Sri Lanka History

In the Beginning
(5th or 6th century BC - 4th century BC)

The earliest accounts of Sri Lanka dates back to around the fifth century before Christ according to the Mahavansa - The earliest recorded manuscript. It was during this period that people started arriving from northern India and started colonising the island. They eventually replaced the indigenous people called the Veddhas. During this period, Sri Lanka was called Ceylon or the land of Sinhala's.

Around 540BC, the exiled prince Vijaya arrived with 700 of his loyal followers arrived in the island. he conquered all three tribes of the Veddhas. This explains the common roots of both Tamil and Sinhala.

Anuradhapura
(400 BC - 1000 AD)

The Singhalese people first developed in the dry, north plain region and then took root across the island to the west and the south during the 4th century BC. The strongest Singhalese group in this period was the Singhalese kingdom of Anuradhapura in the north.

In the 3rd century BC, Arahat Mahinda, the son of Ashoka Mauryan emperor of India, introduced Buddhism to the people of Anuradhapura. He convinced the Anuradhapura king and his followers to convert to Buddhism. Following the teaching of Buddhism, Anuradhapura people were getting a strong sense of national purpose and national identity.

For almost 1500 years of Anuradhapura as a center of Singhalese kingdom, Buddhism had flourished the kingdom with cultural greatness and civilization; however, because of its proximity to South India, it suffered from the repeated invasion and takeover of Anuradhapura by South Indian kingdom, which was a major struggle to the state progression.

Between the mid-2nd century BC and the end of 6th century AD, a large part of Sri Lanka came under the rule of an Indian invader whose dynasty called Lambakarna and who paid attention to the development of irrigation. Today, the remnants of the enormous 'Tanks' -- artificial lakes developed for irrigation purposes in the dry regions - that are scattered over the country are the reminders of this period of Sri Lanka history.

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Polonnaruwa
(11th century AD - 13th century AD)

After facing several repeated invasions from South India, at the end of 10th century AD Vijayabahu I decided to abandon Anuradhapura and moved further southeast to established Polonnaruwa, as his capital and it continuously became a capital of the Singhalese over the next two centuries.

After Vijayabahu I, the founder of this kingdom, there were other two great kings in this kingdom, the first king was Parakramabahu I, the Vijayabahu I's successor, who indulged in building his capital and constructing many tanks around the country. During his period, Polonnaruwa and the country achieved its triumph as a civilization center with a genius network of hydraulic engineering -- the construction of water tanks and irrigation canals -- and architectural buildings. However, these constructions had resulted in massive extravagance and probably wore the country out.

Nissanka Malla, also the Parakramabahu I's successor, was the second and the last great king of Polonnaruwa who was followed by a series of weak rulers. During the declining period, the internal conflicts that occurred in the country welcomed several incursions from many parties, from 1247 to 1258, the island suffered from raids from Malay pirates, and in 1411, the Chinese admiral kidnapped a local king, and finally the Indian invasion that arose again in the north region of the island.

By the end of the kingdom, in 16th century, tanks were neglected or destroyed and malaria started to spread out as a result of the decay of the irrigation system. Additionally, the internal divisions and factional quarrels had divided the island into three kingdoms, which were a Tamil kingdom of Jaffna in the north (which originated from south India), the Singhalese kingdom of Kandy in the central highlands and the Kotte kingdom in the southwest, which was the most powerful.

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Portuguese Period
(1505 AD - 1658 AD)

The first Portuguese, Lorenco de Almeida, arrived in Colombo in 1505 AD. He established a friendly relationship with the king of Kotte and gained the monopoly on the spice and cinnamon trade for Portugal.

The original trading relationship later turned in the direction of aiding the king fighting the neighboring kingdoms that threatened the island integrity. Help and protection of the Portuguese soon resulted in Portugal taking over and ruling Kotte and, by 1597 AD, other parts of the island excepted for the areas of the kingdom of Kandy in the central highlands.

As the highlands were remote and inaccessible, the king of Kandy was always able to defeat, and on several occasion, able to drive the Portuguese back to the coast.

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Dutch Colonization
(1658 AD - 1796 AD)

Portuguese rule was at its worst characterized by greed, cruelty, and intolerance. Dutch arrival in Sri Lanka was a result of attempts by the Kandy king to seek for help in expelling the Portuguese from the island. However, the consequence came out was only the substitution of one colonial power to another. By 1658, Dutch took the control over the costal areas of the island.

However, after continual attacks Dutch also unsuccessfully occupied the central highlands areas of Kandy. The Dutch were much more interested in trade and profits than the Portuguese, who were more focused on spreading their religion and extending physical control, the island was then turned into a stopping point in their trading routes with the Far East, China, India and Japan.

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British Ruling
(1796 AD - 1915 AD)

The arrival of British in 1796 resulted in expelling Dutch out of the country and in 1815, the British who managed to conquer the kingdom of Kandy became the first European power that ruled the entire island. Kandy was then established as a capital of British Rule and the unified administration for the island was set up in 1818.

The British took over control of Singhalese people and the change in property laws in 1832 benefited British settlers to also take over most of land ownerships from Sri Lankans. In India as well, the British changed the whole structure of the country and abolished slavery.

Network of roads and railways were built to handle the economic activities following the growth of the plantation industry, together with modern communication systems and western medical services. English became the national language, which lead to the enhancement of education system.

Coffee was the main crop and the backbone of the country economy but the epidemic during 1870s that affected the coffee crop forced the plantation owners to switch to tea. At the same time, rubber was introduced as a main crop in the island. The growth of plantation industry required British to import Tamil labors from South India to substitute Singhalese who were unwilling to work for such low wages. Because of the increased Tamil migration, the hill-country Singhalese lost their land to the newcomers and this was the beginning of the continual conflicts between Tamil and Singhalese, which lead to occasional outbreak of violence over a long period until today.

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Independence
(1915 AD - 1948 AD)

The demand for country independence arose subsequent to the independence of India after WWI. Sri Lanka was only involved in the WWI as a part of the British Empire. However, Allies' wartime propaganda about the virtue of freedom and self-determination of nations, heard and noted by Sri Lanka nationalist, had sparked off the growth of nationalism in Sri Lanka. In 1915, the British misconstrued the communal riot and uprising that broke out in the west coast as antigovernment conspiracy and consequently put it down with brutal forces. This was considered the turning point in the nationalist movement in Sri Lanka.

Learning that, in 1917, the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League in India had joined for more nationalist progression, two years later, in 1919, the major Singhalese and Tamil political organization in Sri Lanka united to form the Ceylon National Congress, which proposed for a new constitution that was then written in 1920. The constitution was amended in 1924, which resulted in increasing Sri Lankan representations. However, as the changed constitution failed to provide qualified representative persons for government, in 1931, further constitutional changes were implemented providing Sri Lankan a practice of self-government and allowing Singhalese and Tamil's to further extend their influence in government.

During WWII, Sri Lanka became a central base for British operations in Southeast Asia after felling of Singapore to the Japanese in February 1942. In this time, Sri Lanka was not only the base for warfare operations but it was also the supplier for essential products for Allies especially rubber enabling the country to save a surplus in a hard currency. As its role of a seat of the Southeast Asia command, a broad infrastructure of health services and modern amenities was built to accommodate the large number of troops posted into all parts of the country. The inherited infrastructure improved the standard of living in the postwar.

Relationships between British and Sri Lanka that were maintained since WWII influenced British to eventually promise the full participatory government after the war. British negotiated the island's dominion status with the Vice Chairman of the Board of Ministers, Don Stephen Senanayake, who also the founder and the leader of the United Nation Party (UNP). The negotiation ended with the Ceylon Independence Act of 1947 which formalized the transfer of power which was later implemented as a new constitution (and making Sri Lanka a dominion) on 4 February 1948.

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