Macroeconomical analysis of Cambodia

For my term paper fall 2001 I chose the Kingdom of Cambodia. I travelled South East Asia in 1995 and 1997, saw all the major attractions and countries of the area, but Cambodia struck me most. Its fantastic nature, friendly people and archaeological sites overwhelmed me. Cambodia lies in South East Asia and is surrounded by three countries: Thailand in the west, Vietnam in the east and Laos in the north. In the south its coastline runs along the Gulf of Thailand. Its land area is 181,035 sq km and approximately 12,1 million people live there.
As Cambodia is now about to recover from around 30 years of civil war and anarchy, many reasons of the nowadays problems can be found in the historical events. The "Killing Fields" are still in everybody′s mind as a symbol for a cruel genocide that took place under the rule of the Khmer Rouge. But Cambodia is also famous for its archaeological places, like "Ankor Wat", the biggest temple side of the world. To explain and analyse the actual macroeconomic situation, I want to give a brief overview over the recent history of the last 60 years first.