A Brief History of Cambodia Migrations into the mainland regions of Southeast Asia from the north continued for centuries. The ancestors of the Cambodians came with earlier waves that the proto-Malays. The Cambodians are closely related to the Mon who settled further to the west but of whom only small clusters survived in Thailand and Burma. According to historical records based mainly on Chinese sources, when the Cambodians arrived in present day Cambodia, two powerful …showed first 75 words of 767 total…

…showed last 75 words of 767 total…the jungle. During the following century, King Ang Chan (1516-1566) transferred the capital to Lungvek, but the Siamese took it in 1594. Due to continued Siamese and Vietnamese aggression Cambodia appealed to France for protection in 1863 and became a French protectorate in 1864. During the 1880s, along southern Vietnam and Laos, Cambodia was drawn into the French-controlled Indochinese Union. For nearly a century, the French exploited Cambodia commercially, and demanded power over politics, economics, and social life.