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1431 CEReputable source · 2 sourcesWell documented

Ayutthaya Lays Siege to Angkor and Captures the City

The Thai kingdom's forces take the Khmer capital for the final time in 1431

On the timeline · around 1431 CE · Decline, the Fall of Angkor, and the Long TwilightCrisis and the Reign of Jayavarman VIIDecline, the Fall of Angkor, and the Long TwilightAyutthaya Lays Siege to Angkor and Captures the City12501300135014001450150015501600

Quick facts

Attacker
Kingdom of Ayutthaya (Siam)
Year
1431 CE
Conventional empire end date
1431 CE (802-1431 CE, 629 years)

What happened

In 1431, forces from the Thai kingdom of Ayutthaya laid siege to and captured Angkor for the final time, an event World History Encyclopedia and the National Library of Australia both mark as the conventional end date of the Khmer Empire. The siege followed decades of repeated Ayutthayan attacks and destruction, weakened further by raids from the Lan Xang kingdom to the north; trade routes into the capital had already been disrupted before the final assault. With the capital in ruins and food and trade networks broken, much of the population abandoned the city in the aftermath.

Why it matters

1431 is the date historians use to close the Khmer Empire's classical period, not because Khmer civilization ended, a Khmer kingdom continued for centuries afterward, but because Angkor stopped being a functioning imperial capital from this point on.

How we know

The 1431 date comes from Thai chronicle traditions describing the siege, cross-referenced against the archaeological record of the city's abandonment and the near-total absence of Khmer royal inscriptions from Angkor after this period.

Sources

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Part of a timelineThe Khmer Empire28 events · How a trading kingdom on the Mekong became a temple-building empire that vanished into the jungleView all →
Ayutthaya Lays Siege to Angkor and Captures the City · The Khmer Empire · SourcedStory