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Norodom I

Norodom (1834-1904) was king of Cambodia from 1860 to 1904. He was the son of King Ang Duong, the half-brother of Prince Si Votha as well as the half-brother of King Sisowath.

When he was born, Cambodia was under Vietnamese and Siamese rule. The two powers had partitioned the country between them, but the royal family remained in the Siamese zone, as the Vietnamese were more authoritarian than the Siamese. Nonetheless, Vietnam and Siam frequently fought wars over Cambodian territory. The royal capital of Cambodia was in Odong, but the main center of the area was the capital of Siam in Bangkok. Prince Norodom was sent by his father to study in Bangkok, where he studied Buddhist scriptures as well as the ancient Pali language.

In 1860, when King Ang Duong died, Norodom became his successor. Nonetheless, the young king began to rule over a country in civil turmoil. The Siamese and the Vietnamese had traditionally treated Cambodia as a buffer state, but France began to encroach on both Siamese and Vietnamese territory. However, the country was weak and subject to the power struggles between France and Siam. Not only where there rebel groups intent on getting the Siamese and the Vietnamese out of Cambodia, but also bandit groups. At the same time, King Norodom inherited a major Cham rebellion against Khmer rule which his father began to sustain but died before he could defeat them. In 1862, Norodom lost control over the region and abandoned the capital of Odong and fled to the safety of Battambang (though the capital was still at Odong) and later flees Cambodia altogether and goes into exile in Bangkok. Seeing that the Siamese and Vietnamese overlords had gotten Cambodia into civil strife, the French forced King Norodom to return to Odong in 1863 and sign a treaty of protection with France, which transferred the country from Siamese and Vietnamese to French colonial rule. Cambodia thus became an independent French protectorate, though it was highly autonomous. Nonetheless, in 1884, France took control of Laos and overran Vietnam, and also silenced Siam by defeating it in a war (but not occupying it) in 1885, making Cambodia an all out French colony.

In 1885 and 1886, Cambodia revolted against French rule, and the French blamed Norodom for inciting the revolts. The revolt ended when the Cambodians were assured by King Norodom that the French had offered concessions to him.

The rest of Norodom's rule was nothing but puppetry on the part of the French. The French changed a lot in Cambodia, moving the capital from Odong to Phonm Penh. Norodom could do nothing to prevent this, and died in 1904 in Phnom Penh. His body was cremated in the traditional Buddhist fashion in 1906.

He was succeeded by his half-brother and the Crown Prince, Prince Sisowath.

He is considered the first modern king of Cambodia.