French protectorate and Norodom's capital at Phnom Penh

Squeezed between Siam and Vietnam, King Norodom accepted a French protectorate in 1863, and in 1866 moved his court from Oudong to Phnom Penh, where a new Royal Palace rose beside the river. Under French rule the town became a colonial capital of boulevards, a post office square and, in the 1930s, the domed Central Market. The monarchy survived, but real power lay with French officials until 1953.