ns again only in 1340
when the Annals of Camboja take up the history. They are not of great
value. The custom of recording all events of importance prevailed at
the Cambojan Court in earlier times but these chronicles were lost in
the eighteenth century. King Ang Chan (1796-1834) ordered that they
should be re-written with the aid of the Siamese chronicles and such
other materials as were available and fixed 1340 as the point of
departure, apparently because the Siamese chronicles start from that
date.[268] Although the period of the annals offers little but a
narrative of dissensions at home and abroad, of the interference of
Annam on one side and of Siam on the other, yet it does not seem that
the sudden cessation of inscriptions and of the ancient style of
architecture in the thirteenth century was due to the collapse of
Camboja, for even in the sixteenth century it offered a valiant, and
often successful, resistance to aggressions from the west. But Angkor
Thom and the principal monuments were situated near the Siamese
frontier and felt the shock of every collision. The sense of security,
essential for the construction of great architectural works, had
disappeared and the population became less submissive and less willing
to supply forced labour without which such monuments could not be
erected.

The Siamese captured Angkor Thom in 1313, 1351 and 1420 but did not on
any occasion hold it for long. Again in 1473 they occupied Chantaboun,
Korat and Angkor but had to retire and conclude peace. King Ang Chan I
successfully disputed the right of Siam to treat him as a vassal and
established his capital at Lovek, which he fortified and ornamented.
He reigned from 1505 to 1555 and both he and his son, Barom Racha,
seem entitled to rank among the great kings of Camboja. But the
situation was clearly precarious and when a minor succeeded to the
throne in 1574 the Siamese seized the opportunity and recaptured Lovek
and Chantaboun. Though this capture was the death blow to the power of
the Khmers, the kingdom of Camboja did not cease to exist but for
nearly three centuries continued to have an eventful but uninteresting
history as the vassal of Siam or Annam or even of both,[269] until
in the middle of the nineteenth century the intervention of France
substituted a European Protectorate for these Asiatic rivalries.

The provinces of Siem-reap and Battambang, in which Angkor Thom and
the principal ancient monuments are situate