Phnom Penh: Encyclopedia II - Phnom Penh - History

Phnom Penh - History

Phnom Penh first became the capital of Cambodia after Ponhea Yat, king of the Khmer Empire fled Angkor Thom when it was captured by Siam in 1431. There are stupa behind Wat Phnom that house the remains of Ponhea Yat and the royal family as well as the remaining Buddhist statues from the Angkorean era.

It was not until 1866 under the reign of King Norodom I that Phnom Penh became the permanent seat of government, and the Royal Palace(pictured) was built. This marked the beginning of the transformation of what was essentially a village into a great city with the French Colonialists expanding the canal system to control the wetlands, constructing roads and building a port.

By the 1920s Phnom Penh was known as the Pearl of Asia and over the next four decades continued to experience growth with the building of a railway to Sihanoukville and the Pochentong International Airport.

During the 1970s, Phnom Penh's population swelled due to the US dropping hundreds of thousands of tons of bombs on rural Cambodia. These refugees were sent back to the countryside when FUNK took over in 1975. Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in 1979.

France, Australia, and Japan built factories in Cambodia in subsequent years. Loans were made from the Asia Development Bank and the World Bank to reinstate a clean water supply, roads and other infrastructure. By 1998, Phnom Penh's population was 862,000.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki