Posts

Showing posts with the label Thailand

Franco-Thai War of 1940-1941: Vichy France's Proxy War in Southeastern Asia

Image
Vichy France's "small war" with Thailand in 1940-1941 is one of the most unique campaigns and micro conflicts in the greater military history of World War Two (1939-1945). Marshall Pétains shakes Adolph Hitler's hand, 1941 The Vichy collaborators in France and abroad formed a coalition/puppet government with their conquerors in the North of France while a 'free' southern zone was established rule by Vichy following the defeat of the French Army and the capture of Paris. The Vichy army fought rather poorly against their former Allies in North Africa while helping to cement fascist rule throughout occupied metropolitan France and Algeria. Thousands of miles away in French Indochina where French rule had been established by imperial conquest beginning in 1862 as French Cochinchina (Vietnam), the Vichy government collaborated nominally with the Japanese in fear of being ousted by the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) forces who were already poised to invade the region ...

Angkorian Warfare 1113-1220: The conflicts of the Khmer Empire from Suryavarman II to Jayavarman VII

Image
The Khmer Empire in what is today Cambodia came to rule almost all of Southeast Asia as one of the most powerful empires and warrior-monarchies of the 12th and 13th centuries. Even though the history of the period is elusive as there are few surviving written accounts, there are however several important historical military & warfare lessons which can drawn from the early Angkorian or Moha Nokor period. Historically it has been established that the Khmer Empire came to dominate great portions of the region between 1000-1432 AD, growing through conquest and the fostering of diplomacy to secure existing and acquire new tributary territories. The Khmer (Angkorian Empire) at War This Cambodian empire in Southeast Asia was predeceased by both the Funan and Chenla states which had been petty kingdoms exisiting before the 8th century, their power centering around the Mekong Delta. Dominated by three major ethnic groups, the Mon, the Cham and the Khmer peoples, the cultures of the region w...