In the middle of the 19th century, a Khmer king appealed to Napoleon III for helping him break the impasse in which his kingdom found itself. By a treaty, the French placed the kingdom under their protectorate. The revolt broke out and the country became a veritable colony like Viet nam, its eastern neighbour. It took more than twenty years for the rebellion to wane. For ninety years, France deployed to strengthen its presence in this royalty constantly threatened by its neighbors. But it was also at this time that the old Khmer empire, in decline since the 14th century, was modernized under the rule of its protectors. A few years after his country's Independence, King Norodom Sihanouk subjected the country of the Khmers to the satellisation of the regional Communists and caused a series of unprecedented tragedies.
