Khmer breach between Siam and Ha-Tien since 1771 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
Hà Tiên and destroyed it completely before marching on the Cambodian capital of
Oudong. In an effort to overthrow the Khmer king
Outey II, who was allied with the 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 in 1775.
Uprising of Oknha Mau in 1841 In 1841,
Oknha-Mau, a Cambodian governor, refused the Vietnamese
yoke that had gradually been imposed on Kampot. Supported by Siam, he gathered a military contingent of about 3,000 Cambodians. The Vietnamese fled to Ha-Tien.
First international seaport of Cambodia (1841–1860) Upon his rise to 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. Imports and exports grew quickly in the hands of the Anglo-Chinese merchants of Singapore, turning a neighborhood of the city into "Chinese Kampot". French missionary Father Hestret founded the first Catholic Church in the city at that time and received the visit of French explorer
Henri Mouhot.
From French protectorate to insurrection (1863–1886) 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 people in the province. After this period, Kampot began to decline. The main reason was the opening of
Saigon Port, and the exploitation of navigation along the Mekong River by the French. Resentment grew among the population. An insurrection began on 17 March 1885 at noon, when a band of fifty men sacked the opium
entrepôt held by the French. Another band of fifty 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,
Le Sagittaire, and two
junks, appeared at the Kampot anchorage. 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.
Resident Santenoy also marched with thirty militiamen. After an hour's battle, a Cambodian militiaman of the resident succeeded in penetrating the insurgents' fort, leading to its destruction by French troops and the end of the insurrection. At the close of 1886, an interview between Norodom and the insurgents was held at Thnol Bek Kus, halfway between Phnom Penh and Kampot, and peace was accomplished.
French colony (1889–1940) 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. In 1889, the
French colonial census reported 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. In connection with the
Belt and Road Initiative, in May 2022, Shanghai Construction Company and the
China Road and Bridge Corporation began developing a Kampot port complex,
special economic zone, and related housing and
green space. ==Climate==