Sri Lanka History

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)

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.

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.