History of Sri Lanka

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History of Sri Lanka
Chronicles
Dipavamsa Mahavamsa Cūḷavaṃsa Rajavaliya Pujavaliya
Periods
Prehistory Stone Age Bronze Age Iron Age 300,000 BP –543 BC Pre Anuradhapura Indo-Aryan settlement 543–377 BC Anuradhapura Arrival of Buddhism Dutthagamani's campaign Fall of Anuradhapura 377 BC–1017 Polonnaruwa Chola conquest Sinhalese Resistance Invasion of Kalinga Magha 1017–1232 Transitional Vijayabā Kollaya Wars of Kotte Succession Crisis of the Sixteenth Century 1232–1597 Kandy First Kandyan–Dutch war Second Kandyan–Dutch war Kandyan–British wars 1597–1815 British Ceylon Great rebellion Matale rebellion Buddhist revival World War II Independence 1815–1948 Sri Lanka Dominion Republic 1948–present
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The history of Sri Lanka covers Sri Lanka and the history of the Indian subcontinent and its surrounding regions of South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean.

Prehistoric Sri Lanka goes back 125,000 years and possibly even as far back as 500,000 years.^[1] The earliest humans found in Sri Lanka date to Prehistoric times about 35,000 years ago. Little is known about the history before the Indo-Aryan Settlement in the 6th century BC. The earliest documents of the settlement on the Island and its early history are found in the national chronicles of the Mahāvamsa, Dipavamsa, and the Culavamsa.^[2][3]

According to the Mahāvamsa, a chronicle written in Pāḷi, the preceeding inhabitants of Sri Lanka were said to be Yakkhas and Nagas.^[4] Sinhalese history traditionally starts in 543 BC with the arrival of Prince Vijaya, a semi-legendary prince who sailed with 700 followers to the island, after being expelled from the Vanga Kingdom, in present-day Bengal.^[5] Prince Vijaya thereafter established the Sinhala Kingdom ushering in the historical period of Sri Lanka. During the Anuradhapura period (377 BCE–1017) Buddhism was introduced in the 3rd century BCE by Mahinda, son of Indian emperor Ashoka.^[6]

Due to the island's close proximity to Southern India, Dravidian influence on Sri Lankan politics and trade had been very active since the third century BC. Trade relations between the Anuradhapura Kingdom and southern India existed very probably from an early time.^[7][8] South Indian attempts at usurping power of the Anuradhapura Kingdom appears to have been at least motivated by the prospect of influencing the country's lucrative external trade.^[7] From about the fifth century AD onwards, Tamil mercenaries were brought to the island for the service of the Sinahalese monarchs.^[7][9] This would play a small part in the fall of the Anuradhapura Kingdom in the 11th century with the Chola conquest.

Invasion of the Anuradhapura Kingdom by Rajaraja I began in 993 AD when he sent a large army to conquer the kingdom and absorb it into the Chola Empire.^[10] By 1017 most of the island was conquered and incorporated as a province of the vast empire beginning the Polonnaruwa period (1017–1232) of Sri Lanka.^[11][12][13] However the Chola occupation would be overthrown in 1070 through a campaign of Sinhalese Resistance led by Prince Kitti (later Vijayabahu I of Polonnaruwa).^[14] From the 10th century more permanent settlements of Tamils began to appear in Sri Lanka. While not extensive, these settlements formed the nucleus for later settlements around that of Northern Sri Lanka which would later form the Sri Lankan Tamil community of today.^[9]

The Sinhalese Kingdom now located in Polonnaruwa lasted less than two centuries. During its later turbulent stages it was once again invaded from the Indian mainland forcing the Sinhalese to abandon their tranditional center of administration in the North central region of the island and flee south into the mountainous interior. This invasion saw a catastrophic decline in Sinhalese power and began the Transitional period (1232–1597), which was characterised by the succession of capitals followed by the creation of the Jaffna Kingdom as a buffer state by the South Indian Pandyans.

The Crisis of the Sixteenth Century (1521–1597), started with the Vijayabā Kollaya, the division of the Sinhalese Kingdom, now at Kotte. The country was divided among three brothers resulting in a series of Wars of Succession. It was also at this time that the Portuguese intruded into the internal affairs of Sri Lanka, establishing control over the maritime regions of the island and seeking to control its lucrative external trade. The Crisis culminated in the collapse of the short lived but influential Kingdom of Sitawaka, and with Portuguese dominance, if not control by 1597, over two of three kingdoms that had existed at the start of the century, including the Jaffna Kingdom.^[15] The Kingdom of Kandy was the only independent Sinhalese kingdom to survive thus beginning the Kandyan period (1597–1815).^[16]

The Portuguese lost their possessions in Sri Lanka due to Dutch intervention in the Eighty Years' War, and the Dutch too were soon replaced by the British. Following the Kandyan Wars and an internal struggle between the Sinhalese monarch at the time and the Kandyan aristocracy, the island was united for the final time and came under British colonial rule in 1815 beginning the British Ceylon period (1815–1948). Armed resistance against the British took place in the 1818 and the 1848. Native sovereignty was once again archieved when Independence was granted in 1948 as a Dominion of the British Empire. In 1972 Sri Lanka became a Republic. A constitution was introduced in 1978 which created Sri Lanka a unitary semi-presidential constitutional republic. In the 1970s and 80s the country suffered from armed uprisings in 1971 and 1987–89 and a Civil War which lasted 25 years ending in 2009.