Sisowath of Cambodia

Life[edit]

Sisowath was given the birth name of "Ang Sar" (អង្គសោ).^[1] When he was born, Cambodia was under joint Siamese and Vietnamese rule. The royal family lived in Battambang then under Siamese hegemony. Like his brother King Norodom, Sisowath was educated in the Siamese capital of Bangkok. He did not return to his native Cambodia until 1860, when his father and the ruling monarch, Ang Duong, died.


He hastily returned to Oudong, the royal capital of Cambodia, to prevent his half-brother, Prince Si Votha from seizing the throne. He succeeded, and his other half-brother, Norodom, became king. Although Norodom was more compliant, rebellion broke out in Cambodia, and soon the French, seeking control of Southeast Asia, forced Norodom to comply with a French protectorate over Cambodia. The French thus drove out the Thai and the Vietnamese officials, and Cambodia became a French protectorate. However, Norodom never truly complied with the French, and signed a secret treaty with siam, still acknowledging their suzerainty over Cambodia, and allowed them to keep Battambang and siem reap, which the Thais conquered in 1795.


Sisowath was enraged, and he exiled himself to Saigon in Vietnam in 1864, the other former overlord of Cambodia, in a show of defiance. The French, who also had control of Saigon, persuaded Sisowath to remain there under French "protection", as his life was in danger by the "rebels in Cambodia". In reality, the French used Sisowath as a tool to threaten Norodom. If Norodom was not following France's policies of reform, they could threaten Norodom with Sisowath and say that they would depose Norodom and replace him with Sisowath if he did not comply.


In 1867, after news of the treaty with siam broke out to the public, Cambodia was in open rebellion against French rule, King Norodom pleaded Sisowath to return to Cambodia to quell the uprising. Sisowath returned from Vietnam to Oudong and helped quell the uprising, restoring peace and order, and punishing the rebels, and with cooperation with the french, he forced siam to sign another treaty with the cambodian proctaterate, canceling out their secret treaty with norodom and forcing siam to finally give up control over cambodia (though, they still kept battambang and siem reap, which sisowath would eventually get back, along with other major provinces from siam, during his reign in 1907) this greatly boosted his popularity amongst the people and in 1884, when the French took full control over Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, and also defeated Siam in a war in 1893, Cambodia became an open French colony, (With decent autonomy) and the capital was moved from Oudong to Phnom Penh. Moving the royal court to Phnom Penh, Sisowath gave his full support to the French colonial regime. Norodom thus was compelled to name Sisowath his future successor.