French interest in Cambodia deepened with its involvement in Vietnam also after a French naturalist, Henri Muohot (1826-1861), Visited Duang's court and then proceeded to Seam-Reap, where he" discovered" the ruins of Angkok, Mouhot suggested in a book about his travels that Cambodia was exceptionally rich and that its rulers were neglecting their patrimony, Duang's openness to Hout and and other European visitors in this period stemmed in part of from his friendship with a French missionary, Monseigneur Jean claude Miche, whose mission headquarters was located near Udong and who had actively supported the 1856 diplomatic mission, Miche persuaded the King that there could be advantages in being free from Thai control and Vietnamese threats, in the last two years of his Reign, moreover, Duang saw French expansion into Vietnam as an opportunity for him to regain territory that Cambodia had lost to the Vietnamese over the preceding two hundred years.Bogged down in guerrilla warfare in Vietnam, and unsure of support from Paris, the French administrators in Saigon were slow to respond to Cambodia's assertions of friendship, the matter lapsed when Duang Died in 1860 and Cambodia was plunged into series of civil wars, Duang's designated heir, Norodom, was unpopular in Eastern Srok and among Cham dissidents, who had almost captured Udong while Duang was alive, Norodom had spent much of his youth as a hostage at the Thai court, unable to rule, he fled Cambodia in 1861, returning with Thai support at the end of the following year, but he returned on a probationary basis, for his regalia remained in Bangkok, angered by Thai interference, and attracted by French promises of gifts, Norodom re-opened negotiations with French, according to a contemporary, the French admiral in charge of South-Vietnam, having no immediate war to fight, looked for a peaceful conquest and began dreaming about Cambodia.
The colonial era began without a shot and in a very tentative way,a delegation of French naval officers concluded a treaty with Norodom in Udong in August 1863, offering him protection at the hands of a French resident in exchange for timber concessions and mineral exploration right, Norodom managed to keep the treaty secret from his Thai advisers for several months, when they found out about it and notified Bangkok, he quickly reasserted his dependence on the Thai King, declaring to his advisers that" I desire to remain( the Thai King) servant, for his glory, until the end of my life, no change ever occurs in my heart" the Thai, in turn, kept Norodom's, change of heart a secret from the French, who learned of it only after his early declaration of faith had been ratified in Paris in early 1864.
What Norodom wanted from the French Vis-a' Vis the Thai is unclear, he seems to have been playing for time,and the method he shose resembled that of his uncle, King Chan, with French in the role of
the Vietnamese, he wanted to be crowned, and by the middle of 1864, the Thai and the French had agreed to cosponsor his coronation, the unintentionally comical aspects of the ceremony are re-counted by several French source, Thai and french officials quarreled about precedent,protocol, and regalia while Norodom, using time-honored filial imagery proclaimed his dependence on both courts, for the last time, the Cambodian King's title were chosen and transmitted by Bangkok, for the last time,too, The Cambodian King claimed to draw legitimacy from two foreign courts, for the first time, a Cambodian King accepted his crown from a European, the next three Cambodian monarch followed suit , from this point on, Thai influence in Cambodian began to wane fading even more sharply and more or less for good after King Mongkut's or ( Rama IV ) death in 1867.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mongkut_in_the_Sangha.jpeg
The imposition of French protection over Cambodia did not end the dynastic and millenarian rebellion that had plagued the earlier years of Norodom's Reign, although French military force were helpful in quelling these rebellions by 1867, the most important of these was led by Pou Kombo ពោកំបោរ, an ex-monk who claimed that he had better right than Norodom to be King, a year before, Norodom had shifted his Palace to Phnompenh, he had been urged to do so by French, just as Chan had been encouraged to move by the Vietnamese earlier in the century, and for similar tactical reasons, in the French case,commercial motives were also at work, for Phnompenh was more accessible from Saigon than an inland capital would have been, and it was hoped that the exploration of the Mekong river under commandant E,Doudart de lagree'( 1823-1868)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ernest_Doudart_de_Lagree.jpg
would result in Data about the river's Northern reaches that would justify French pipe dreams of Phnompenh as an important commercial City.
For the French, the 1860s and 1870s were a heroic period, partly because government retained in the hands of young naval officers hungry for glory, eager for promotion, and entranced by the exotic setting in which they found themselves, by the large, these pioneers of colonialism- men like Doudart de largree', Francis Garnier, Jean Moura, and Etienne aymonier- possessed great energy, sympathy for the Cambodians and intellectual integrity, they explored the Mekong, translated Cambodian chronicle, deciphered inscriptions, and arranged for the shipment of tons of Cambodia sculpture to museums in Paris, Saigon, and eventually Phnompenh, the grandeur of their exploits and of Cambodia's distant past formed a sharp contrast in their minds with the "decay" of the Cambodian court and the Helplessness " of the Cambodian people.
And yet there was probably little difference between the way Cambodia was governed in the 1860s, and the way Angkok had been governed almost a thousand years before, in both cases, perhaps ,and certainly for most of the years between, government meant a network of status relationships whereby peasants paid in rice, forest products or labor support their officials , the officials ,in turn, paid the King, using some of rice, forest products, and peasants labor with which they had been paid, the member of peasant one could exploit in this way depended on the position one was granted by the throne, positions themselves were for sale, and this tended to limit officeholders to members of the elite with enough money or goods on hand to purchase their positions.
In the nineteenth century, the destabilization of rural Society pummeled the infrastructure of these arrangements , but they persisted into the colonial era when the King's personal demands on the system were frequently tempted him into unwise investments.
End of The Establishment of the French Protectorate Cambodia
