The French Colonial Period (1893-1954)

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The French Colonial Period (1893-1952)

A coin issued for circulation in the French Protectorate of Cambodia under the reign of King Norodom I of Cambodia under the administration of the French colonial authorities.

Author: Laura Ouk
Grade: 10

Suggested Amount of Time: 60 minutes
Area of Study: Introduction to Cambodia's History

Compelling Question
  • How does learning about Cambodian history promote a greater understanding of Cambodian American experiences?
Lesson Question

  • What was the impact of French colonization on Cambodia?

Lesson Objective

  • Students will be able to explain the impact of French Colonialism on Cambodia through synthesizing information and analyzing motivations of both the French and the Cambodian governments. 

Lesson Background

Cambodia had been a colony of France. After independence, Cambodians developed various forms of government. These efforts were challenged by domestic conflicts as well as international and regional conflicts, like the Vietnam War.

Image Citation: File:1 Piastre-Peso - French Protectorate of Cambodia - Scott Semans 13.jpg - Wikimedia Commons. (2019, August 13). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1_Piastre-Peso_-_French_Protectorate_of_Cambodia_-_Scott_Semans_13.jpg 

Ethnic Studies Theme 

Power and Oppression: This lesson connects to the ethnic studies theme of power and oppression from the Asian American Studies Curriculum Framework (Asian American Research Initiative, 2022). Students will consider war, migration and imperialism as contexts shaping citizenship and racialization.

Students will explore the connections between colonialism and oppression in Cambodia during French colonial rule.

For additional guidance around ethnic studies implementation, refer to the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (2022) https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/esmc.asp

Historical Thinking Skill

Cause and Consequence. This lesson will facilitate student proficiency in cause and consequence one of Seixas’ historical thinking skills (Seixas & Morton, 2013). To help students to understand that there are short-term and long-term consequences of events. / To help students understand and assess the varying importance of causes.

Events result from the interplay of two types of factors: (1) historical actors, who are people (individuals or groups) who take actions that cause historical events, and (2) the social, political, economic, and cultural conditions within which the actors operate. Students will examine the consequences of French imperialism for Cambodia.

Supplies 

  • Computer and internet access

Readings

  • Colonial Era – Cambodia Enters the Wider World: 1863 – 1953 

Videos

  • The French Conquest of Indochina 

Handouts 

  1. Warm Up Question
  • Think about your current culture’s foods, celebrations, language, traditions, music, etc. What parts of your culture do you think are influenced by another culture? Can you identify specific examples?
  • Have students pair-share, then solicit student responses for a whole class share out.
  • Introduce the lesson objective and questions.
  1. Vocabulary Building
  • As a class, define the term colonialism. It’s best to display the definition on the board or somewhere accessible for students to refer to throughout the lesson.
    • The teacher can also provide additional context to scaffold the understanding of the term: Colonialism happens in many parts of the world and has unique impacts on the colonized regions, shaping their histories, cultures, and societies in different ways.
  1. Interaction with the first source (10 minutes)
  • Prior to interacting with the first source, have students make predictions of how French colonialism may have impacted the country and people of Cambodia. This discussion might have overlapping thoughts from the warm-up.
  • Show students the French Conquest of Indochina clip: https://ca.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/de4fb65d-e35f-4118-9a49-329c1c177fdb/french-conquest-of-indochina/#.XaTAXo4pDq1
  • As a class, discuss the following questions:
    • Where did the French reside in Indochina?
    • How did colonialism, first under the Chinese and then the French, impact the people in the impacted countries? What did they gain, and what did they lose?
    • Under the conditions of colonialism, why was it easy for the French to feel superior to the people residing in the region, and for the people (in this video’s instance, the Vietnamese) to resent the French?
  1. Interaction with second source (30 minutes)
  • Create small groups of students (three to four students per group).
  • Have students read Colonial Era- Cambodia Enters the Wider World: 1863–1953 https://cambodiatribunal.org/history/cambodian-history/
  • Distribute copies of the handout: Colonialism: A Motivations/Effects Analysis Graphic Organizer. Have each group complete motivations/effects analysis of colonialism for the French and Cambodia.
  • When students have completed their handouts, debrief the class with the following question:
    • What was the impact of French colonization of Indochina?
  1. Assessment and Cultural Production (25 minutes)
  • Students will choose from the following assessment options to answer the essential question: What was the impact of French colonization on Cambodia?
    • Option 1: Write an individual reflection, citing specific examples from the video clip and reading.
    • Option 2: Create a drawing that symbolizes the impact of French colonization on Cambodia. 

Students will choose from the following assessment options to answer the essential question: What was the impact of French colonization on Cambodia? 

  • Option 1: Write an individual reflection, citing specific examples from the video clip and reading. 
  • Option 2: Create a drawing that symbolizes the impact of French colonization on Cambodia.

Engagement: Consider the following method to support with lesson engagement:

  • Create cooperative learning groups with clear goals, roles, and responsibilities

Representation: Consider the following method to support with multiple means of representation:

  • Bridge concepts with relevant analogies and metaphors

Action and Expression: Consider the following method to support in presenting their learning in multiple ways:

  • Embed prompts to stop and think before acting as well as adequate space

For additional ideas to support your students, check out the UDL Guidelines at CAST (2018) http://udlguidelines.cast.org. 

Emerging: Consider the following method to support with emerging students:

  • Speaking: Assign roles in group work 
    • Students turn to their designated partners to discuss prompts posed by the teacher. Partnerships are organized in teams of two. 

Expanding: Consider the following method to support with expanding students:

  • Speaking: Use varied presentation formats such as role plays
    • Students demonstrate understanding of events or characters through roleplay. In a choreographed tableau, ​a group of models or motionless figures represents a scene from a story or from history, slowly transitioning from one scene to another. When tapped on the shoulder, the posing performer addresses the audience to say who they are or what they’re doing in the tableau. Speaker returns to pose before the performers morph into the next pose. 

Bridging: Consider the following method to support with bridging students:

  • Speaking: Structure conversations requiring various points of view with graphic organizers 
    • In partner and group discussions, students use conversation moves to extend academic talk. Conversation moves help students add to or challenge what a partner says, question, clarify, paraphrase, support thinking with examples, synthesize conversation points, etc

For additional guidance around scaffolding for multilingual learners, please consult the following resources:

 

  1. Students can research and present evidence of French colonialism in Cambodia today. 
  2. Students could research architecture, food, or other cultural influences that are still present in Cambodia today.

Asian American Initiative. 2022. Asian American Studies K-12 Framework.  https://asianamericanresearchinitiative.org/asian-american-studies-curriculum-framework/ 

Britt, K. 2020c, May 11. English learner toolkit of strategies. California County Superintendents. https://cacountysupts.org/english-learner-toolkit-of-strategies/

California Department of Education & English Learner Support Division. 2012. California English Language Development standards (Electronic Edition) kindergarten through grade 12 (F. Ong & J. McLean, Eds.). California Department of Education. https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/el/er/documents/eldstndspublication14.pdf

California Department of Education. 2022. Ethnic studies model curriculum. https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/esmc.asp 

California Educators Together. (n.d.). ELA / ELD framework. https://www.caeducatorstogether.org/resources/6537/ela-eld-framework

Cambodian History | Cambodia Tribunal Monitor. (n.d.). https://cambodiatribunal.org/history/cambodian-history/

CAST. 2018. The UDL guidelines. http://udlguidelines.cast.org

French Conquest of Indochina. 2020, December 14. [Video]. PBS LearningMedia. https://ca.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/de4fb65d-e35f-4118-9a49-329c1c177fdb/french-conquest-of-indochina/#.XaTAXo4pDq1

San Diego County Office of Education. (n.d.). Providing appropriate scaffolding. https://www.sdcoe.net/educators/multilingual-education-and-global-achievement/oracy-toolkit/providing-appropriate-scaffolding#scaffolding

Sexias, P. & Morton, T. 2013. The big six: Historical thinking concepts. Nelson Education.

Tulare County Office of Education. (n.d.). Strategies for ELD. https://commoncore.tcoe.org/Content/Public/doc/Alpha-CollectionofELDStrategies.pdf 

Model Curriculum

Cambodian American Studies

Standard(s)

HSS 10.4.1 RL.9-10.4 W.9-10.2

Grade(s)

Grade 10