The Spaniards in Cambodia

The story of spanish intervention in Cambodia during the last decade of the sixteenth century is familiar, at least in outline, to students of the history of South-east Asia. It may be worth recalling this bizarre episode for a wider public at the present time, when the unfortunate Khmer kingdom finds itself again involved with its more powerful neighbours. At the risk of over-simplification, the complicated and constantly shifting background to the actual Spanish intervention may be sketched in broad outline as follows.

Angkor, the famous group of temples and capital city of the Khmer empire of Cambodia, which had once dominated most of Indochina, had been taken and sacked by the Thais from Ayuthia in 1430-31, and subsequently abandoned for over a hundred years. The Thai monarchs thenceforward claimed suzerainty over Cambodia, which they regarded as a vassal state, and they endeavoured to instal puppet rulers whenever the frequent succession disputes in the weakened and shrinking Khmer kingdom gave them the opportunity to intervene.