The Sinhalese, from northern India, invaded what is now Sri Lanka in the sixth century B.C. and conquered the native Veddas. Buddhism was introduced in the third century B.C. The Sinhalese established a flourishing civilization, erecting huge temples and elaborate irrigation works. The Sinhalese kingdom began to decline in the 1200's A.D. Tamils from southern India settled in the northern part of the island. Arab traders took control of the island's foreign commerce.
The Portuguese, arriving in 1505, wrested the foreign trade from the Arabs and conquered the coastal regions. A Sinhalese kingdom, Kandy, survived in the interior. By 1658 the Dutch had driven out the Portuguese. The British replaced the Dutch in 1796 and conquered Kandy in 1815.
The British developed large tea, coconut, and rubber plantations and brought in more Tamils to work on them. Most local affairs came under control of an elected state council in 1931. Ceylon, as Sri Lanka was then called, gained increasing measures of self-government until it became independent in 1948.
In the years following independence, conflict between the Sinhalese and Tamils became a major problem. Many Tamils—those whom the British had brought in for plantation labor and their descendants—were not granted citizenship. In 1964 India agreed to accept more than 500,000 of these Tamils; almost an equal number remained in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka had the world's first woman prime minister, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, 1960–65 and 1970–77. Under her leadership, a republican constitution was adopted in 1972 and the name Sri Lanka was adopted. She nationalized many industries. Her rule soon became authoritarian, and her policies brought a decline in Sri Lanka's economy.
Bandaranaike's successor, Junius Jayawardene, encouraged private enterprise, and the country prospered. With a new constitution in 1978, he made the country more democratic and granted full citizenship to all Tamils. Some Tamils desired independence and in 1983 began a terrorist campaign against the government. During 1987–90 Indian troops assisted Sri Lankan forces in a campaign against Tamil separatists. Although the campaign destroyed some Tamil strongholds, fighting continued in the 1990's. Sri Lanka's president, Ranasinghe Premadasa, was assassinated by separatists in 1993. In 2002, after almost 20 years of conflict and about 50,000 deaths, the government and Tamil separatists negotiated a cease-fire.
A major tsunami from an Indonesian earthquake in 2004 killed more than 31,000 persons, primarily along the southeastern coast. Sri Lanka was one of the hardest-hit countries.
The following year, violence again erupted between the Sri Lanka troops and Tamil separatists. Since then, there have been numerous violations of the peace agreement between the government and Tamil rebels, and peace talks between the two groups have stalled.
