Why are Thailand and Cambodia fighting? The conflict explained

[Celerity]

An escalation in tensions between the two southeast Asian countries has led to bombing raids and the closure of the border between them

https://www.thetimes.com/world/asia/article/why-are-thailand-cambodia-fighting-dispute-jxtnq2px9

https://archive.ph/VNDyb



Who fired the first shot? That question lies behind the sudden and dramatic escalation of tensions between Thailand and Cambodia along their disputed border, where clashes have escalated into full-blown bombing raids, the complete closure of the 500-mile border and the expulsion of ambassadors from both sides.

But behind the latest violence lies hundreds of years of nationalist rivalry, a century of fallout from the colonial era, the fragile egos of former strongmen whose children now rule each country, and a new sense of economic endangerment in two states most affected by President Trump’s tariff war.



Cambodia’s golden age and its historical reference point for the ages was the Angkorian era, when the Khmer Empire ruled across territory that reached deep into modern-day Thailand and Vietnam.

The empire ended when the city of Angkor was sacked by the Ayutthaya kingdom, the forerunner of the modern state of Thailand. While Thailand stayed independent throughout the colonial era, Cambodia became part of French Indochina. The present dispute stems from a 1907 map drawn under French colonial rule that Cambodia used as a reference for its post-independence borders, while Thailand argues the map is inaccurate.

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