LESSON 8.11 Inquiry: Contested histories
LEARNING INTENTION By the end of this lesson you should be able to describe different perspectives and interpretations of the past.
Investigating the role of climate change in the fall of Angkor Did climate change contribute to Angkor’s fall? Today we know a lot about climate change because we live in a time when human-caused climate change is threatening to make much of our planet uninhabitable. One hypothesis suggests that a different kind of climate change may have caused a shortage of water in the Khmer Empire during the ‘Little Ice Age’ of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. As we have seen in lesson 8.9, several factors could have contributed to Angkor’s weakening from the mid-thirteenth century. These include the formation of the Tai Kingdom of Sukhothai in 1238, conflict within the Khmer royal family, religious changes leading to the introduction of Theravada Buddhism under King Srindravarman (1295–1309), environmental damage due to over-clearing, further Tai attacks by the Kingdom of Ayutthaya, and prolonged droughts and floods during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, leading to the abandonment of Angkor following the Tai sacking of the city in 1431. Your task is to investigate the part played by climate change. Reading SOURCE2 and others you can find through research will enable you to compare some different judgements that have been made. You can use the internet and your library to find relevant secondary sources.
SOURCE1 This was once a part of a large water reservoir at Angkor Wat.
Jacaranda Humanities Alive 8 Victorian Curriculum Third Edition
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