Cambodianirredentism is anationalist movement inCambodia that refers to the land that used to be part of theKhmer Empire. The movement is aimed againstThai,Vietnamese, andLaotian control over the territories. Both official and unofficial Cambodian claims on territories viewed as having been under some form of Cambodian sovereignty are rhetorically tied back to accusedexpansionism.
Up until the establishment of the Thai and Laotian states, the Khmer Empire was the major land power and a dominant force in mainland Southeast Asia. The territory of Cambodia encompassed most of what would be now Thailand, Laos, part of Myanmar and Southern Vietnam; in an extent, it encroached to even mainland Malaysia.[1] However, subsequent problems and turmoils, as well as the rapid advance by the Vietnamese, Laotians and Thais brought Cambodia's empire into a declining state. Among all, the Thais and the Vietnamese were seen to have done the most harm to Cambodia, causing significant physical traumas for the people of the nation.[2] In order to survive, Cambodia came under aFrench protectorate, only to find itself being grouped within Vietnamese-dominatedFrench Indochina, and with the French favoring Vietnamese instead of Cambodians. At the outbreak of theFirst Indochina War Khmer irredentism began to rise.[3] Nonetheless, it was not officially espoused until 1970 whenLon Nol overthrew the monarchy and replaced it with aRepublic, where it became increasingly nationalistic and chauvinist, leading to the persecution and massacres of the ethnic Vietnamese andChams.[3] TheKhmer Rouge later inherited these nationalistic sentiments which were part of the driving force for the persecution and massacres of Vietnamese in Cambodia as a part of theCambodian genocide, and which was one of the motivations forKhmer Rouge incursions in Vietnam and occupations of Vietnamese territories which resulted in several massacres of Vietnamese civilians, the most notorious of which was theBa Chúc massacre.[4]
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The Cambodians hold a significant amount of hostility to Vietnam with regard to their loss of theMekong Delta to the Vietnamese in history, and the subsequent enforcedVietnamization and conflicts which Vietnam repeatedly occupied the country, accused French favoritism to the Vietnamese, and the lack of cultural commonalities with Vietnam being part of theSinosphere while Cambodia belongs to theIndosphere. This often drew Cambodian nationalist sentiments with the desire to reclaim territory from Vietnam.[5][6] Both Lon Nol andPol Pot utilized this grievance in order to spread Cambodian irredentism.[3]
Currently, Cambodian irredentists still feel strongly attached to the region, and as a result, they believe it is a lost territory which should be returned to Cambodia. The expression of this sentiment has frequently ignited various protests, notably the2013–2014 Cambodian protests, and Vietnam is frequently blamed for all of the turmoil and problems which occur within Cambodia, partly becauseHun Sen is closely affiliated with Vietnam.[7] This sentiment has sometimes driven Cambodia to forge close ties with China, a country which Vietnam has a strong feeling of enmity towards because it wasruled by China for over one thousand years.[8]
In addition to the Mekong Delta, Cambodian nationalists seek to reclaimPhú Quốc, which Cambodians frequently call "Koh Trol", based on their belief that it was part of Cambodian territory before it was annexed by Vietnam, and it often attracts a number of Cambodian celebrities.[9][10] There is largely no evidence proving if there was any Khmer entities and government being able to exercise effective sovereignty and control over the Vietnamese island, with French reports indicated no Khmer settlement on the island as of 1770s.[11]
While tensions with Thailand are now receiving lesser attention, many Cambodians nonetheless have a long-standing hostility in regard to Thailand, because most of Thailand used to be under Khmer control until the rise of theSukhothai Kingdom, and subsequent conflicts which started the demise of Cambodia as a regional power and repeated Thai occupations of Cambodia.[12][13] Therefore, a strong anti-Thai sentiment developed in Cambodia fueled by a persistent historical misconception among educated Thais and the ruling class that distinguishes a so-calledKhom ethnic group and Khmer as separate peoples—a distinct Thai narrative known only to Thais—perpetuated to mask the significant historical influence of the Khmer on Thai culture, thereby resulting in a form ofhistorical negationism.[14][15][16]
Cambodia and Thailand also engaged inborder disputes from 2008 to 2011 with regard toPreah Vihear. Eventually, Cambodia acquired the temple following the dispute.[17] There is also irredentism against Thailand with regard toNorthern Khmer people, where Cambodians still see them part of Cambodian nation, and that lower part of northeastern Thailand should have been Cambodian.[18][19]
Cambodian irredentism in Laos mainly focuses on the provinces ofChampasak andAttapeu in Southern Laos.[20]The unclear border delimitation between the two countries led to some sporadic tensions from 2017 to 2019.[21] In 2019, Cambodia and Laos removed troops from the disputes area surroundingStung Treng.[22]
While Cambodia certainly laid early claim to the island, no one has offered compelling evidence that Khmers have ever had a substantial modern presence there, or that a Cambodian state exercised authority during a time of Khmer occupation. For many Khmers the case of Koh Tral is one of history imagined rather than remembered...In the 1770s Pierre Pigneu de Behaine, seeking to expand missionary activities following the destruction of the mission at Ha Tien established a seminary for Vietnamese converts at Phu Quoc where he also gave refuge to future Emperor Gia Long. Descriptions of this mission make reference to the local Vietnamese population of the island but not the Khmer.