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      • Topic 10: Authoritarian States
      • Topic 12: The Cold War >
        • 1. Causes of the Cold War >
          • 1. What role did ideology play in the Grand Alliance?
          • 2. How did wartime disagreements affect the alliance?
          • 3. Did Soviet expansionism end the alliance?
          • 4. Was US exceptionalism to blame?
          • 5. Did events in Asia exacerbate tensions?
          • 6. Were tensions over Germany the final straw?
          • 7. Summary: Who was to blame for the Cold War?
        • 2. Conflict & Confrontation >
          • 1. How did competition unfold in Asia?
          • 2. What conflicts emerged in Europe?
          • 3. How did the Cold War shape the Middle East?
          • 4. Were tensions in the Americas unexpected?
          • 5. Why did the Cold War spread to Africa?
          • 6. How did scientific change drive the conflict?
          • 7. Summary: Who won the global struggle?
        • 3. Detente and Coexistence >
          • 1. Did peaceful coexistence work?
          • 2. What did detente achieve?
          • 3. Why did detente fail?
          • 4. Summary: Was detente a failure?
        • 4. China and the Cold War >
          • 1. Why were Sino-Soviet relations so turbulent?
          • 2. How did Sino-American relations change?
          • 3. What other relations did China cultivate?
          • 4. Summary: When did China become a global power?
        • 5. End of the Cold War >
          • 1. Did the USSR decay from within?
          • 2. Did Ronald Reagan win the war?
          • 3. Was Mikhail Gorbachev to blame?
          • 4. What role did people power play?
          • 5. Why did the USSR finally collapse?
          • 6. Summary: Who, or what, ended the Cold War?
        • 6. Leaders, Crises and Nations >
          • 1. What was the impact of leaders?
          • 2. How significant were Cold War crises?
          • 3. In what ways were nations affected?
          • 4. Summary: What was the role of leaders, crises and nations?
        • Exam Questions
    • Paper 3 - Asia/Oceania >
      • Topic 9: Imperial Decline in East Asia 1860-1912
      • Topic 11: Japan 1912-1990
      • Topic 12: China and Korea 1910-1950
      • Topic 14: The People's Republic of China 1949-2005
      • Topic 15: Cold War Conflicts in Asia >
        • 1. The Malayan Emergency >
          • 1. What triggered conflict in Malaya?
          • 2. How did the Emergency evolve?
          • 3. Why was the insurgency defeated?
          • 4. What was the impact of the Emergency?
          • 5. Summary: Why was communism defeated?
        • 2. The Korean War >
          • 1. What caused the Korean War?
          • 2. How did the Korean War evolve?
          • 3. How was the Korean War resolved?
          • 4. What was the impact of the Korean War?
          • 5. Summary: Was the Korean War a turning point?
        • 3. The French Indochina War >
          • 1. What caused the French Indochina War?
          • 2. How did the French Indochina War evolve?
          • 3. How was the war in Indochina resolved?
          • 4. What was the impact of the Indochina War?
          • 5. Summary: What accounts for the French defeat?
        • 4. The Vietnam War >
          • 1. What caused the Vietnam War?
          • 2. How did the Vietnam War evolve?
          • 3. How was the Vietnam War resolved?
          • 4. What was the impact of the Vietnam War?
          • 5. Summary: Was the Vietnam War inevitable?
        • 5. The Cambodian Civil War >
          • 1. What caused the Cambodian Civil War?
          • 2. How did the Cambodian Civil War evolve?
          • 3. How was the Civil War resolved?
          • 4. What was the impact of the Cambodian Civil War?
          • 5. Summary: Who can be blamed for events in Cambodia?
        • 6. The Soviet Afghan War >
          • 1. Why did the USSR invade Afghanistan?
          • 2. How did the Soviet-Afghan war evolve?
          • 3. How was the Soviet Union defeated?
          • 4. What was the impact of the Soviet-Afghan war?
          • 5. Summary: Why did the USSR withdraw?
        • Exam Questions
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5. The Cambodian Civil War (1967-75)

Unit Outline


Perhaps more than any other nation, Cambodia was torn about by Cold War tensions, which exacerbated conflict within society and the region. The unit examines how the Cambodian Civil War was fought, and the impact of the victorious Khmer Rouge regime. The Cambodian Civil War was fought between the forces of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (known as the Khmer Rouge, supported by North Vietnam and the Viet Cong) against the government forces of the Kingdom of Cambodia and, after October 1970, the Khmer Republic, which had succeeded the kingdom (both supported by the United States (U.S.) and South Vietnam).

After five years of savage fighting, the Republican government was defeated on 17 April 1975 when the victorious Khmer Rouge proclaimed the establishment of Democratic Kampuchea. The war caused a refugee crisis in Cambodia with two million people—more than 25 percent of the population—displaced from rural areas into the cities, especially Phnom Penh which grew from about 600,000 in 1970 to an estimated population of nearly 2 million by 1975. The Cambodian civil war was also infamous for leading to the Cambodian genocide, one of the bloodiest in history.

The Civil War in Cambodia is thus a clear example of how Cold War tensions shaped and tore apart smaller states in contested regions. A victim of geography as much as anything else, Cambodia suffered more than any other state. The statement of inquiry for this unit therefore explores:
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STATEMENT OF INQUIRY
Global conflicts like the Cold War can shape and change the development of smaller nations through the spread of revolutionary ideas
GLOBAL CONTEXT
Fairness and Development (Imagining a hopeful future) - Students will explore rights and responsibilities; the relationship between communities; sharing finite resources with other people and with other living things; access to equal opportunities; peace and conflict resolution.
KEY HISTORY CONCEPT
Innovation and Revolution - Innovation incorporates the understanding of processes that drive change and invention. In history, this concept looks at the process of generating new ideas, events, movements, products or solutions through the alteration, transformation, reorganization, restructuring, rearrangement, or renovation of existing ideas, events, movements, products or solutions. Innovation involves individuals and societies because they use their capacity to create, contrive and initiate a capacity that can lead to both positive and negative consequences in the short term and the long term.
RELATED HISTORY CONCEPTS
Change - The study of history involves investigation of the extent to which people and events bring about change. Discussion of the concept of change can encourage sophisticated discussions such as encouraging students to think about, and look for, change where some claim none exists, or using evidence to challenge orthodox theories and assumptions about people and events that it is claimed led to significant change. Students’ questions and judgments about historical change should be based on deep understanding of content and on comparison of the situation before and after the events under examination.

1. What caused the Cambodian Civil War?

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Like most newly independent nations, Cambodia was not alone in grappling with issues of political representation, economic development and social justice. Yet more than most, Cambodia was more vulnerable to outside pressures, particular the Vietnam War.

2. How did the Cambodian Civil War evolve?

​Between 1967-75, the Cambodian Civil War evolved from small-scale peasant uprisings to full blown insurgency led by the Khmer Rouge against the Kingdom of Cambodia and Khmer Republic. What were the key turning points in this conflict?
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3. How was the Civil War resolved?

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The Khmer Rouge eventually succeeded in winning the Civil War in 1975. But why was this? Is this a tale of tenacious and popular resistance to foreign invasion like in the Vietnam War? Or are the causes of this victory more complicated to understand?

4. What was the impact of the Cambodian Civil War?

​War ended in 1975 with communist victories across the region. Yet the newly installed Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia would unleash a terrible upheaval and genocide on its own people, creating further instability throughout Cambodia and beyond.
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5. Summary: Who can be blamed for events in Cambodia?

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The tragic events of the Civil War and post-war regime are much discussed to this day. But who or what can we blame for the rise of the Khmer Rouge? Was this a case of foreign manipulation gone wrong? Domestic failures? Or was the Khmer Rouge an entirely new phenomenon?
MRBUDDHISTORY.COM was created in 2012 in order to support the learning of students in History. The site is devoted to creating high-quality and accessible teaching and learning resources for history education and other humanities subjects. 
  • Home
  • Shop
  • iGCSE
  • IBDP
    • Paper 1
    • Paper 2 >
      • Topic 10: Authoritarian States
      • Topic 12: The Cold War >
        • 1. Causes of the Cold War >
          • 1. What role did ideology play in the Grand Alliance?
          • 2. How did wartime disagreements affect the alliance?
          • 3. Did Soviet expansionism end the alliance?
          • 4. Was US exceptionalism to blame?
          • 5. Did events in Asia exacerbate tensions?
          • 6. Were tensions over Germany the final straw?
          • 7. Summary: Who was to blame for the Cold War?
        • 2. Conflict & Confrontation >
          • 1. How did competition unfold in Asia?
          • 2. What conflicts emerged in Europe?
          • 3. How did the Cold War shape the Middle East?
          • 4. Were tensions in the Americas unexpected?
          • 5. Why did the Cold War spread to Africa?
          • 6. How did scientific change drive the conflict?
          • 7. Summary: Who won the global struggle?
        • 3. Detente and Coexistence >
          • 1. Did peaceful coexistence work?
          • 2. What did detente achieve?
          • 3. Why did detente fail?
          • 4. Summary: Was detente a failure?
        • 4. China and the Cold War >
          • 1. Why were Sino-Soviet relations so turbulent?
          • 2. How did Sino-American relations change?
          • 3. What other relations did China cultivate?
          • 4. Summary: When did China become a global power?
        • 5. End of the Cold War >
          • 1. Did the USSR decay from within?
          • 2. Did Ronald Reagan win the war?
          • 3. Was Mikhail Gorbachev to blame?
          • 4. What role did people power play?
          • 5. Why did the USSR finally collapse?
          • 6. Summary: Who, or what, ended the Cold War?
        • 6. Leaders, Crises and Nations >
          • 1. What was the impact of leaders?
          • 2. How significant were Cold War crises?
          • 3. In what ways were nations affected?
          • 4. Summary: What was the role of leaders, crises and nations?
        • Exam Questions
    • Paper 3 - Asia/Oceania >
      • Topic 9: Imperial Decline in East Asia 1860-1912
      • Topic 11: Japan 1912-1990
      • Topic 12: China and Korea 1910-1950
      • Topic 14: The People's Republic of China 1949-2005
      • Topic 15: Cold War Conflicts in Asia >
        • 1. The Malayan Emergency >
          • 1. What triggered conflict in Malaya?
          • 2. How did the Emergency evolve?
          • 3. Why was the insurgency defeated?
          • 4. What was the impact of the Emergency?
          • 5. Summary: Why was communism defeated?
        • 2. The Korean War >
          • 1. What caused the Korean War?
          • 2. How did the Korean War evolve?
          • 3. How was the Korean War resolved?
          • 4. What was the impact of the Korean War?
          • 5. Summary: Was the Korean War a turning point?
        • 3. The French Indochina War >
          • 1. What caused the French Indochina War?
          • 2. How did the French Indochina War evolve?
          • 3. How was the war in Indochina resolved?
          • 4. What was the impact of the Indochina War?
          • 5. Summary: What accounts for the French defeat?
        • 4. The Vietnam War >
          • 1. What caused the Vietnam War?
          • 2. How did the Vietnam War evolve?
          • 3. How was the Vietnam War resolved?
          • 4. What was the impact of the Vietnam War?
          • 5. Summary: Was the Vietnam War inevitable?
        • 5. The Cambodian Civil War >
          • 1. What caused the Cambodian Civil War?
          • 2. How did the Cambodian Civil War evolve?
          • 3. How was the Civil War resolved?
          • 4. What was the impact of the Cambodian Civil War?
          • 5. Summary: Who can be blamed for events in Cambodia?
        • 6. The Soviet Afghan War >
          • 1. Why did the USSR invade Afghanistan?
          • 2. How did the Soviet-Afghan war evolve?
          • 3. How was the Soviet Union defeated?
          • 4. What was the impact of the Soviet-Afghan war?
          • 5. Summary: Why did the USSR withdraw?
        • Exam Questions
  • Links
    • is globalpolitics
    • is history
    • is humanities