Kampot (city)

The first description of Kampot in the Cambodian Royal Chronicles refers to an event that took place from 1771 to 1775. In 1771, King Taksin of Siam attacked Ha-Tien and destroyed it completely before marching on the Cambodian capital Oudong.

In an effort to overthrow the Khmer King Outey II who was allied with Vietnamese Mac Thien Tu based in Ha-Tien, the young Khmer prince and future king Ang Non II gathered with Siamese soldiers in Kampot which he used as a base for his hostilities until obtaining the throne 1775.

In 1841, Oknha-Mau, who was a Cambodian governor, refused the Vietnamese yoke which had gradually been imposed once more on Kampot. Supported by Siam, he gathered a military contingent of about 3,000 Cambodians. The Vietnamese ran away to Ha-Tien again.

Upon his arrival on the throne in 1840, Khmer King Ang Duong constructed a road from his capital of Oudong, to Kampot, and opened Kampot as the only international seaport of Cambodia. Import and exports grew quickly in the hands of the Anglo-Chinese merchants of Singapore turning a neighborhood of the city into the Chinese Kampot. French missionary Father Hestret founded the first Catholic Church in Kampot at that time, and received the visit of French explorer Henri Mouhot.

Cambodia became a protectorate of France in 1863. King Norodom appointed a Vietnamese as chief of the canton and let him control the village and all Vietnamese in this province. After this period, Kampot began to decline. The main reason for this decline was because Saigon Port was opened and navigation along the Mekong River began to be exploited in the interests of French colonialism.

Resentment grew among the population. The insurrection began on 17 March 1885 at noon, when a band of 50 men sacked the opium entrepôt held by the French colonialists. Another band of 50 men attacked the telegraph office. The customhouse at the entrance of the river became a fort of insurgents. At the beginning of April, a French aviso à vapeur Le Sagittaire and two junks appeared at the anchorage of Kampot. Tensions escalated as violence broke out throughout the province with a complex play of alliances and betrayals as well as interference from Chinese pirates. On 8 May 1886, a column of 100 soldiers under Lieutenant de Vaubert departed Kampot. Résident Santenoy also marched with 30 militiamen. After an hour's battle, a Cambodian militiaman of the Résident succeeded in penetrating into the fort of the insurgents, and French troops broke the fort in five minutes officially ending the insurrection of Kampot.

At the end of 1886, an interview between the King Sisowath and the insurgents was held at Thnol Bek Kus, half-way between Phnom Penh and Kampot and peace was accomplished.

Under 19th century French colonial administration Kampot became a regional administrative centre with the status of a state border district as a result of the delimitation of the Kingdom of Cambodia. The Circonscription Résidentielle de Kampot contained the arrondissements of Kampot, Kompong-Som, Trang, and Kong-Pisey.[3][7]

In 1889 French colonial census reports a multi-ethnic community: Kampot town consisted of "Cambodian Kampot" on the Prek-Kampot River and "Chinese Kampot" on the right riverbank of the west branch of the Prek-Thom River. Nearby was also a Vietnamese village, called Tien-Thanh and another Vietnamese village on Traeuy Koh Island. A Malay enclave also existed on Traeuy Koh Island. Additional villages of mixed ethnicity are listed.[3]

The Chinese population grew steadily, benefited well from pepper cultivation and benefiting the economy of Kampot. Yet quarrels between Chinese groups were reported too. For example, Hainam Chinese and Trieu-Châu Chinese quarreled in October 1908, and Inspecteur Durand, had to send in guards to reach pacify the situation.

Kampot become the stage to a major battle of the Vietnam War, also a part of the Cambodian Civil War. From 26 February to 2 April 1974, Cambodian government troops battled Khmer Rouge guerillas for the control of Kampot city. Despite the Cambodian Army's heavy resistance, the Khmer Rouge eventually captured the city of Kampot on 2 April. Both sides suffered heavy casualties during the fighting but many more civilians were rendered homeless.

In recent years since 2010s, Kampot has been subject to the extensive tourism development with the development of tourism port worth US$8 million under the Kampot Provincial Tourism Department's master plan. The development of the tourism port includes the construction of 42-storey multi-purposed twin tower which will be the tallest building in Cambodia outside Phnom Penh when completed; widening and improvements to National Road No. 3; a seaport that carries passengers to and from nearby Cambodian islands, Thailand and Vietnam with the capacity of housing up to 400 passengers. While the development of the tourism port is slated to be ready for visitors by 2022 and the creation of new job opportunities, the development of the tourism port has raised concern regarding the impact to the colonial building where some colonial building would be demolished to make way for the modern building and infrastructure, the rising price of the land property in Kampot, and the destruction of forests for tourism land uses which raises the environmental concerns. A petition has been launched by residents of Kampot demanding Prime Minister Hun Sen and King Norodom Sihamoni to modify the project toward more heritage-friendly construction and move the construction of high-rise buildings away from Old Town. As of January 2021, it has received 1,239 signatures.[8]