History
1840 Cambodian uprising
The 1840 Cambodian uprising was a widespread revolt of Cambodians against Vietnamese rule over their kingdom, which broke out in 1840.[1][2] Bun Srun Theam dates its outbreak to August 1840, and Shawn McHale to late 1840.[1][2] The revolt brought Siamese armies and Prince Ang Duong back into Cambodia, and Vietnamese forces left Phnom Penh in 1841.[1]
Background
McHale writes that Vietnam occupied eastern Cambodia under Emperor Minh Mang from 1835 to 1841, and that Cambodians deeply resented the occupation. In his account they rose in 1840 because they saw a threat to their survival as a country.[2] Theam, whose thesis draws on Thai chronicles and the Vietnamese court annals, writes that resentment had built up since Vietnam restored King Chan after 1813. He lists forced labor, harsh repression of revolts in Kampong Som and Kampong Svay in 1820 and 1837, and the suppression of Cambodian customs.[1]
In Theam's account, the last cause was the Vietnamese attempt to take Cambodia's leaders away. The Vietnamese commander Truong Minh Giang (written Truong Ming Giang by Theam) sent Queen Mei, her sisters and other royals away to Saigon, and Theam writes that Thai and Cambodian sources say the Vietnamese also tried to send as many officials (ocnha) as they could to Vietnam.[1]
Revolt
Theam quotes a Thai chronicle which dates the outbreak to August 16, 1840. On that day, in that account, the ocnha rose together in every town, seized Vietnamese soldiers, merchants and prison guards, and sent some of the captives to the Siamese at Battambang.[1] The chronicle adds that many Vietnamese across the country were killed in the revolt, and that the Vietnamese commanders could not put it down because it took them by surprise.[1]
Minh Mang ordered an army of ten thousand men from Saigon to help Giang, but in Theam's account the revolt went on. By the end of 1840 the Vietnamese army in Cambodia numbered about 20,000 men.[1] McHale writes that Khmer in six provinces of the Mekong Delta, Ha Tien, An Giang, Kien Giang, Soc Trang, Tra Vinh and Vinh Long, also took part in the revolt, which went on into 1843.[2] Theam cites two captured fishermen who said that by mid-1841 between 5,000 and 6,000 Vietnamese troops had been sent from Phnom Penh to Tra Vinh to put down the Cambodian revolt there.[1]
Siamese intervention
The rebel ocnha sent messengers to the Siamese general Bodin Decha in Battambang and asked the king of Siam, Rama III, to free Prince Duong, who was held under guard in Bangkok, so that he could lead the fight.[1] Theam writes that the Siamese army entered Cambodia in November 1840. Citing Thai sources, he writes that when Bodin Decha reached Pursat, 18 ocnha met him with petitions asking Rama III to send Duong back as king.[1] The Vietnamese garrison at Pursat surrendered to the Siamese, and Bodin Decha returned to Battambang at the end of 1840.[1]
Duong reached Battambang in early February 1841 and moved to Pursat in March. After Queen Mei was brought back to Phnom Penh at the end of April 1841, Duong and the Siamese army moved to Oudong.[1] Theam writes that Cambodia then had two courts about thirty kilometers apart, each backed by a foreign army.[1]
Vietnamese withdrawal
Minh Mang died in January 1841, and his successor, Thieu Tri, later agreed to Giang's request to withdraw.[1] Theam, following Thai chronicles, writes that the Vietnamese armies left Cambodia in November 1841. He notes that the Vietnamese court annals date the withdrawal to September 1841.[1] The Vietnamese destroyed their posts at Kampong Thom, Chruoy Changvar and Phnom Penh and moved the city's civilians to Chau Doc, together with Mei and her sisters.[1] Duong and Bodin Decha moved to Phnom Penh in December 1841.[1] McHale writes that Siam and Vietnam signed a treaty in 1846 that put Ang Duong on the throne, and that Vietnam then withdrew from its protectorate in eastern Cambodia.[2]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 Australian National University, Bun Srun Theam, Cambodia in the Mid-Nineteenth Century: A Quest for Survival, 1840-1863 (MA thesis, 1981)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 The Journal of Asian Studies, Shawn McHale, Ethnicity, Violence, and Khmer-Vietnamese Relations: The Significance of the Lower Mekong Delta, 1757-1954 (Vol. 72, No. 2, May 2013)