Khmer Rouge

High school (ages 12+)
History & Culture

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/khmer-rouge

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the leader?Pol Pot
2. What is the period of rule?April 1975 – January 1979
3. What was the Khmer Rouge and when did they take over Cambodia?The Khmer Rouge was a group that took over Cambodia in April 1975 and tried to change the country into a purely agrarian socialist state.
4. Why did the Khmer Rouge want to change Cambodia so much?They believed that removing all social differences, foreign influence, and even family ties would create a perfect, equal society.

Agrarian Communism: A political ideology advocating for a society based on farming, with collective ownership and state control.
Year Zero: The Khmer Rouge's declaration of a complete break from Cambodia's past to build a new society from scratch.
Genocide: The systematic and deliberate extermination of a national, racial, ethnic, or religious group.
Crimes Against Humanity: Widespread or systematic attacks against a civilian population, such as murder, torture, and enslavement.