Battambang,founded in the 11th century, is Cambodia's second-largest city and the capital of Battambang Province. It is the urbanized part of the Battambang District. For centuries it was the main commercial hub of Siam's Eastern Provinces. Those provinces were taken from Siam in 1909 by the French as a 'Protectorate' and, contrary to prior agreements, given to Cambodia in 1953. It is the former capital of Monton Kmer.[2]The city lies in the heart of the Northwest and until the war years was the leading rice-producing province of the country.