Sri Lanka (National Flag)
The flag was officially adopted in 1978, but was first hoisted in 1948. The
foundation is the country's centuries-old lion flag, which belonged to the last
Sinhalese king of Kandy, who according to legend descended from a lion. The
sword is the symbol of authority. In 1951, the green and orange stripe was added
for the island's minorities, respectively. Muslims and Hindus (Tamils). In 1972,
the small corner figures were transformed into leaves from the pen tree, a
Buddhist symbol.
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Sri Lanka (Prehistory)
According to a2zgov, Sri Lanka has been landlocked with India several times during the ice ages
and may therefore have been inhabited 300,000, perhaps 500,000 years ago. Finds
of quartz gear in the coastal sand deposits at the Bundala are today sure
evidence of settlement 130,000 years ago. From approximately 34,000 years before now,
the archaeological knowledge is more coherent, and from this time there are
finds of skeletons of Homo sapiens from Fa Hien Lena. Skeletons from
Batadomba-lena (approximately 16,000 BC) show unequivocal kinship with the present-day
Vedda indigenous groups. They lived as hunters and gatherers, and their tools
were geometrically chopped microliters of quartz as well as utensils of bones and
thanks. This culture continued unchanged until new populations of horses and
cattle, tools of iron, pottery and agriculture immigrated from southern India
around 1000 BC. From 500-tfKr. it has been shown that they spoke Indo-Aryan.
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Sri Lanka (History)
Sri Lanka (History), Early History
Immigrant Sinhalese brought Buddhism to Sri Lanka from India, and from 200
BC. began a migration of Hindu Tamils from southern India, which, however,
only after 900-teKr. became extensive. In the dry zone of the island to the
north and east and in the central region developed from the 1st century BC. a
society based on highly sophisticated irrigation systems for rice
cultivation. With center in Anuradhapura and later from 1000-t. in Polonnaruva a
kingdom was established that ruled over large parts of the island. The rich
agriculture in the north was attractive for invasions from South India; most of
the island was in most of 1000-t. a province of the Chola dynasty. Conflicts,
dynastic strife and invasions destroyed from the 1200's to the 1600's. the
irrigation civilization.

Kingdoms and colonial rule
On the Jaffna Peninsula, a Tamil kingdom emerged, and Sinhalese kingdoms were
established around the central area of Kandy as well as in the wetland region
of the SW; the latter was based on agriculture and the trade in spices. The
political instability enabled the Europeans to gain a foothold on the
island. From the early 1500's. the Portuguese acquired trade bases, and in the
early 1600-t. they gained control of most of the coastal areas; only the Kingdom
of Kandy in the central and eastern region managed to retain its
independence. As early as 1658, however, the Portuguese were driven out by the
Dutch, who were again driven out by the British from 1795 as an offshoot of the
Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Europeans monopolized the lucrative export of
spices, especially cinnamon, leaving behind a number of cultural elements; most
important was Catholicism. In 1802 the island became a British crown colony, and
when in 1815 they gained control of the Kandy Kingdom and in 1817-18 had
suppressed a major uprising, a political unit for the whole island was
established for the first time. The colonial rule brought about significant
changes in the economic, social and political life of the island. Coffee became
the main agricultural production, and when a disease destroyed the coffee bushes
in the 1870's, production was quickly replaced by tea, rubber and coconut. Rice
production fell and food had to be imported. The labor of the plantations was
recruited by the British in South India, and thus a new population group of
Tamils ("Indian Tamils") emerged. At the same time, a new Sri Lankan elite
developed, involved in the new capitalist economy and further benefiting from
the possibility of Western education. A growing, moderate nationalism, which
also included the growing working class, led in 1931 to far-reaching political
reforms. On the basis of the Donoughmore Commission's recommendations, a degree
of autonomy was introduced, and for the first time in a non-white colony,
universal suffrage was introduced. The period until independence was a
transitional phase with increased political activity and the beginning of a
welfare policy. Under the leadership of the Minister of Agriculture DS Senanayake, a peaceful transfer of power took place in the years
after 1945, which was finally concluded with independence on 4.2.1948. The
country became a republic in 1972.
Presidents and Prime Ministers |
presidents Sort |
1972-78 |
William Gopallawa |
1978-89 |
Junius Richard Jayawardene |
1989-93 |
Ranasinghe Premadasa |
1993-94 |
Dingiri Banda Wijetunga |
1994-2005 |
Chandrika Kumaratunga |
2005-15 |
Mahinda Rajapaksa |
2015- |
Maithripala Sirisena |
Prime Minister |
1947-52 |
Don Stephen Senanayake |
1952-53 |
Dudley Shelton Senanayake |
1953-56 |
John Lionel Kotelawela |
1956-59 |
Solomon Bandaranaike |
1959-60 |
Wijeyananda Dahanayake |
1960 |
Dudley Shelton Senanayake |
1960-65 |
Sirimavo Bandaranaike |
1965-70 |
Dudley Shelton Senanayake |
1970-77 |
Sirimavo Bandaranaike |
1977-78 |
Junius Richard Jayawardene |
1978-89 |
Ranasinghe Premadasa |
1989-93 |
Dingiri Banda Wijetunga |
1993-94 |
Ranil Wickremasinghe |
1994 |
Chandrika Kumaratunga |
1994-2000 |
Sirimavo Bandaranaike |
2000-01 |
Ratnasiri Wickremanayake |
2001-04 |
Ranil Wickremasinghe |
2004-05 |
Mahinda Rajapaksa |
2005-10 |
Ratnasiri Wickremanayake |
2010-15 |
Dissanayake Mudiyanselage Jayaratne |
2015- |
Ranil Wickremesinghe |
Independence
For the first 30 years after independence, Sri Lanka boasted an unusual
development for the Third World with social welfare and a well-functioning
democracy with changing right-wing and left-wing governments, especially the
moderate right-wing United National Party and the left-wing Sri Lanka Freedom
Party. by power. But ethnic and religious tensions have been simmering all
along. Sri Lankan nationalism was largely based on the culture of the
Sinhalese-Buddhist majority, and over time, political leaders have increasingly
relied on a nationalist policy that has gone beyond the Sri Lankan and Indian
Hindu Tamils. In 1948, Tamils of Indian descent were deprived of their civil
rights, and attempts were made to send them back to India, despite the fact that
many were born and raised on the island.Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ' The
Tamil Tigers ') and repeated anti-Tamil riots, the worst of which took place in
1983. A bloody civil war ensued and has since marked public life. The Indian
government sought for a period to mediate and deployed 1987-90 troops on the
island. Nationalist policies were also reflected in the change of official name
of the state, in constitutional reforms that turned away from the British model,
and in nationalizations. In the 1990's, economic reforms and liberalizations were
implemented, and the economy grew.
A constitutional reform to provide greater autonomy for Tamil territories was
provisionally shelved in 2001. Following Norwegian mediation, a ceasefire
agreement was reached in 2002, which neither party complied with. In 2005,
former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa becameelected president on a program not
to make concessions to the Tamil Tigers. The fighting between the government
forces and the LTTE has flared up since 2006, with attacks close to the
civilian airport and against tourist destinations. From 2007, the Army launched
an offensive against LTTE bases in eastern Sri Lanka. A minister was killed by a
roadside bomb in 2008 and subsequently the government formally withdrew from the
ceasefire agreement. After fierce fighting, in May 2009 the Sri Lankan army
succeeded in defeating the LTTE and killing the leadership of the movement. The
fighting resulted in high civilian casualties. It is estimated that up to 70,000
were killed during the Civil War. Both the Tamil Tigers and government forces
have been criticized for gross human rights violations; However, the Sri Lankan
government rejects all allegations.
Sri Lanka was hit hard by the December 2004 tsunami disaster, which left
more than 30,000 dead and devastated.
The Civil War and the tsunami disaster put a damper on the development of the
tourism industry, but after the end of the war and an extensive reconstruction
effort, the country is once again a popular travel destination. Mahinda
Rajapaksa was re-elected in 2010 and a constitutional amendment has allowed him
to re-elect an unlimited number of times. However, Rajapaka's authoritarian
style led his former party colleague Maithripala Sirisena to challenge him as an
opposition candidate in the 2015 election. Sirisena surprisingly won the January
2015 election.
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