Cambodia, Economic History

            In my paper I will attempt to give a brief description of the economic history and location of the country of Cambodia, its monetary and fiscal policies and their economic position of the last few years. Cambodia is a former French colony that is located in Southeast Asia in the Indochina peninsula. It shares borders with Vietnam and Thailand to the east and west. The capital of Cambodia is Phnom Penh. Before talking about the history of Cambodia's economy I would like to define the word "Khmer" which describes the ethnicity of the people of Cambodia and also the word for a Cambodian citizen and the language they speak. In the Cambodian language Cambodia itself is called "srok Khner" meaning the "land of Khmer." Therefore Cambodian and Khmer can be used interchangeably.
             Cambodia's ethnic majority has always been overwhelmingly Khmer, but among its neighbors, Cambodia can be compared to an American melting pot or tossed salad. Cambodia has managed to integrate people from China to Malaysia over the centuries in relative peace. France made Cambodia its protectorate in1863 and saved the Khmer Empire from extinction in the early 19th century. French domination, despite its transformative impact, stabilized the region by creating clearly defined borders which protected Cambodia from further invasions by Thailand and Vietnam, developed roads, railroads, developed cities and favored the rise of rubber plantations. Any following advancements despite these minor contributions would not come for another decade following their independence in the aftermath of World War II. In these stages Cambodia's economy remained strictly non-industrial with fishing, spice cultivation, agriculture and rubber plantations being the major output of their economy.
             Mostly all the people in Cambodia were ethnic Khmer, who occupied themselves with rice farming and historians have deemed their economy a hydraulic economy because of its advanced irrigation system and the many canals leading into the water ways of which run throughout Cambodia and Vietnam[1].