<Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> The history of Cambodia, a country in mainland Southeast Asia, can be traced back to at least the 5th millennium BC . Detailed records of a political structure on the territory of what is now Cambodia first appear in Chinese annals in reference to Funan, a polity that encompassed the southernmost part of the Indochinese peninsula during the 1st to 6th centuries . Centered at the lower Mekong, Funan is noted as the oldest regional Hindu culture, which suggests prolonged socio - economic interaction with maritime trading partners of the Indosphere in the west . By the 6th century a civilisation, called Chenla or Zhenla in Chinese annals, firmly replaced Funan, as it controlled larger, more undulating areas of Indochina and maintained more than a singular centre of power . </P> <P> The Khmer Empire was established by the early 9th century . Sources refer here to a mythical initiation and consecration ceremony to claim political legitimacy by founder Jayavarman II at Mount Kulen (Mount Mahendra) in 802 C.E. A succession of powerful sovereigns, continuing the Hindu devaraja cult tradition, reigned over the classical era of Khmer civilization until the 11th century . A new dynasty of provincial origin introduced Buddhism, which according to some scholars resulted in royal religious discontinuities and general decline . The royal chronology ends in the 14th century . Great achievements in administration, agriculture, architecture, hydrology, logistics, urban planning and the arts are testimony to a creative and progressive civilisation - in its complexity a cornerstone of Southeast Asian cultural legacy . </P> <P> The decline continued through a transitional period of approximately 100 years followed by the Middle Period of Cambodian history, also called the Dark ages of Cambodia, beginning in the mid 15th century . Although the Hindu cults had by then been all but replaced, the monument sites at the old capital remained an important spiritual centre . Yet since the mid 15th century the core population steadily moved to the east and - with brief exceptions - settled at the confluence of the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers at Chaktomuk, Longvek and Oudong . </P>

At which point in its early history was israel unified divided and ruled by outsiders