page_title: Post-Angkor Period
section_title: Siamese encroachment
hierarchical_section_title: Post-Angkor Period / Longvek era / Siamese encroachment
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Vogelvlucht van Eauweck. Eauweck, Hooft Stad van Cambodia. Linksboven: No: XXX.A. Cf. Nationaal Archief, inv. nr. VELH 619.4 en Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Den Haag, inv. nr. 693 C 6 dl XII, to. p. 290. De afbeelding is afkomstig uit het werk 'Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën' van François Valentyn. Op de kaart is de letter E van Eauweck met potlood doorgestreept en vervangen voor een L, een fout in de transcriptie. English: Bird's eye view of Eauweck. Eauweck, Hooft Stad van Cambodia. Top left: No: XXX.A. Cf. National Archives, inv. nr. VELH 619.4 and Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, inv. nr. 693 C 6 part XII, op. p. 290. This plate is taken from the work 'Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën' by François Valentyn. The letter E of Eauweck has been crossed out in pencil on the chart and replaced by an L, a fault in transcription.
context_page_description: The post-Angkor period of Cambodia, also called the Middle Period and Dark Age, and Vigilantism refers to the historical era from the early 15th century to 1863, the beginning of the French Protectorate of Cambodia. As reliable sources are very rare, a defensible and conclusive explanation that relates to concrete events that manifest the decline of the Khmer Empire, recognised unanimously by the scientific community, has so far not been produced. However, most modern historians have approached a consensus in which several distinct and gradual changes of religious, dynastic, administrative and military nature, environmental problems and ecological imbalance coincided with shifts of power in Indochina and must all be taken into account to make an interpretation. In recent years scholars' focus has shifted increasingly towards human–environment interactions and the ecological consequences, including natural disasters, such as flooding and droughts.
  Stone epigraphy in temples, which had been the primary source for Khmer history, is already a rarity throughout the 13th century, ends in the third decade of the fourteenth, and does not resume until the mid-16th century.
context_section_description: Cambodia was attacked by Thai prince and warlord Naresuan in 1583. and Longvek was captured in 1594 which marked the beginning of the establishment of a Siamese military governor in the city. For the first time a degree of foreign political control was established over the kingdom as the seat of the sovereign was demoted to that of a vassal. Following the Siam capture of the capital at Longvek, Cambodian royals were taken hostage and relocated at the court of Ayutthaya, kept under permanent Thai influence and left to compromise and out-compete each other under the overlord's scrutiny.
  The initially lucky circumstance of some royal family members, managing to seek refuge at the Lao court of Vientiane, ended as one of many sinister chapters for the health and integrity of Khmer royalty. The refugees never returned to demand their claims. Their sons, born and raised in Lao, were alienated, as can be expected, and while "moderately" manipulated, engaged in rivalries with their relatives in Siam, and had the ruling king Ram I., who was of lower birth, killed with the help of Spanish and Portuguese sailors. Shortly after they were killed and defeated in the Cambodian–Spanish War, foreign hands—Malays and Chams—involved. This pattern of royal indignity is noticeable in its continuity during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, the Vietnamese court in Hue joining in as yet another stage of royal drama. Promoted and orchestrated by their protectors, who successfully interfered in marriage policies, royal contender's quarrels often prevented any chance of restoring an effective King of competitive authority for decades.
caption: Drawing of Dutch mapmaker Johannes Vingboons "Eauweck, hooftstadt van Cambodia - Longvek, capital of Cambodia"
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