The Restoration Of Cambodia Independence

As the Vietnamese court and its officials in Cambodia sought a solution to what they saw as an internal Vietnamese problem, Chaophraya Bodin's expeditionary force, numbering thirty-five thousand men, assembled near Battambang and then attacked and defeated the Vietnamese garrison at Pursat, Bodin was prepared to attack the capital but hesitate because he was short of supplies and lacked confidence in his troops instead he withdrew to Battambang, where he sought to consolidate his political position, during the siege of Pursat,eighteen rebellious Oknha had written him pleading for Thai support and for Duang's return from Bangkok, the Oknha pledge allegiance to Rama III, complained about shortages of supplies, and asserted That Cambodians would be happy only if the political conditions of the early nineteenth century, before the Vietnamese had arrived, were re-established.
Bodin transmitted the letter to Bangkok and added a recommendation for Duang's release from Custody and his return to political power,in January 1841,Duang reached Battambang, accompanied
by Thai and Cambodian advisers and carrying gifts for his supporters, including insignia of rank and royal accoutrement's គ្រឿងផ្គុតផ្គង់ទាហាន provide for him and Rama II according to one source, Bodin had urged Duang's release because"If there are no superior people to took after a population, the common people have no security" the records alsosuggest that Bodin's motives included winning over the Oknha (he was eager that local Khmer, rather than his own inexperienced troops, should engage the Vietnamese)by promising them that Duang would ruler over Cambodia, for the rest of the 1840s, Duang was to be closely watched and manipulated សម្របសម្រួល by Bodin. Duang's return to Cambodia and Rama III's solicitude for him opened an era in Thai-Cambodian relations that lasted until French intervention in 1863.

While Duang was conferring with potential courtiers and Bodin was complaining that the newcomers were consuming Thai supplies, Thieu Tri was attempting to understand and control Vietnamese policy toward Cambodia, with a view to thwarting a Thai invasion, pacifying rebellious provinces of Southern Vietnam, and retaining Vietnamese prestige, in late 1841s, Truong Minh Giang attempted once again to bring Prince Im to power, but edicts in his name attracted no support, it was at this point, perhaps that Truong Minh Giang (Trương Minh Giảng)  realized that he had almost no chance of restoring a favorable political balance in Cambodia, he withdraw to Vietnamese, talking Im, the Princesses, and the population of the City, numbering some six thousand people, with him,when he arrived in Vietnam, he sent a letter to Hue' in which he took the blame for"losing" Cambodia, to which he referred as emperor's rightful property" he then took poison and died.
The Vietnamese failure did not mean that the Thai had succeeded and by 1843 Cambodia had become a quagmire for Chaophraya Bodin, as he wrote Bangkok" we have been in Cambodia for three years without accomplishing anything ,we are short of supplies, people are going off into the forest to live on leaves and roots and nearly a thousand men in our army have died from lack of food",in 1844, he had to abandon Phnompenh, where the Vietnamese soon reinstalled Princess Mei as Cambodia's "Legitimate Queen" while Thai force congregated near Udong, the Vietnamese maneuver infuriated Bodin, who saw that many Oknha might now be unwilling to support the Thai, he complained to Bangkok that " all the Khmer Leader and nobles, all the district chiefs and all the common people are ignorant, stupid foolish and gullible, they have no idea what is true and what is false".
In spite of these difficulties , Vietnamese attempts to dislodge the Thai forces around Udong throughout 1845 were fruitless by the end of the year, the Thai and Vietnamese opened negotiations for a cease-fire, the talks moved forward, for they were grounded in Thieu-Tri' willingness to abandon his military positions in Cambodia and by implication, his father's policies there, they moved slowly,however ,in a context of military stalemate, even though in political terms conditions were favorable to the Thai, in Prince Duang they had a seasoned, popular ruler loyal to Bangkok and able to work through a well established network of loyal officials in the Srok, but the Vietnamese still occupied a strong bargaining position, particularly as they retained Cambodia's regalia, without which Duang could not legitimately ascend the throne.
In a face-saving gesture they demanded that a tributary mission headed by a Cambodian official travel to Hue' in March 1846 and declare Cambodia 's pro form subservience to Vietnamese, when the embassy returned to Phnompenh in June 1847, the Vietnamese handed over the Cambodian regalia and released several members of royal family who had been in their custody, in some cases for many years, soon  afterward, they withdrew their force from Cambodia, for the first time since 1811, there were no Vietnamese official on Cambodia soil.
Over the next few months, in a series of ceremonial gestures, Duang reenacted the restoration of Thai sponsored  Kingship that had been eclipsed for so many years, it would be mistake to dismiss these ceremonial actions as mere protocol,because Duang ,like most Southeast Asian rulers at the time, did not disentangle what we would call the religious and political strands of his thinking, duties , and behavior and political actions were thought to enhance or diminish a monarch's fund of merit.
Many of these ceremonies had to do with the restoration of Theravada Buddhism as the state religion, one account relates that Duang :
Levelled the (Vietnamese) fortifications at Phnompenh, and hauled away the bricks to build and restore,, (seven) Buddhist monasteries near Udong, Broken Buddha-images were recast, and new ones were carved,Monks were encouraged to live in monasteries again, and people were encouraged to respect them.
To his subjects, Duang's return to Cambodia and the restoration of Buddhism , there were ex-post facto proofs of his Kindliness, legitimacy, and merit, an inscription from 1851 describes the electric effect of this restoration in the 1840s.
There was a mighty ruler whose name was Duang, he came from the Royal City 9Bangkok) to Cambodia, and lived in the fortified city of Udong with merit, skill and masterly intelligence, the King scattered his enemies in terror, and soon the three warring states were friends again.
On an auspicious day in April 1848. Duang was anointed by Thai and Cambodian Brahmans in Udong and ascended the Cambodian Throne, he was Fifty-two years old, and his Reign, which lasted twelve years ,can be seen as a Cambodian renaissance, for most of these years, the Kingdom was at peace, and although Thai political advisers and some Thai troops lingered at Udong, Duang was relatively free to make political decisions, such as those connected with awarding title to Oknha, The Chronicles of his Reign place much emphasis on its restoratives aspects, a wide range of institutions and relationships was involved, the Chronicle points to  linguistic reforms, public works, sumptuous laws, and new sets of royal titles, from other sources, we know that Duang was an accomplished poet and presided  over the promulgation of a new law code and the Compilation of new Chronicle histories.

លេខរជ្ជកាល	នាមសំរាប់នាមផ្ទាល់	កាលកំនត់រជ្ជកាល	រាជធានី	រាជវង្ស
		១៧៥៨-១៧៧៥
២	រាមរាជាអង្គនន់	១៧៧៥-១៧៧៩	ឧដុង្គ	ឧទាហរណ៍
៣	នារាយណ៍រាជាទី៣ អង្គអេង	១៧៧៩-១៧៩៦	ឧដុង	បុត្រព្រះឧទ័យរាជា
៤	ចៅហ្វ៊ាប៊ុក	១៧៩៦-១៨០៥	ឧដុង
៥	ឧទ័យរាជា អង្គចន្ទ	១៨០៦-១៨៣៤	ឧដុងភ្នំពេញ	បុត្រស្ដេច៣
៦	អង្គម៉ីក្សត្រី	អង្គម៉ីក្សត្រី	កោះស្លា កែត	បុត្រីស្តេច៥
៧	ហវិរក្សរាមាឥស្សរាធិបតី អង្គដួង	១៨៤០ ១៨៥៩	ឃ្លាំងស្បែក ឧដុង្គ	បុត្រស្តេច ៣
៨	នរោត្តម អង្គច្រឡឹង	១៨៥៩-១៩០៤	ឧដុង្គភ្នំពេញ	បុត្រស្តេច៧
៩	ស៊ីសុវត្តិ	១៩០៤ ១៩២៧	ភ្នំពេញ	បុត្រស្ដេច៧
១០	ស៊ីសុវត្តិ មុនីវង្ស	១៩២៧ ១៩៤១	ភ្នំពេញ	បុត្រស្តេច៩

Chroniclers in the 1880s and 1930s, looking back to those few years of Cambodian independence prior to French control, may have considered Duang's Reign to be kind of golden age, the King himself seems to have been cautious after so many years of se-micapivity in Bangkok, his relations with Rama III and Rama IV ( King Mongkut) were subservient, as his letters to these monarch show, he seems to have make no attempt to improve relations with Vietnamese in the hope of gaining some freedom of maneuver, perhaps because he was frightened by the precedent of the 1830s and because from the Vietnamese point of view any improvement in relations would only have intensified his dependency on them instead, in 1853 he appears to have somewhat clumsily sought French protection by sending gifts and offering his "Humble homage" to the emperor of French, Napoleon III, via the French consulate in Singapore, Duang was probably put up to this by French missionaries who were active near Udong, his gifts included four elephant tusks, two rhinoceros horns, and sizable quantities of sugar and while pepper, a French diplomatic mission to his court, bearing a draft treaty of friendship was not allowed to proceed to Udong by the Thai, who had swiftly brought their client monarch to heel.
Duang seems to have sought French help not so much to escape Thai protection, which would have been impossible to manage, as to defend himself against the Vietnamese, in letters to the French, he referred to them, as Pol-Pot was to do in the 1970s as Cambodia's "traditional enemies" Ironically , in the 1860s, France took over Vietnamese patronage of Cambodia, eliminated Vietnamese influence, and then proceeded to encourage Vietnamese immigration into Cambodia, after his tempt to make friends  with French had failed, Duang explained himself to a French missionary, saying" what would you have me do? I have two masters who always have an eye fixed on me, they are my neighbors, and France is far a way." Clearly, many conditions had to change before Cambodian could emerge from this dual dependency, which had lasted with brief interludes for more than fifty years.

The end of The Restoration Of Cambodia Independence.