Khmer Empire

In 1975, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge came to power in Cambodia, and attempted to send Cambodia ‘back in time’ and erase the Western influence from their society ("The CGP, 1994-2015”). Approximately 1.5 million Cambodians, around twenty five percent of the population, died of overwork, malnutrition, execution, or disease over the course of four years("Genocide in Cambodia"). The Khmer Rouge targeted numerous groups of people such as intellectuals, religious…

unbearable conditions. This is due to the fact that on April 17, 1975 Pol Pot commenced mass murders of the upper and middle class Cambodians. Starvation spread like a disease throughout Cambodia because of past government issues, the work of the Khmer Rouge, and failed attempts of aid. Not only was Cambodia in the middle of a civil war, but the country was also caught up in the Vietnam war. At this time Vietnam was fighting against the French, whom Cambodia gained independence from on…

Evaluate the reasons for the rise and fall of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia INTRODUCTION The Khmer Rouge is a term coined by Prince Norodom Sihanouk, literally meaning ‘Red Khmers’, to describe the Communist Party of Kampuchea, led by Saloth Sar, or more commonly known as Pol Pot. From 1975-1979, the Khmer Rouge seized power over Cambodia and conducted the tragic Cambodian genocide. Inspired by Maoism, they believed in the creation of a classless, communal society to achieve equality of all, and…

fabrication to be considered credible; secondly, it misrepresents and distorts Khmer culture and history; and thirdly, it generally misleads the reader about Cambodia in the 1970s and life under Khmer Rouge”(Hor, Lay, & Quinn). Although the critics have made many strong points, this essay will focus mainly on the three fairly weak…

actions of the Khmer Rouge government weren’t much different. It was mainly to better the government and they didn’t care about who got in their way. The Khmer Rouge government began targeting certain groups for destruction. In the regime's eyes, two different kinds of people existed in Cambodia- old people and new people. The new people were undesirable because they were influenced by foreign values, and did not live agrarian lives. Other groups targeted for extermination by the Khmer Rouge…

It is ok to want change, but the thing to understand about change is that it doesn’t all happen over night. It is true Cambodia was in a bad state and needed a reform but the fact that Pol Pot wanted the reform to occur in two years was what pushed him to act so radically. One thing that is very noticeable in the regime is that the things that he felt were bad in Capitalism and should be kept from the people he still did. To cover for it he created the name Angkar, so in a way Pol Pot, his…

of the biggest genocide is the Cambodian genocide. The Khmer Rouge was a group of followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea in Cambodia. This time of period wasn't long but was an impact on our history. The Khmer Rouge had a goal and that was to. Eliminate the entire social order in the country. A task relevantly impossible. Cambodia Genocide was a serious impact on a lot of lives. Khmer Rouge was a Communist Party of Kampuchea. Khmer Kror-Horm was the name given to the followers of the…

their victory over the Americans to a nation on the brink of war with its neighbours. In the aftermath of the war, due to clashing communist ideologies, the countries, Cambodia and Vietnam, positioned themselves against each other. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge conducted mass purges that kill a million people and resettled others from urban areas to the countryside. Because of all this, Cambodian political and social tensions steadily rose in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. One major aspect…

In the novel, First They Killed My Father, Loung Ung uses forgetting the past as a motif. Ung writes: " I was even more determined to make myself a normal American girl. I played soccer. I joined the cheerleading squad. I hung out with my friends and ate a lot of pizza. I cut and curled my hair. I painted my eyes with dark makeup to make my eyes more round and western. I'd hoped being Americanized could erase my memories of the war"(235-236). This quote is significant to my visual and the book…

here” (Ung 130). Cambodian children, just like Loung Ung, were forced into combat through the use of propaganda and persuasion. At many camps throughout Cambodia, children were taught to love and respect the Angkar; they were instructed to put the Khmer Rouge before themselves and die for the cause. These young children were brainwashed to believe the Angkar loves and protects, so going into the war was a service and duty. Knowing any opposition would result in harsh consequences, Ung listened…