Independence Day in Cambodia falls on November 9th, the day in 1953 when its independence from France was finally recognised.
The Khmer people of Cambodia had long maintained their own identity and had often had their own nation in the ancient past, but during the colonial era, they fell under French rule for a 90-year period.
In 1867, to escape the ambitions of other nations, the King of Cambodia invited the French to establish a protectorate over his country.
