A little about me: My name is Daniel Asiamah, I am a freshman here at the University of Oregon. I am majoring in economics and have always had an interest in traveling and other cultures. My goal is to know more about the international political landscape and learn more about different countries’ internal and external interactions. Based on the region of Southeast Asia, this blog will cover some of the different countries in the region and talk about past and current events, also discussing the lingering effects these events had. The country that piqued my interest the most is the Kingdom of Cambodia.
Above: Bayon Temple in Cambodia
Cambodia originally gained its independence as a country from the colony of French Indochina on November 9th , 1953 under the rule of King Norodom Sihanouk. Today, Cambodia has a population of around 16.7 million and its capital, Phnom Penh, is the largest city with 1.6 million people living there. Globally, Cambodia is considered a “least developed country” based on its low score on the Human Development Index and the problems within its borders. Cambodia itself has seen many complications civilly in terms of authority and saw major disputes in the 1970’s to early 1980’s closely intertwined with problems in Vietnam which resulted in multiple dramatic changes of power within the country. The current government system runs as a constitutional monarchy with operations of representative democracy (Similar to the United Kingdom). The government and other outside resources has contributed to good overall economic progress since the early 2000s, but some lingering issues like workforce safety/organization and political corruption have hindered Cambodia from progressing as much as it would like.
The Cambodian flag has gone through many changes throughout its short history as a country but currently is depicted identically to its design when the country first gained independence. The center of the flag features Angkor Wat, which was built in the 12th century and is the largest religious monument in the world.
