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In 1975-1979 the Khmer Rouge was responsible for the Cambodian Genocide, infamously nicknamed “The Killing Fields”, which was responsible for the lives of millions of their own people. The Khmer Rouge had economic goals similar to Mao Zedong’s peasant-driven industrialization. What was the most effective state-building strategies the Khmer Rouge used to achieve against Cambodian inhabitants living in Cambodia to fulfill the Khmer Rouge’s economic communist utopian society?

The following event that took place in 1975-1979 was an event in which Cambodian political leaders attempting to use radical methods to alter the society and economy of Cambodia. Led by Pol Pot the Khmer Rouge attempted many state-building strategies to achieve his ideal sovereign communist utopian society. Some strategies were transforming secondary school into torture camps, bizarre methods of phycological and physical torture, relocation of city dwellers to the country side (ultimately caused starvation), and rights and responsibilities stripped from Cambodian inhabitants. 

Although the Cambodian Genocide was the result of 1.7 million deaths, the philosophy of Khmer Rouge leaders is interesting, the event allows the reader to see the perception of society many Khmer Rouge leaders had. This event was devastating and still shape Cambodia today.