The Gilded Cage: A History of the French Protectorate in Cambodia

Chapter One: A Desperate Bargain: How Cambodia Became a French Protectorate The story of how Cambodia entered the French colonial empire is not a simple tale of military conquest. It is a far more complex and poignant story of a desperate bargain, a calculated choice made by a weakened kingdom to sacrifice its sovereignty in order to ensure its very survival. By the mid-19th century, the once-mighty Khmer nation was in a state of profound decline, a "shadow kingdom" being slowly devoured by its two powerful and expansionist neighbors, Siam to the west and Vietnam to the east. Faced with the imminent threat of being completely erased from the map, the Cambodian king made a fateful decision: to seek the protection of a distant and powerful European empire, France. This act would save Cambodia as a geographical and cultural entity, but at the cost of ninety years of colonial rule in a beautiful but confining "gilded cage." The Dying Kingdom: Caught in a Vise The Cambodia…