1970-1975 1979-1993







History of Cambodia, 1975-1979


Administration . In 1975 the Khmer Rouge took control of the capital Phnom Penh and now controlled all of Cambodia. Nominally, King Sihanouk was the head of state. In 1976 a Communist constitution was adopted, which mentioned equality, freedom of religion etc. The country was renamed Democratic Kampuchea.

Foreign Relations . Diplomatic relations with the U.S. and the USSR were cut in 1975, those with Vietnam in 1977. Kampuchea leaned heavily on the PR China. The maltreatment of Cambodia's Vietnamese minority caused concern in Vietnam; in 1979 the Vietnamese army invaded and ousted the Khmer Rouge regime.

Social Policy . The Khmer Rouge leadership, despite the warnings by Chinese politicians, planned to immediately transform Cambodian society into a "true Communist society", an Agro-Communism. Population elements deemed as being feudal, capitalist, or bourgeois, if they were not executed, were to be reeducated ("New People"). Buddhist monks, Catholic priests, the minority of ethnic Vietnamese, speakers of a foreign language were treated especially bad. The urban centers, the population of which had swollen due to the arrival of internaly displaced persons during the civil war, were depopulated, the excess population relocated to the countryside.
The party was in control of everything; the individual was expected to follow orders, given a rice ration (the "New People" given a lower ration), had no privacy; even marriages were decided on by the cadres.
The social and economic policies of the Khmer Rouge caused the Cambodian Democide and must be rated among the most extensive peacetime killings of civilians, in relation to the total population, by any government in history, estimates giving the number of victims around 1 million, out of a 1975 population estimated at about 8 million. The Cambodian Democide was depicted by the movie "Killing Fields". Party purges only added to the country's many, largely self-made problems.

The Economy . The Khmer Rouge wanted to establish a self-sufficient, isolationist Agro-Communism; an attempt to move industries to the countryside was made. They, in effect, abolished the Cambodian currency, the Riel. In 1975, foreign trade was interrupted. In 1976-1977, on a limited scale, it was resumed, the PR China being the most important trade partner.
Cambodia's rice production in 1975-1978 was at 1.5 to 1.8 million metric tons annually, compared to 2.0 to 2.5 million metric tons annually in the years 1958-1969 (IHS p.196).






EXTERNAL
FILES 		Timeline of Cambodian History, from timelines.ws
Statistics of Cambodian Democide : Estimates, Calculations, and Sources, from Statistics of Democide by R.J. Rummel
Articles Pol Pot, Khmer Rouge, Democratic Kampuchea, Cambodia under Pol Pot, from Wikipedia
Cambodia, from A Global History of Currencies
DOCUMENTS Cambodia Statesmen, from World Statesmen (B. Cahoon)
Cambodia, from Population Statistics at Univ. Utrecht
REFERENCES IHS : International Historical Statistics : Africa, Asia & Oceania 1750-2000, edited by B.R. Mitchell, Basingstoke : Palgrave MacMillan 4th ed. 2003
Article : Cambodia, in : Britannica Book of the Year 1977 pp.181-182, 1978 pp.234-235, 1979 pp.232-233
Article : Cambodia, in : The World in Figures 1st ed. 1976 pp.165-166, 2nd ed. 1978 pp.165-166 [G]
Article : Cambodia, in : Statesman's Year Book 1976-1977 pp.811-815 [G]
Article : Kampuchea, Democratic, in : Statesman's Year-Book 1978-1979 pp.748-752, 1979-1980 pp.752-756 [G]
Article : Cambodia, in : Yearbook on International Communist Affairs 1976 pp.250-257 (Peter A. Poole) [G]


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted on June 14th 2002, last revised on May 30th 2007

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