History of ceylon
Prehistoric ceylon
Evidence of prehistoric human settlements spans 125,000 years.As well as documented evidence spans 3,000 years of ceylon.The era spans Palaeolithic,Mesolithic and early iron ages.Evidence of this has been found in Pahiyangala, Batadombalena and Belilena.Remains of ancient humans have been found in the caves at those places.These ancient humans are known as the 'Balangoda manawaya'.Vedda people are considered to be their descendants.
Ancient Ceylon
Sinhala culture in ceylon begans with Prince Vijaya who came to ceylon from India.Before that, Yaksha, Naga and Deva tribes lived in ceylon.Even before the arrival of Prince Vijaya, there were relations with India and the culture was associated with South India.It is said that there were advanced arts, iron technologies, pottery, megalithic burals, grafititi etc before the arrivals of prince vijaya.
After prince Vijaya's arrival, Vijaya conquered the kingdom from the yaksha tribe and established the kingdom of Thambapanni.There is also a story about Vijaya taking over the kingship.It is said that he obtained the kingship from a love affair with a young woman named Kuveni.
After that, Prince Vijaya and his entourage and Indians who migrated after the arrival of vijaya to Ceylon further expanded the Indian cultural heritage in ceylon.Also, those Indians settled in Ceylon and established settlements.
After Prince Vijay's death, Vijaya's great grandson King Pandukabhaya established the kingdom of Anuradhapura and ruled In 380 BCE.During the reign of that king, the urban infrastructure of the Anuradhapura Kingdom was developed.
Thus various kings established kingdoms in different cities and during the reign of King Devanampiyatissa, Emperor Ashoka of India took action to spread Buddhism in Ceylon in 250 BCE.Thereafter Buddhism spread vigorously in Sri Lanka and the superstitious beliefs perished.
Sena and Guttika were the first two South indians who invaded Ceylon. Elara ruled for forty four years after invasion ceylon in 205 BCE.and King Dutugemunu defeated Elara and united the island.
About eight times ceylon was invaded by Cholas, Pandyas, Cheras and Pallavas , as well as the kingdoms of Kalinga and the malay peninsula invaded ceylon also.
Thus the kingdom of Anuradhapura lasted for four thousand four hundred years under the invasion of South India, followed by the kingdoms of Polonnaruwa, Dambadeniya, Yapahuwa, Kurunagala, Gampola, Kotte, Seetawaka and Kandy respectively.
Early modern ceylon
The last kingdom of Sri Lanka was Kandy and the last king was King Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe who ruled the Kingdom of Kandy.During the reign of the ceylon monarchy there were occasional Portuguese, Dutch and English invasions.In 1505 the Portuguese came to Ceylon and ruled the coastal areas of Ceylon, attacking the Kingdom of Jaffna and ending its existence.
The Dutch came to Ceylon during the reign of King Rajasinghe II. In 1638 the king signed a treaty with the Dutch to liberate them from the Portuguese.The kingdom of Kandy survived despite the Dutch taking control of various parts of Ceylon.During the napolian wars, fearing that deutch control of the netherlands might deliver ceylon to the french, Great britain occupied the coastal areas of the island that they called as ceylon.
In 1803,Sriwickrama rajasinghe was the king, faced british invasion but successfully retailiated. But on 14 February 1815 kandy was occupied by british in second kandyan war, ending ceylon's independence.
After the takeover, various uprisings erupted in Sri Lanka to regain independence, but were suppressed.The British changed the system of government, the legal system and the political structure of Sri Lanka through various reforms.
Contemporary Sri Lanka
In 1948, Ceylon gained independence from Britain.Subsequently various changes were made by the rulers of Ceylon.
In 1972 ceylon became a independent republic.After that 1978, a new constitution was introduced by president J.R.Jayawardhane together with free market economy. This was the first step for new sri lanka.After that ceylon was called as "Sri lanka".
Thus, Sri Lanka gradually became to the present state after Sri Lankans took full control of the country by new constitution in 1978.
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