Kampuchea Krom
Kampuchea Krom (Khmer: កម្ពុជាក្រោម, Kâmpŭchéa Kraôm [kampuciə kraom]; "Lower Cambodia") is the region variously known as Southern Vietnam, Nam Bo, and the former French Cochinchina.
[1] Bordering present-day Cambodia, the region is positioned in Cambodian irredentist narratives as a "once-integral part of the Khmer kingdom that was colonised by France as Cochinchina in the mid-nineteenth century and then ceded to Vietnam in June 1949".
[3] Archaeological research at the Óc Eo site between Rạch Giá and Long Xuyên in present South Vietnam dates Vietnamese incursion in the region to the sixteenth century, prior to which the area was located within the ancient Khmer empire.
Through the incorporation of Hà Tiên, the Nguyễn dynasty thus further extended their borders amidst a period of tense regional competition involving the Siamese, Vietnamese, and Khmer.
[12] (See: Mekong Delta - History, Vietnamese Period) Historian David Chandler argues that further long-term effects of Vietnamese southward territorial expansion into Kampucha Krom included: (1) Cambodia being "cut off to a large extent from maritime access to the outside world"; (2) the removal of "large portions of territory and tens of thousands of ethnic Khmer from Cambodian jurisdiction"; and (3) the placement of Cambodia in a vise between its two powerful neighbors of Siam and Vietnam.
[14] The abundance of water brought by these events, together with the natural flat plain that characterizes its region, makes Kampuchea Krom a productive agricultural area with rich, fertile soils.
The northern coastal complex is a "flange of flat, salt-impregnated land lying between the mouths of the Mekong and Bassac Rivers and bounded by the ocean to the east", an area often perceived as the "quintessential Khmer region of Vietnam" by researchers and tourists alike.
[20] Taylor identifies the phno, or "elevated ridges of coarse sandy soil, between one to five metres high", as crucial to the sustenance of life within the northern coastal complex, constituting both cosmological and strategic significance for the Khmers in the region.
[23] Further, though groundwater in the region is salinated throughout the year, the absorption and retention of fresh rain water by the sand dunes during the rainy months creates natural freshwater reservoirs for residents.
[24] The less dense freshwater remains above the denser saline groundwater without mingling, both of which lie at a shallow depth beneath apparently dry land and accessible with some digging.
[27] Kono Yasuyuki argues that the moderation of the "hydrological environment by infrastructure improvement is essential for agricultural intensification and diversification in the deltas", and for the "production of a substantial surplus of rice and its export".
[28]The Chợ Gạo Canal was built by the Colonial Department of Public Works to connect Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) to the nearest delta port.
[29] Biggs draws from records from the Maritime and Colonial Review to argue that the Chợ Gạo Canal, despite opening to great success and fanfare in 1877, quickly became unnavigable within the short span of several months.
[1] Taylor takes the Khmers' interpretation of environmental and ecological change in the region to reflect the hold of monastic institutions within Kampuchea Krom, and the appeal of Buddhist pathways to salvation.
