>Siam (Thai) empire
>Cambodia and Laos are in
>today Khemer hate Thai, they're at war (Praise be Skanda)
Why? What are the historical reasons?
Was Cambodia better under the French than under the Thai?

>>17873584 (OP)
Cambodians were the top dogs of the place before the invasion of people out of southern China.

Historically, they were in the shitty position of being a rather poor and small nation which had no natural allies.
Thai took over the main trade routes, Vietnamese took over the most productive agricultural regions.

Modern Khmer nationalism was of course built on the legacy of the Khmer empire so it went from "being the little fish in a large pond that has to mind its neighbors to stay alive" to "victim of Thai and Vietnamese warmongers denied their birthright to... be the warmonger of the region."

>>17873602
>check borders of the Siam empire
>check borders of Khemer empire
They're nearly the same Buddhist empire.

It always amazes me how empires (no matter western or eastern) will adopt an anti-idolatry religion (Christianity in the West, Buddhism in the East), just to built their whole ethos in the worst kind of idolatry: patriotism / tribalism / nationalism.

>>17873584 (OP)
why did they change their name Siam sounds better than Thai

>>17873818
Siam is an Exonym from whereas Thai is what the people of Thailand call themselves
It's a Persia vs Iran situation