The impression of instability was exacerbated by increasing foreign interference,particularly from the Vietnamese ,whose"March to the South" (Nam Tien) had carried colonists into the Mekong Delta by the 1620s.in 1626 Nguyen overlords of the south broke off they ties with the northern ,Le dynasty and began governing the southern region on their own. Although the area was lightly populated, Nguyen control soon had the effect of sealing off Cambodia's southeastern frontier, the Vietnamese intrusion had three long-term effects,first, the takeover of Saigon (Known to Cambodians even today as Prey-Nokor ) first by customs agents in the 1620s and seven years later by Nguyen administrators. meant that Cambodia was now cut off from maritime access to the outside world, especially after other, smaller ports along the Gulf of Siam were occupied in the early eighteenth century by Chinese and Sino-Vietnamese entrepreneurs and Vietnamese troop, Cambodian isolation, which lasted nearly two hundred years, was unique in pre-colonial Southeast Asia,with the exception of Laos, Second,The Nguyen institutionalization of control , a process that took more than two hundred years ,eventually removed large portions of territory and tens of thousands of Ethnic Khmer-Krom Cambodian jurisdiction, this process produce a legacy of resentment and anti-Vietnamese feeling that fueled the collapse of democracy Kampuchea and persisted among many Cambodians into 1980s, and beyond,Finally, by taking over the delta and extending De Faco control over the gulf of Siam (a state of affairs that lasted through the eighteenth century), the Nguyen placed Cambodia in a vise between two powerful neighbors,its Capital region, moreover,was more accessible to Saigon than to Ayudthya or Bangkok.
A side effect of the advent of Vietnamese power was that the Cambodian Royal Family was now able to spit along pro-Thai and pro-Vietnamese lines,depending on which power supported an incumbent, his rivals would seek support from the other to overthrow him, the history of Cambodia in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, therefore, is one almost continuous invasions from Vietnam and Siam, preceded and followed by ruinous civil wars, instability at the center extended in to the Sruk ,because loyalty to the throne was costly,perilous,and easy to avoid ,by the end of the eighteenth century large areas of Kingdom were under only nominal control from Udong ,and this state of affairs
in turn, decreased the King's ability to to respond to foreign invasions ,the King's power to reward his friends and finish dissidents had been weakened by the rapid succession of monarch, communication difficulties ,and the need to withstand repeated foreign attacks.
At the same time, it seems likely that a certain continuity persisted at the capital among the bureaucratic elite, several inscriptions at Angkor from the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century record the careers of important officials whose graceful rise to increasing responsibility contrast sharply with the jagged sequence of events related by the chronicle, moreover, Vietnamese and Thai accounts agree that at several points in the eighteenth century( when it could be tempting to assert that Cambodia had already been bled white) ,Cambodian forces managed to repel their invading armies, this suggests ,at the very least, that some regional leaders , nominally officials of the crown, were able in a crisis to mobilize enough supporters to harass and defeat a foreign expeditionary force, especially when skilled in guerrilla warfare.
Evidence from chronicle suggests ,however, that one of the darkness periods of Cambodian history came in the last few decades of the eighteenth century, the ingredients- dynastic instability, foreign invasions ,civil wars -were familiar once, but this time they were on a large scale.
The 1750s were relatively calm as far as invasions from Siam and Vietnam were concerned ,but they also saw a series of coups and counter coups by rivals in the Royal family that involved assassinations and reprisals, in 1767, Ayudya fell to a Burmese army, and when aThai Prince and his entourage sought asylum in Cambodia and threatened to set up a legitimate Kingdom there , a Thai regional overlord, Taksin, who had assumed Royal power in Siam ,launched a series of expeditions against Cambodia beginning in 1768, his aims were to reestablish Thai hegemony over the region and thus to backdate what he interpreted as his own enormous fund of merit, he also sought to avenge himself against the Cambodian King who ,according to the Chronicles, refused to send gifts to him because he was the "Son of Chinese merchant and and commoner," charges that appear to have true ,there is some evidence also that he wanted to put his own son on the Cambodian Throne.
Thai pressure on the Kingdom persisted into the 1770s, when the Nguyen were distracted by a populist rebellion, led by the so-called Tay-Son brother, which threatened to overturn institutions throughout Vietnam , sensing weaknesses in Northern Vietnam , Thai armies attacked overland via Angkor , and their naval expeditions laid wastes several small ports along the gulf of Siam, partly in order to divert Chinese traders from this region to the vicinity of Bangkok and partly to avenge an early expedition financed by Chinese merchants from these coastal enclaves that had almost succeeded in capturing the new Thai capital, Thonbury in 1772, the Thai burned down Phnompenh ,seven years later ,a Thai protege' , Prince Eng ,then only seven years old, was placed on the Cambodian throne at Udong under the regency of a pro- Thai official ,in 1782 , Taksin himself was deposed , to be replaced by his minister of war ,then campaigning in Cambodia, the personal involvement of these two men in Cambodian affairs set a pattern for Thai interference there throughout the nineteenth century, although publicly, and perhaps privately as well . their motives for intervention included the more noble one of protecting Cambodian Buddhism and related institutions against persistent and heretical Vietnamese incursions.
By the 1780s, the heir to the Nguyen throne ,fleeing the Tay-son, had taken refuge in Bangkok, providing the basis for rapprochement between the two nations when and if the prince assumed control of all Vietnam. as he did in 1802.
Prince Eng was taken off to Bangkok in 1790 and was anointed there by the Thai before being sent back to Cambodia in 1794 ,his Reign which opened up a cycle nineteenth century history ,is discussed in Chapter 6 . the fact that he was crowned in Bangkok is symbolic of his dependence on the Thai .
The end of Vietnamese and Thai Interference in Cambodia,
