly in the Constitution, the legislature, the Kampuchean Peoples Representative Assembly, contained 250 members representing workers, peasants, and other working people and the Kampuchean Revolutionary army. One hundred and fifty KPRA seats were allocated for peasant representatives, fifty, for the armed forces, the legislature was to be popularly elected for a five-year term. Its first and only election was held on March 20,1976, New people apparently were not allowed to participate. The executive branch of government also was chosen by the KPRA and it consisted of a state presidium responsible for representing the state of Democratic Kampuchea inside and outside the country. It served for a term, and its president was head of state. Khieu Samphan was the person to serve in this office. The judicial system was composed of peoples courts, the judges for which were appointed by the KPRA, the Constitution did not mention regional or local government institutions. There were also two other units, the Kracheh Special Region Number 505 and, until 1977, the Siemreab Special Region Number 106
31.
People's Republic of Kampuchea
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Brought about by an invasion from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, which routed the Khmer Rouge armies, it had Vietnam and the Soviet Union as its main allies. The PRK failed to secure United Nations endorsement due to the intervention of the Peoples Republic of China, the United Kingdom, the United States. The Cambodian seat at the United Nations was held by the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea, however, the PRK was considered the de facto government of Cambodia between 1979 and 1993, albeit with limited international recognition. Beginning May 1989, the PRK restored the name Cambodia by renaming the country and it retained, however, most of its leadership and one-party structure, while undergoing a transition and eventually giving way to the restoration of the Kingdom of Cambodia. The PRK/SOC existed as a socialist state from 1979 until 1991, under Vietnamese control, the PRK was established in the wake of the total destruction of the countrys institutions, infrastructure and intelligentsia wreaked by Khmer Rouge rule. Overcoming grinding poverty and isolation, it was able to achieve the gradual reconstruction of Cambodia as a nation, the PRK was established in January 1979 as a result of a process that began with Khmer Rouge belligerence. Initially, communist North Vietnam was an ally of the Khmer Rouge while it was fighting against Lon Nols Khmer Republic during the 1970–1975 civil war. Even then, the first reactions of the Vietnamese were ambiguous, by early 1978 the Vietnamese leadership decided to support internal resistance to Pol Pot and the Eastern Zone of Cambodia became a focus of insurrection. In the meantime, as 1978 wore on, Khmer Rouge bellicosity in the border areas surpassed Hanois threshold of tolerance, War hysteria against Vietnam reached bizarre levels within Democratic Kampuchea as Pol Pot tried to distract attention from bloody inner purges. It appears that the leadership in Phnom Penh was seized with immense territorial ambitions, i. e. to recover Kampuchea Krom, in November, pro-Vietnamese Khmer Rouge leader Vorn Vet led an unsuccessful coup détat and was subsequently arrested, tortured and executed. Incidents escalated along all of Cambodias borders, there were now tens of thousands of Cambodian and Vietnamese exiles on Vietnamese territory, and even so Hanois response was half-hearted. The Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation was an organisation that would be pivotal in overthrowing the Khmer Rouge, the Salvation Front was a heterogeneous group of communist and non-communist exiles determined to fight against Pol Pot and rebuild Cambodia. Ros Samay, secretary general of the KUFNS, was a former KCP staff assistant in a military unit, despite being dependent on Vietnamese protection and the backing of the Soviet Union behind the scenes, the KUFNS had an immediate success among exiled Cambodians. The KUFNS provided as well a framework of legitimacy for the invasion of Democratic Kampuchea by Vietnam. Vietnamese policymakers finally opted for a solution and, on 22 December 1978. An invasion force of 120,000, consisting of combined armour and infantry units with artillery support. After a seventeen-day blitzkrieg, Phnom Penh fell to the advancing Vietnamese on 7 January 1979, on 1 January 1979, the Salvation Fronts central committee proclaimed a set of immediate policies to be applied in the areas liberated from the Khmer Rouge. First the communal kitchens were abolished and some Buddhist monks would be brought to every community to reassure the people, another of these policies was to establish peoples self-management committees in all localities
32.
United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia
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The United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia was a United Nations peacekeeping operation in Cambodia in 1992–93. UNTAC was the product of intense diplomatic activity over many years, during the electoral period, more than 50,000 Cambodians served as electoral staff and some 900 international polling station officers were seconded from Governments. The whole operation cost over $1.6 billion, mostly in salaries for expatriates, another important goal was the trial of senior Khmer Rouge leaders. Donor countries pledged the $43 million international share of the three-year tribunal budget, the first trials of senior Khmer Rouge leaders took place only in 2007, when many of them were already dead or in ill-health. Despite UNTACs boasting of its effectiveness and being feted by the community as a success, UNTAC failed to disarm the Khmer Rouge. This bias allowed the Khmer Rouge to make gains and gave rise to political violence. Prince Ranariddhs FUNCINPEC Party was the top vote recipient with a 45. 5% vote, followed by Hun Sens Cambodian Peoples Party, FUNCINPEC then entered into a coalition with the other parties that had participated in the election. The parties represented in the 120-member assembly proceeded to draft and approve a new constitution and it established a multiparty liberal democracy in the framework of a constitutional monarchy, with the former Prince Sihanouk elevated to King. Prince Ranariddh and Hun Sen became First and Second Prime Ministers, respectively, the constitution provides for a wide range of internationally recognised human rights. The number of sex workers in the State of Cambodia rose from about 6,000 in 1991, by 1995 there were between 50,000 and 90,000 Cambodians affected by AIDS according to a WHO estimate. Duration, March 1992 – September 1993 Strength, Approximately 22,000 military, expenditures, US$1.62 billion UN protectorate State of Cambodia UN. org, United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia−UNTAC website Untac. com, UNTAC website
33.
Specials (Unicode block)
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Specials is a short Unicode block allocated at the very end of the Basic Multilingual Plane, at U+FFF0–FFFF. Of these 16 codepoints, five are assigned as of Unicode 9, U+FFFD � REPLACEMENT CHARACTER used to replace an unknown, unrecognized or unrepresentable character U+FFFE <noncharacter-FFFE> not a character. FFFE and FFFF are not unassigned in the sense. They can be used to guess a texts encoding scheme, since any text containing these is by not a correctly encoded Unicode text. The replacement character � is a found in the Unicode standard at codepoint U+FFFD in the Specials table. It is used to indicate problems when a system is unable to render a stream of data to a correct symbol and it is usually seen when the data is invalid and does not match any character, Consider a text file containing the German word für in the ISO-8859-1 encoding. This file is now opened with an editor that assumes the input is UTF-8. The first and last byte are valid UTF-8 encodings of ASCII, therefore, a text editor could replace this byte with the replacement character symbol to produce a valid string of Unicode code points. The whole string now displays like this, f�r, a poorly implemented text editor might save the replacement in UTF-8 form, the text file data will then look like this, 0x66 0xEF 0xBF 0xBD 0x72, which will be displayed in ISO-8859-1 as f�r. Since the replacement is the same for all errors this makes it impossible to recover the original character, a better design is to preserve the original bytes, including the error, and only convert to the replacement when displaying the text. This will allow the text editor to save the original byte sequence and it has become increasingly common for software to interpret invalid UTF-8 by guessing the bytes are in another byte-based encoding such as ISO-8859-1. This allows correct display of both valid and invalid UTF-8 pasted together, Unicode control characters UTF-8 Mojibake Unicodes Specials table Decodeunicodes entry for the replacement character
34.
Khmer alphabet
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The Khmer alphabet or Khmer script is an abugida script used to write the Khmer language. It is also used to write Pali in the Buddhist liturgy of Cambodia and it was adapted from the Pallava script, a variant of the Grantha alphabet descended from the Brahmi script, which was used in southern India and South East Asia during the 5th and 6th centuries AD. The oldest dated inscription in Khmer was found at Angkor Borei District in Takéo Province south of Phnom Penh, the modern Khmer script differs somewhat from precedent forms seen on the inscriptions of the ruins of Angkor. The Thai and Lao scripts are descended from a form of the Khmer script. Khmer is written left to right. Words within the sentence or phrase are generally run together with no spaces between them. Consonant clusters within a word are stacked, with the consonant being written in reduced form under the main consonant. Originally there were 35 consonant characters, but modern Khmer uses only 33, each such character in fact represents a consonant sound together with an inherent vowel – either â or ô. Most dependent vowels have two different pronunciations, depending in most cases on the inherent vowel of the consonant to which they are added, in some positions, a consonant written with no dependent vowel is taken to be followed by the sound of its inherent vowel. There are also a number of used to indicate further modifications in pronunciation. The script also includes its own numerals and punctuation marks, there are 35 Khmer consonant symbols, although modern Khmer only uses 33, two having become obsolete. Each consonant has an inherent vowel, â /ɑː/ or ô /ɔː/, equivalently, a consonants series determines the pronunciation of the dependent vowel symbols which may be attached to it, and in some positions the sound of the inherent vowel is itself pronounced. Each consonant, with one exception, also has a subscript form and these may also be called sub-consonants, the Khmer phrase is ជើងអក្សរ cheung âksâr, meaning foot of a letter. Most subscript consonants resemble the corresponding consonant symbol, but in a smaller and possibly simplified form, most subscript consonants are written directly below other consonants, although subscript r appears to the left, while a few others have ascending elements which appear to the right. Subscripts are used in writing consonant clusters, clusters in Khmer normally consist of two consonants, although occasionally in the middle of a word there will be three. The first consonant in a cluster is written using the main consonant symbol, subscripts were previously also used to write final consonants, in modern Khmer this may be done, optionally, in some words ending -ng or -y, such as ឲ្យ aôy. The consonants and their forms are listed in the following table. Usual phonetic values are given using the International Phonetic Alphabet, variations are described below the table, the sound system is described in detail at Khmer phonology
35.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
36.
Norodom Sihanouk
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Norodom Sihanouk was the King of Cambodia from 1941 to 1955 and again from 1993 to 2004. Affectionately known to the Cambodian people as Samdech Euv, Sihanouk became king in 1941, after the Second World War, he campaigned for Cambodias independence from French rule, which took place in 1953. In 1955, Sihanouk abdicated the throne in favour of his father Norodom Suramarit, Sihanouk led the Sangkum to victory in the 1955 general elections, and became the Prime Minister of Cambodia. After his fathers death in 1960, Sihanouk introduced an amendment which made him the Head of State of Cambodia. Between 1955 and 1970, Sihanouk governed Cambodia under one-party rule, while he was officially neutral in foreign relations, in practice he was friendlier toward communist countries, particularly China, than to the United States and its anti-Communist allies. In the military coup of March 1970 Sihanouk was overthrown by Lon Nol and Sisowath Sirik Matak, as GRUNKs leader, Sihanouk lent support to the Khmer Rouge, which fought against the Khmer Republic in the Cambodian Civil War. The Khmer Rouge won the war in 1975 and a new government. Sihanouk subsequently returned to Cambodia and became its head of state. In 1976 Sihanouk resigned from his position, leading to his house arrest and he was incarcerated until 1979, when Vietnamese forces overthrew the Khmer Rouge. Sihanouk went into exile again, and in 1981 he formed FUNCINPEC, as this coalition retained Cambodias seat at the United Nations, this made him Cambodias internationally recognized head of state. In the late 1980s, informal talks were carried out to end hostilities between the Vietnam-supported Peoples Republic of Kampuchea and resistance factions under the CGDK. In 1990 the Supreme National Council of Cambodia was formed as a body to oversee Cambodias sovereign matters. In 1991 peace accords were signed, and the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia was established the following year, the UNTAC organised general elections in 1993, and a coalition government, jointly led by his son Norodom Ranariddh and Hun Sen, was subsequently formed. In June 1993 Sihanouk was reinstated as Cambodias Head of State, in 2004 Sihanouk abdicated again in favour of another son, Norodom Sihamoni, who succeeded him as king. He was known as the King father until his death in 2012, Sihanouk pursued an artistic career during his lifetime, and wrote several musical compositions. He produced 50 films between 1966 and 2006, at times directing and acting in them, Norodom Sihanouk was the only child born of the union between Norodom Suramarit and Sisowath Kossamak. His parents, who heeded the royal court astrologers advice that he risked dying at a young age if he was raised under parental care, placed him under the care of Kossamaks grandmother, when Pat died, Kossamak brought Sihanouk to live with his paternal grandfather, Norodom Sutharot. Sutharot delegated parenting responsibilities to his daughter, Norodom Ket Kanyamom, Sihanouk received his primary education at the Francois Baudoin school and Nuon Moniram school in Phnom Penh
37.
Head of state
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A head of state is the public persona that officially represents the national unity and legitimacy of a sovereign state. In some countries, the head of state is a figurehead with limited or no executive power, while in others. Former French president Charles de Gaulle, while developing the current Constitution of France, some academic writers discuss states and governments in terms of models. An independent nation state normally has a head of state, the non-executive model, in which the head of state has either none or very limited executive powers, and mainly has a ceremonial and symbolic role. In parliamentary systems the head of state may be merely the chief executive officer, heading the executive branch of the state. This accountability and legitimacy requires that someone be chosen who has a majority support in the legislature and it also gives the legislature the right to vote down the head of government and their cabinet, forcing it either to resign or seek a parliamentary dissolution. In parliamentary constitutional monarchies, the legitimacy of the head of state typically derives from the tacit approval of the people via the elected representatives. In reality, numerous variants exist to the position of a head of state within a parliamentary system, usually, the king had the power of declaring war without previous consent of the parliament. For example, under the 1848 constitution of the Kingdom of Italy, the Statuto Albertino—the parliamentary approval to the government appointed by the king—was customary, so, Italy had a de facto parliamentarian system, but a de jure presidential system. These officials are excluded completely from the executive, they do not possess even theoretical executive powers or any role, even formal, hence their states governments are not referred to by the traditional parliamentary model head of state styles of His/Her Majestys Government or His/Her Excellencys Government. Within this general category, variants in terms of powers and functions may exist, the constitution explicitly vests all executive power in the Cabinet, who is chaired by the prime minister and responsible to the Diet. The emperor is defined in the constitution as the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people and he is a ceremonial figurehead with no independent discretionary powers related to the governance of Japan. Today, the Speaker of the Riksdag appoints the prime minister, Cabinet members are appointed and dismissed at the sole discretion of the prime minister. In contrast, the contact the President of Ireland has with the Irish government is through a formal briefing session given by the taoiseach to the president. However, he or she has no access to documentation and all access to ministers goes through the Department of the Taoiseach. The president does, however, hold limited reserve powers, such as referring a bill to the court to test its constitutionality. The most extreme non-executive republican Head of State is the President of Israel, semi-presidential systems combine features of presidential and parliamentary systems, notably a requirement that the government be answerable to both the president and the legislature. The constitution of the Fifth French Republic provides for a minister who is chosen by the president
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