KHMER

Khmer was a Southeastern Asian Empire founded in 802 CE by Jayavarman II. The Empire lasted around 400 years, finally falling around 1200 CE because of the Thai migrations (Plugins, 1). The Khmer were known as great architects who were responsible for the city Angkor. In Angkor they had monumental temples. One of the most well known temples was the Angkor Wat plaza. It’s construction took 30 years and construction was begun by one of the greatest kings, Suryavarman II, around 1122 CE. The complex was dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu (Plugins, 1). Another great king, Jayavarman VII, who ruled from 1181 CE - 1215 CE, expanded the empire and built the Angkor Thom Plaza inside Angkor. Angkor Thom was a city inside of the city. The complex took up about the area of LA, with a population of 1 million (Plugins, 1). Jayavarman VII also pushed back the Cham, and Vietnamese to the east, and expanded into the Khorat plateau in the north and the Chao Phraya to the west. This led to a large standing army, and armies have to eat. As a result, farming techniques were greatly improved, and food production skyrocketed. The Cham and Vietnamese put up a lot of resistance, and the civilizations had some great victories against the Khmer, and the Khmer had some great victories as well. One of the Khmer victories was the destruction and looting of Vijaya, the capital of Chem. However, the Chem also looted and burned Angkor in return near the fall of the empire. The Khmer had a monarchy with a bureaucracy. This bureaucracy helped Khmer maintain power, despite many conspiracies against the king. Much of the court was devoted to putting down uprisings. They also conducted censuses, which both left them exposed to conspiracies, but were also part of the reason that the Khmer were successful. The Khmer were trading partners with India, which led to the spread of Hinduism and Buddhism as major religions in Khmer.