The first
Sinhalese arrived in Sri Lanka late in the 6th century
B.C. probably from northern India. Buddhism was
introduced in about the mid-third century B.C., and a
great civilization developed at the cities of
Anuradhapura (kingdom from circa 200 B.C. to circa
A.D. 1000) and Polonnaruwa (from about 1070 to 1200).
In the 14th century, a south Indian dynasty
established a Tamil kingdom in northern Sri Lanka. The
coastal areas of the island were controlled by the
Portuguese in the 16th century and by the Dutch in the
17th century. The island was ceded to the British in
1796, became a crown colony in 1802, and was united
under British rule by 1815. As Ceylon, it became
independent in 1948; its name was changed to Sri Lanka
in 1972. Tensions between the Sinhalese majority and
Tamil separatists erupted into war in 1983. After two
decades of fighting, the government and Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) formalized a cease-fire
in February 2002 with Norway brokering peace
negotiations. Violence between the LTTE and government
forces intensified in 2006 and the government regained
control of the Eastern Province in 2007. In May 2009,
the government announced that its military had finally
defeated the remnants of the LTTE and that its leader,
Velupillai PRABHAKARAN, had been killed.
Paleolithic
human settlements have been discovered at excavations
in several cave sites in the Western Plains region and
the South-western face of the Central Hills region.
Anthropologists believe that some discovered burial
rites and certain decorative artefacts exhibit
similarities between the first inhabitants of the
island and the early inhabitants of Southern India.
One of
the first written references to the island is found in
the Indian epic Ramayana, which described the emperor
Ravana as monarch of the powerful kingdom of Lanka,
which was created by the divine sculptor Vishwakarma
for Kubera, the treasurer of the Gods. English
historian James Emerson Tennent also theorised Galle,
a southern city in Sri Lanka, was the ancient seaport
of Tarshish from which King Solomon is said to have
drawn ivory, peacocks and other valuables. The main
written accounts of the country's history are the
Buddhist chronicles of Mahavansa and Dipavamsa.
The
earliest-known inhabitants of the island now known as
Sri Lanka were probably the ancestors of the
Wanniyala-Aetto people, also known as Veddahs and
numbering roughly 3,000. Linguistic analysis has found
a correlation of the Sinhalese language with the
languages of the Sindh and Gujarat, although most
historians believe that the Sinhala community emerged
well after the assimilation of various ethnic groups.
From
the ancient period date some remarkable archaeological
sites including the ruins of Sigiriya, the so-called
"Fortress in the Sky", and huge public
works. Among the latter are large "tanks" or
reservoirs, important for conserving water in a
climate that alternates rainy seasons with dry times,
and elaborate aqueducts, some with a slope as finely
calibrated as one inch to the mile. Ancient Sri Lanka
was also the first in the world to have established a
dedicated hospital in Mihintale in the 4th century
BCE. Ancient Sri Lanka was also the world's leading
exporter of cinnamon, which was exported to Egypt as
early as 1400 BCE. Sri Lanka was also the first Asian
nation to have a female ruler in Queen Anula (47–42
BC).
Ancient
Sri Lanka
Since
ancient times Sri Lanka was ruled by monarchs, most
notably of the Sinha royal dynasties that lasted over
2000 years. The island was invaded by South Indian
kingdoms on a few occasions and parts of the island
were ruled briefly by the Chola dynasty, the Pandya
dynasty, the Chera dynasty and the Pallava dynasty.
There had been incursions by the kingdoms of Kalinga
(modern Orissa) and some from the Malay Peninsula.
Buddhism
arrived from India in the 3rd century BCE, brought by
Bhikkhu Mahinda, who is believed to have been the son
of Mauryan Emperor Ashoka. Mahinda's mission won over
the Sinhalese monarch Devanampiyatissa of Mihintale,
who embraced the faith and propagated it throughout
the Sinhalese population. The Buddhist kingdoms of Sri
Lanka would maintain a large number of Buddhist
schools and monasteries, and support the propagation
of Buddhism into Southeast Asia.
Colonial
era
Sri
Lanka had always been an important port and trading
post in the ancient world, and was increasingly
frequented by merchant ships from the Middle East,
Persia, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and other
parts of Southeast Asia. The islands were known to the
first European explorers of South Asia and settled by
many groups of Arab and Malay merchants.
A
Portuguese colonial mission arrived on the island in
1505 headed by Lourenço de Almeida, the son of
Francisco de Almeida. At that point the island
consisted of three kingdoms, namely Kandy in the
central hills, Kotte at the Western coast, and
Yarlpanam (Anglicised Jaffna) in the north. The Dutch
arrived in the 17th century. Although much of the
coastal regions of the island came under the domain of
European powers, the interior, hilly region of the
island remained independent, with its capital in
Kandy.
The
British East India Company took over the coastal
regions island controlled by the Dutch in 1796, in
1802 these provinces were declaring a crown colony
under direct rule of the British government, therefore
the island was not part of the British Raj. The
annexation of the Kingdom of Kandy in 1815 by the
Kandyan convention, unified the island under British
rule.
European
colonists established a series of cinnamon, sugar,
coffee, indigo cultivation followed by tea and rubber
plantations and graphite mining. The British also
brought a large number of indentured workers from
Tamil Nadu to work in the plantation economy. The city
of Colombo was developed as the administrative centre
and commercial heart with its harbor, and the British
established modern schools, colleges, roads and
churches that brought Western-style education and
culture to the native people.
Increasing
grievances over the denial of civil rights,
mistreatment and abuse of natives by colonial
authorities gave rise to a struggle for independence
in the 1930s, when the youth leagues opposed the
"Ministers' Memorandum," which asked the
colonial authority to increase the powers of the board
of ministers without granting popular representation
or civil freedoms. Buddhist scholars and the
Teetotalist Movement also played a vital role in this
time.
During
World War II, the island served as an important Allied
military base. A large segment of the British and
American fleet were deployed on the island, as were
tens of thousands of soldiers committed to the war
against Japan in Southeast Asia. Majority of Ceylonese
forget the war as part of British Commonwealth Forces,
and some Ceylonese expatriates in the Far east joined
to form a Lanka Regiment in the Indian National Army.
There was a plan to transport them to Ceylon by
submarine, to lead a liberation struggle there, but
this was aborted.
Independence
Following
the war, popular pressure for independence
intensified. The office of Prime Minister of Ceylon
was created in advance of independence on 14 October
1947, Don Stephen Senanayake being the first prime
minister. On 4 February 1948 the country gained its
independence as the Dominion of Ceylon. The island
enjoyed good relations with the United Kingdom and had
the British Royal Navy stationed at Trincomalee until
1956. With Solomon Bandaranaike elected as prime
minister, Ceylon began moving towards links with the
communist bloc.
On 21
July 1960 Sirimavo Bandaranaike took office as prime
minister, and became the world's first female prime
minister and the first female head of government in
post-colonial Asia. During her second term as prime
minister, her government instituted socialist economic
polices and strengthened ties with the USSR and later
China, while promoting a policy of non-alignment.
However in 1971, Ceylon experienced a Marxist
insurrection, which was quickly suppressed with
international support. In 1972, with the adaptation of
a new constitution, the country became a republic
changing its name to Sri Lanka and remained a member
of the Commonwealth of Nations.
Civil
war
Main
article: Sri Lankan Civil War
One of
the aspects of the independence movement was that it
was very much a Sinhalese movement. As a result, the
Sinhalese majority attempted to remodel Sri Lanka as a
Sinhalese nation-state. The lion in the national flag
is derived from the banner of the last Sinhalese
Kingdom, which, to the Sinhalese majority, is a symbol
of their fight against British colonialism. One single
strip of orange on the left part of the flag
represents the Tamil population, and it is seen by
many Tamil as a symbol of their marginalisation.
In
1956, the Official Language Act (commonly referred to
as The Sinhala Only Act) was enacted. The law mandated
Sinhala, the language of Sri Lanka's majority
Sinhalese community, which is spoken by over 70% of
Sri Lanka's population, as the sole official language
of Sri Lanka. Supporters of the law saw it as an
attempt by a community that had just gained
independence to distance themselves from their
colonial masters.
The
immediate (and intended) consequence of
this act was to force large numbers of Tamil who
worked in the civil service, and who could not meet
this language requirement, to resign. An attempt to
make Buddhism the national religion, to the exclusion
of Hindu and Islam, was also made. Affirmative action
in favour of Sinhalese was also instituted, ostensibly
to reverse colonial discrimination against Sinhalese
in favour of Tamil. Many Tamil, in response to this
deliberate marginalisation, came to believe that they
deserved a separate nation-state for themselves.
From
1983 to 2009, there was an on-and-off civil war
against the government by the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a separatist militant organisation
who fought to create an independent state named Tamil
Eelam in the North and East of the island. Both the
Sri Lankan government and LTTE have been accused of
various human rights violations.
On 19
May 2009, the President of Sri Lanka officially
claimed an end to the insurgency and the defeat of the
LTTE, following the death of Velupillai Prabhakaran
and much of the LTTE's other senior leadership.
Post
War
With
the end of the war, the government of Sri Lanka called
for redevelopment of the nation. The final stages of
the war left some 300,000 people displaced. By 2 May
2010, 214,227 IDPs (74%) had been released or returned
to their places of origin.