In 1900, a Khmer king’s son arrived in Paris under the pretext of visiting the Universal Exposition. His real mission: to expose the abuses of French colonization in Cambodia. The Yukanthor affair was about to shake the French Republic.

The remarkable work of Im Monychenda, a historian graduated from the eighteenth promotion of the Royal University of Phnom Penh, allows us to understand how difficult it has been for Cambodian officials to agree on a decentralization system that could function properly in the country.