Climate change caused the fall of the Khmer Empire

Cyclical warming led to a 3 decade long drought. El Nino, the cyclical warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean, was theorized by researchers from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York to be a very important role on shutting down the rains in Cambodia during the reign of the Khmer Empire. Which therefore lead to the drought. A study author from the same observatory as the researchers names Brendan Buckley stated, “I wouldn’t say climate change caused the collapse, but a 30-year drought had to have an impact.”. Supporting his statement, tree rings in Cambodia which have been studies proved that there was a mega-drought lasting three decades, followed by another short drought, although still as a effective for about 20 years. The shorter drought was right before the empire collapsed.

Intense flooding caused damage to Cambodia’s agriculture systems. Researchers, alongside discovering the mega-drought, have found evidence that intense rainy season may also have caused the fall of the Khmer. …show more content…
When the ancient city of Khmer was still alive, they relied on fish and rice to feed themselves. They created a sort of system called Hydraulic society to control the water supply from the rain. They did this because rice was very important in the expansion and maintenance of the Khmer empire. They created dams and canals to collect water during the raining seasons. During dry seasons, it was difficult because they relied on the storage they had. When you look at how long the drought was and how heavy the rains were during monsoon seasons you can see that either way the crops would not have been able to survive. Therefore creating a huge shortage of food for the Khmer empire."The droughts could have led to crop failure and a rise in infectious disease, and both problems would have been exacerbated by the density of the population” Buckley