The only time a country tried to completely abolish money

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]Today I'm going to tell you about a dark and tragic piece of history and it didn't even happen very long ago. This is the story of the only time in history a country ever tried to completely abolish money. The results were horrific, so viewer discretion is advised. It's the story of this country here in Southeast Asia, nestled between Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. This is Cambodia.

[00:00:26]Our story starts with the Vietnam War.

[00:00:29]In the late 1960s, Cambodia was dragged into the chaos even though it tried to stay neutral.

[00:00:37]North Vietnamese forces secretly used Cambodian territory. And in response, the United States launched heavy bombing campaigns which devastated rural areas.

[00:00:47]Villages were destroyed, farmland was ruined, and hundreds of thousands of civilians were displaced or lost their lives. The population was fearful and angry.

[00:00:59]In 1970, a coup led by Lon Null aligned Cambodia more closely with the US, which turned the country into an active war zone. This only worsened the situation.

[00:01:12]But a military insurgency group appeared on the scene who promised change. They were known as the Camair Rouge and they were communists.

[00:01:20]Cam refers to the Cambodian people and culture and rouge is the French word for red, the color of communism. Before we go any further, we'll need to define communism.

[00:01:32]>> Ever hear of Karl Marx? He saw men as divided into two classes, workers and capitalists. In the communist manifesto, he called upon the workers, the proletarians, to rise up and overthrow their capitalistic masters.

[00:01:46]Communism is a political and economic system where everything is owned collectively by the state or the people instead of by individuals. The goal is to create society with no rich or poor.

[00:01:57]A fair society where everyone is equal.

[00:02:00]The Kamar Rouge led by a mysterious figure called Paul Pot took this idea to its absolute extreme. They believed cities, money, education, and even modern technology were corrupt and had to be wiped out to create a pure farming society. They had a utopian notion that they could return to the jungles and the countryside to live a harmonious existence. In 1975, after years of civil war, the Cime Rouge captured Cambodia's capital, Nonpen.

[00:02:31]Initially, crowds were cheering as they rolled in because they thought this meant the war was over.

[00:02:37]But the true horror was only beginning.

[00:02:40]The Cime Rouge emptied entire cities at gunpoint and millions of people were forced to walk into the countryside.

[00:02:47]The very idea of a city was suddenly banned. Hospitals were cleared and sick patients were forced to join the march.

[00:02:55]This was the start of their plan to reset society to what they called year zero.

[00:03:01]Everyone was forced to wear plain black clothing. The idea was to remove signs of wealth, personality or status, so everyone looked the same. Personal possessions were confiscated and the only thing you were allowed to own was a spoon for eating. Banks were abandoned.

[00:03:20]Currency meant nothing and there were no shops or trade at all. The concept of buying itself had been erased. People were made to work extremely long hours in agricultural collectives, often from dawn till night. with little rest and very little food. Many survivors recall eating thin rice soup once or twice a day while doing physically exhausting labor for 12 to 16 hours.

[00:03:46]Language was also tightly controlled.

[00:03:48]Instead of normal names or family roles, people were told to refer to the regime as anka, meaning the organization.

[00:03:57]People avoided using personal names and instead had to refer to each other as comrade. Even parents to the children and children to the parents. Education, books, and expertise were seen as threats rather than strengths. Which is why things like wearing glasses became symbolic of being an enemy. Thousands of people executed just because they wore glasses. Being tired, complaining about food, or even just seeming unenthusiastic about work could get you labeled an enemy. This created a constant sense of paranoia. There was no clear idea between safe and unsafe behavior. Even marriage was controlled by the state. Couples were often paired up by officials in mass ceremonies, sometimes with people they had never met. It's estimated that the Cime Rouge regime resulted in between 1.5 and 3 million people losing their lives or a quarter of the population. Lives were lost due to mass executions, starvation, overwork, and lack of medical care.

[00:05:02]Executions were often carried out with blunt tools to save bullets.

[00:05:07]So why were the Cimeu show brutal? It was largely because his leaders, especially Paul Pot, embraced an unusually extreme and rigid version of revolutionary communism that aimed to completely erase existing society and rebuild Cambodia from year zero. Their ideology combined elements of Marxism with a radical rejection of urban life, foreign influence, and intellectual culture. Their beliefs were shaped in part by anti-colonial resentment and the stabilizing effects of war in the region. After decades of chaos, they believed that only a pure self-sufficient farming society of peasants could be truly equal. Their worldview left no room for compromise or gradual change. It encouraged the idea that violence was not only justified but necessary in order to cleanse society.

[00:06:01]At the same time, the leip became intensely paranoid, convinced that hidden traitors and foreign agents were everywhere, which led to constant purges, torture, and executions. If one person was accused of being an enemy of the regime, their relatives were also detained and killed to prevent future revenge. The combination of utopianism, ideology, and fear created a system where mass suffering was seen as an acceptable tool for achieving the utopian vision. The story of the Chimera Rouge serves as a cautary tale about the dangers of communism. At first, communism can sound like a good idea, a world where everyone is equal, where no one is rich and no one is poor. But the problem isn't the idea, it's how it works in reality. In order to make everyone equal, a communist system has to take control of everything. Land, businesses, money, jobs, all of it. And if the government controls everything, then it also controls everyone. Because if the state decides where you work, what you eat, and where you live, you don't really have freedom anymore.

[00:07:11]That's where things start to go wrong.

[00:07:14]To keep control, they have to limit freedom. To enforce equality, they have to use power and stay in charge. They often have to rule through fear. In a free society, people can make their own choices. They can start businesses, earn money, own property, and speak out if they disagree with the government. But in a communist system, disagreement is seen as a threat. The Kim Rouge is one of the most extreme examples of this.

[00:07:39]They believed they were creating a perfect society, but to get there, they had to eliminate anything that didn't fit their vision. The Cime Rouge were removed from power in 1979 when Vietnamese forces invaded Cambodia and overthrew their governments. The Vietnamese army captured the capital Non Pen, forcing the Cime Rouge leadership to flee, but remnants of the Cime Rouge continued operating as a guerilla movement in remote areas for many years after. Paul Pot survived and was last interviewed on camera as late as April 1997.

[00:08:15]He died in 1998. Their legacy still shapes Cambodia today with lasting impacts on the country's population, economy, and collective memory. You can watch his video to the left of me if you want to understand more about capitalism, communism, and the systems that might come to replace them in the near future. Thanks for watching. See you on the next one.