At Its Peak, The Ancient Khmer City Of Angkor Dwarfed The Great Cities Of Europe

[grantcart]

5. A couple of points

1) The article radically understates the achievement of the Khmer Kingdom and misses the great technological advance that enabled its existence.

Ankor wasn't just the greatest city of its time it was the only inland city of its size as all large cities were situated on the coast, like London. The ports enabled trade that would bring food in the form of inexpensive calories needed for the urban classes to live and work in non agricultural trades. The next evolution of transporting cheap calories for the urban masses developed in the mid 19th century when the railroad would bring in cattle that could graze for free in South Dakota and other areas in the mid west. With the railroad workers in NYC could eat fresh meat that was grazing just hours before.

2) The genius of Ankor laid in the ability to maintain massive irrigation through canal systems linked to Tonle Sap and the basin. Connected to the Tonle Sap River the water flows one way for 6 months and then reverses itself.

While most observers marvel at the engineering miracle of Ankor Wat the real engineering feat was constructing massive artificial ponds and canals that enabled year round irrigation.

In Asia all agricultural land is able to have one rice crop a year. Some areas with good irrigation systems get 2. One thousand years ago the Khmers were able to produce 3 crops a year that allowed for a massive inland urban population, that did not exist anywhere else in the world. It is still a remarkable achievement.

3) In stating that the Khmers ruled an area " covered modern-day Cambodia, Laos, and much of Thailand and Vietnam" is not quite correct. They established suzerainty over the area but not administrative or military rule.

To begin with the country to the west of the Khmer Kingdom was Siam not Thailand and to the East was the Cham Kingdom not the Vietnamese. At that time regions of Siam were ruled by local Princes and they cooperated with the Khmer Kingdom through tribute and loose vassal allegiance. This is not to understate Khmer influence through trade which was enormous with vast trading of ceramics, pottery and other high skilled products that reached from Indonesia to China.

While there were frequent wars between the Khmers and the Chams, Khmer influence on the western side was through a series of negotiated fealty agreements. When a local Sukhotai prince decided that the taxing system was onerous the Siamese organized an army and defeated the Khmer Kingdom's army and led to the founding of Siam. Sukhotai would remain the capital for 200 years when rival princes from Ayutthaya sacked the capital and moved it to Ayutthaya.