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The Kingdom of Cambodia, formerly known as Kampuchea, Khmer: ព្រះរាជាណាចក្រកម្ពុជា or
Preăh Réachéa Nachâk Kâmpŭchéa, derived from the Indian language of Sanskrit Kambujadesa , is a country in Southeast Asia that borders Thailand to the west and northwest, Laos to the north, Vietnam to the
east, and the Gulf of Thailand to the south. The geography of Cambodia is dominated by the Mekong River (Khmer: Tonle Thom (ទន្លេធំ) or "the great river") and the
Tonlé Sap (ទន្លេសាប; "the fresh water lake").
The kingdom is a constitutional monarchy with Norodom Sihamoni as king who has reigned since 2004. Phnom
Penh is the kingdom's capital and largest city, and is the center of political, commercial, industrial and cultural activities. Siem Reap, a city located near the famous ruins of Angkor Wat is the gateway to the
Angkor region, and is Cambodia's main destination for tourism. Battambang, the largest city in western Cambodia, is known for its rice production, and Sihanoukville, a coastal city, is the primary sea port and beach
resort.
C ambodia has an area of 181,035 square kilometres (69,898 sq mi) and a population of over 14 million
ethnic Khmer. A citizen of Cambodia is usually identified as "Cambodian" or "Khmer", though they
strictly refer to ethnic Khmers. Most Cambodians are Theravada Buddhists, but the country also have a minority number of Muslim Cham, as well as ethnic Chinese, Vietnamese and small animist hill tribes.
Agriculture has long been the most important sector to the Cambodian economy, with around 59% of the population relying on agriculture for their livelihood (with rice being the principal crop).Other important
sectors include garments, construction and tourism - foreign visitors to Angkor Wat numbered more than 4 million in 2007. In 2005, oil and natural gas deposits were found beneath Cambodia's territorial waters,
and once commercial extraction begins in 2011, the oil revenues could profoundly affect Cambodia's economy.
Independence and Vietnam War
 Cambodia became a constitutional monarchy under King Norodom
Sihanouk. When French Indochina was given independence, Cambodia lost official control over the Mekong Delta as it was awarded to Vietnam. The area had been controlled by the Vietnamese since 1698
with King Chey Chettha II granting Vietnamese permission to settle in the area decades before.
In 1955, Sihanouk abdicated in favour of his father in order to be
elected Prime Minister. Upon his father's death in 1960, Sihanouk again became head of state, taking the title of Prince. As the Vietnam War progressed, Sihanouk adopted an official policy of neutrality in the Cold
War although he was widely considered to be sympathetic to the Communist cause. While visiting Beijing, he was ousted in 1970 by a military coup led by Prime Minister General Lon Nol and Prince
Sisowath Sirik Matak with the back-up support of the United States. The King urged his followers to help in overthrowing the pro-United States government of Lon Nol, hastening the onset of civil war.Soon the
Khmer Rouge rebels began using him to gain support.
Between 1969 and 1973, Republic of Vietnam forces and U.S. forces bombed and briefly invaded
Cambodia in an effort to disrupt the Viet Cong and Khmer Rouge.] Some two million Cambodians were made refugees by the war and fled to Phnom Penh. Estimates of the number of Cambodians killed during
the bombing campaigns vary widely, as do views of the effects of the bombing. The US Seventh Air Force argued that the bombing prevented the fall of Phnom Penh in 1973 by killing 16,000 of 25,500
Khmer Rouge fighters besieging the city.However, journalist William Shawcross and Cambodia specialists Milton Osborne, David P. Chandler and Ben Kiernan argued that the bombing drove peasants
to join the Khmer Rouge.Cambodia specialist Craig Etcheson argued that the Khmer Rouge "would have won anyway", even without US intervention driving recruitment although the US secretly played a major
role behind the leading cause of the Khmer Rouge.
Khmer Rouge rule
 As the war ended, a draft US AID report observed that the country
faced famine in 1975, with 75% of its draft animals destroyed, and that rice planting for the next harvest would have to be done "by the hard
labour of seriously malnourished people". The report predicted that
"Without large-scale external food and equipment assistance there will
be widespread starvation between now and next February ... Slave labour and starvation rations for half the nation's people (probably heaviest among those who supported the republic) will be a cruel
necessity for this year, and general deprivation and suffering will stretch over the next two or three years before Cambodia can get back to rice self-sufficiency".
The Khmer Rouge reached Phnom Penh and took power in 1975. The regime, led by Pol Pot, changed the official name of the country to Democratic Kampuchea. They immediately evacuated the cities and
sent the entire population on forced marches to rural work projects. They attempted to rebuild the country's agriculture on the model of the 11th century, discarded Western medicine, and destroyed
temples, libraries, and anything considered Western. Over a million Cambodians, out of a total population of 8 million, died from executions, overwork, starvation and disease.
Estimates as to how many people were killed by the Khmer Rouge regime range from approximately one to three million, with two million (or about one-third of the population) being the most commonly cited
figure. This era gave rise to the term Killing Fields, and the prison Tuol Sleng became notorious for its history of mass killing. Hundreds of thousands fled across the border into neighbouring Thailand. The
regime disproportionately targeted ethnic minority groups. The Cham Muslims suffered serious purges with as much as half of their population exterminated.
In the late 1960s, an estimated 425,000 ethnic Chinese lived in Cambodia, but by 1984, as a result of Khmer Rouge genocide and emigration, only about 61,400 Chinese remained in the country. The
professions, such as doctors, lawyers, and teachers, were also targeted. According to Robert D. Kaplan, "eyeglasses were as deadly as the yellow star" as they were seen as a sign of intellectualism.
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