Kâmpóng Saôm

Kampong Saom belonged to the Cambodian Gulf coast, a district connected with Kampot, Peam and the maritime world around Ha Tien. Its early modern history concerns this coastal province and its governors, rather than the much later modern port city. Cambodian and neighbouring chronicles place it within the political struggles that followed the fall of Ayutthaya in 1767.

One Cambodian account describes the governor of Kampong Som joining leaders from Peam, Treang, Banteay Meas and Kampot in a 1770 campaign toward Trat and Chanthaburi. The sources differ over the course and success of these operations, so a single triumphant narrative is unreliable. In late 1771 Taksin led a Siamese naval expedition against Ha Tien and Cambodia; a Cambodian chronicle records orders sending Phraya Kosa Thibodi toward Kampong Som and Kampot. These episodes show the coast's place in regional mobilisation and warfare, where provincial authorities, fleets and competing courts linked sheltered coastal districts to conflicts around the Gulf.