THE MONARCHY UNDER THE FRENCH
1 Why did the French choose Sisowath to be king after King Norodom ?
2 How did the French use the monarchy ?
After 1886, the French gradually increased their control over the Cambodian administration and by the end of the century Norodom had lost most of his power. Neither he nor the French, however, ever had much control over the countryside. It must have been an additional advantage to the French, therefore, that Sisowath was popular there, although that wasn't the main reason they chose him as king on the death of his half-brother, Norodom.
When Sisowath was crowned in 1906, two years after Norodom's death, he was sixty-six years old. Unlike Norodom, he hadn't put any obstacles in the way of the French, and it was for this cooperation, of course, that he was chosen as king. This, in fact started a trend, for the French continued to choose kings whose main function was to be a screen behind which they could control the administration. If the French had controlled it openly, they wouldn't have succeeded so easily. Consequently, it was to their advantage that while the kings seemed powerful, they were actually in control.
If the French hadn't chosen Sisowath, Prince Yukanthor, Norodom's favourite son, would probably have become king. Yukanthor, however, made himself unpopular with the French when he challenged them about their lack of justice. Although most of what he said was true, he was not allowed to return to Cambodia from France and eventually died in Bangkok in 1934.
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