Chronology
of Cambodian History, 1850-1899
YEAR
1851
An
inscription is erected to record King Ang Doung's return to Cambodia and
the defeat of the Vietnamese.
Rama IV (1851 - 1868), Siamese king.
1856
King Ang Duong writes a letter to the French
emperor, Napoleon III, urging him not to accept the Khmer territories
taken by the Vietnamese.
King Ang Duong asks Siamese King to grant
his son, Prince Norodom, the title of Obbareach, which ensures the
prince, will succeed him.
1858
Chams and Malays living in the southeast of the
Khmer Kingdom rebel against King Ang Duong.
Aug. 31,
1858
French expedition forces lands in
Tourane.
1859
Feb. 17,
1859
King Ang Duong sends Khmer troops into Cochin china.
1860
Oct. 19, 1860
King Ang Duong
dies. Prince Norodom, the
King's eldest son, is unable to take the throne at the time because of the
Chams' rebellion. Khmer troops withdraw from Cochin china.
? 1860
Henri Mouhot, a French naturalist who visited
Siam, Cambodia, and Laos between 1858 and 1861, visits Angkor, which
dazzled him, "At the sight of this temple, one fells one's sprit crushed,
one's imagination surpassed. One looks, one admires, and, seized with
respect, one is silent. For
where are the words to praise a work of art that may not have its equal
anywhere on the globe? …. What genius this Michelangelo of the East had,
that he was capable of conceiving such a work". [23]
1861
Prince Norodom abandons the capital at Oudong
for the comparative safety of Battambang.
Feb. 7,
1861
The French navy attacks Saigon.
1862
Prince
Norodom flees to Bangkok.
June 5, 1862
Saigon treaty, in which France takes
control of all three provinces of Cochin china.
1863
Aug. 11, 1863
THE PROTECTORATE TREATY is concluded between the French and Prince Norodom.
The treaty requires Khmer sovereign to hand over to France the conduct of
his country's foreign relations and prohibits the King from receiving any
foreign consuls within his kingdom without French authorization. In return, France pledges itself
to give "Protection" to the kingdom, to recognize the sovereignty of the
King, and assist in maintaining internal order as well as protecting the
country against external attack.
? 1863
Adm. Pierre de La Grandiere, governor of Cochinchina
(1863 - 1868).
1864
June 3, 1864
Prince Norodom is
crowned king at Oudong.
1865
Prince Sisowath, who resides in Bangkok, is
in Saigon where he enters into negotiation with French Admiral de la
Grandiere with the aim of returning to Oudong.
King Norodom moves the Royal Court (Capital) from Oudong to Phnom
Penh. (NK)
1866
A naval officer, Doudart de Lagree, begins
his mission to study the navigability of the Mekong River 1866-1868.
[23]
October
Assoa, who claimed descent from King Ang Eng,
rebelled against King Norodom, is arrested and handed over to the French
by the Vietnamese.
1867
Poucombo is captured and put to death. "...Poucombo, an
adventurer with striking charismatic powers who claims to be a grandson of
King Ang Chan. He was, in fact, a member of a small minority group, the
Kuoy, now almost completely assimilated into the Khmer population…. Backed
by Vietnamese vagabonds, and possibly by mandarins who hoped to embarrass
the French, Poucombo rallied a large part of the Khmer population in the
east of the kingdom in Ba Phnom Province and about Tay-Ninh in Cochinchina
to his cause. During 1865 and 1866 he had considerable success, sacking
villages that resisted him and eluding French efforts to capture him. His
followers may have numbered as many as ten thousand, and for a period he
appeared to threaten the Royal court at Oudong." [6]
Siam abandons its claim of Cambodia. France
persuades Siam to abandon its claim to Cambodia but allow the Siam to keep
Battambang and Siem Riep provinces.
1868
Jean
Moura is appointed as the French representative to the Khmer Kingdom.
Rama V (1868 - 1910), Siamese king.
1870
Prince Sisowath is installed Obbareach
with the wish and support of the French. The installation will ensures the
Prince to succeed King Norodom upon his death or
abdication.
March 10, 1870
Edouard Pottier, interim French Representative to
Cambodia.
Nov. 11, 1870
Jules Marcel Brossard, interim French Representative
to Cambodia.
1871
Jan. 1, 1871
Jean Moura is French Representative to Cambodia; his
second term.
1873
Doudart de Lagree heads an expedition to make plaster
impressions and bring back to France the first set of original works from
Angkor and provincial sites such as Beng Mealea and Koh Ker in a campaign
to " bring Angkor into the museums". [23]
1875
Dec. 27, 1875
Prince Sisowath Monivong is born.
1879
Jan. 6, 1879
Etienne Francois Aymonier, interim French
Representative to Cambodia.
1881
May 10, 1881
Paul Julien Auguste Foures, interim French
Representative to Cambodia.
Delaporte, on his final mission to Cambodia, brings
back a number of casts and seventy original works of Khmer art to France.
[23]
1883
Charles Thomson is appointed governor to
Cochinchina. He is the French
official with ultimate authority over Cambodia.
1884
The
French administration in Cochin china takes over the collection of taxes
on opium and alcohol sold in the Khmer kingdom.
June 17-24, 1884
France imposes a convention forcing King Norodom to
accept administrative, judicial, finance and commercial reform, and direct
control of the Khmer kingdom from France. Also, the French Representative in
Cambodia will be called Resident General.
Nov. 1, 1884
Resident General Foures commences the imposed June
convention.
1885
Jan. 8, 1885
Khmer rebellion
against French authority start.
Supporters of Prince Si Votha attacked an isolated French military
outpost at Sambor, just above the modern town of Kratie. In May, the insurgents attack the
capital.
Aug. 12, 1885
Jules Victor Renaud, interim Resident General to
Cambodia.
Oct. 16, 1885
Pierre Badens, Resident General to
Cambodia.
1886
March 6,
1886
Prince Norodom Suramarit is born (b.03/06/1896
d.04/03/1960).
May 17, 1886
Georges Jules Piquet, Resident General to
Cambodia.
1887
Cambodia and Vietnam
(Cochinchina, Annam, and Tonkin) are administratively united as the
Indochina Union. Laos is
added six years later.
Oct. 17, 1887
France issues a decree placing Resident General in
Cambodia under the authority of Governor General of
Indochina.
Nov. 4, 1887
Louis Eugene Palastre de Champeaux, interim Resident
General to Cambodia.
1888
Um
is appointed Akhamohasena (Prime Minister). "Um had been born in Pursat
Province in 1821. At the age of sixteen he had entered the service of Ang
Duong and accompanied the future king to Bangkok. He fought with Ang Duong
and the Siamese against the Vietnamese who occupied Cambodia. When Ang
Duong regained control of Cambodia, Um was appointed director of the royal
pages. From then on he rose steadily in the royal service. In 1861,
Norodom named him assistant to the minister of war, and in 1868 he became
the actual minister. He was later minister of justice." [6]
1889
March 10, 1889
Orsini, interim Resident General to
Cambodia.
May 9, 1889
France issues a decree reorganizing its high-level
officials in Indochina; Resident General to Cambodia is renamed the
Resident Superior.
May 16, 1889
Albert Louis Huyn de Verneville, Resident Superior.
1891
Dec. 1891
Prince Si Votha died.
1892
French
administration assume responsibility for collecting all taxes within the
Khmer Kingdom, doing away with an earlier division of duties, which had
left some direct taxes in King Norodom's hands.
1893
Prince Duong Chacr, King Norodom's son, is
arrested in Paris. He is
interned in Algeria and remains there until his death in 1897.
Oct. 3, 1893
The French and Siamese sign a treaty,
in which the Siam abandons all claims to territory east of the Mekong and
pays an indemnity of three million francs.
1894
Jan. 24,
1894
Felix Leonce Marquant, interim Resident Superior.
Aug. 4, 1894
Albert Louis Huyn de Verneville, Resident Superior;
his second term.
1895
King
Norodom's mother dies.
1896
Jan. 15, 1896
The British and
French reach an agreement, ending the long friction between the two
countries on the Siamese issue. The British recognize the gained made by
France in 1893 and abandon the demand for a buffer between Burma and the
French colonies. Both countries guarantee the independence of Siam.
1897
Prince Duong
Chacr, who is interned by the French in Algeria, dies.
May 14, 1897
Antoine Etienne Alexandre Ducos, Resident
Superior.
1898
April 6, 1898
The council of ministers, at the request of the Resident
Superior Ducos, approves a measure providing that the council has the
right to appoint and dismiss all Khmer officials who earn a salary of less
than sixteen Piastres a month, without any reference to the King. The
decision present to King Norodom for his approval twice, and on each
occasion he refuses, arguing that it will further diminish his power.
[6]
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