Continuing on with #GlobeFacts on the theme of changing names.. while we look at North & Central America we are actually talking... Ceylon to Sri Lanka (1972).
Ceylon was a European colonial name bestowed upon the island nation by the Portuguese in 1505 and carried over by the British Empire who “owned” Ceylon until 1948. The name was finally changed in 1972 to shed the colonial connection, a not uncommon sentiment by former colonies.
Before the beginning of the Dutch governance, the island of Ceylon was divided between the Portuguese Empire and the Kingdom of Kandy, who were in the midst of a war for control of the island as a whole. The island attracted the attention of the newly formed Dutch Republic when they were invited by the Sinhalese King to fight the Portuguese. Dutch rule over much of the island was soon imposed.
In the late 18th century the Dutch, weakened by their wars against Great Britain, were conquered by Napoleonic France, and their leaders became refugees in London.
No longer able to govern their part of the island effectively, the Dutch transferred the rule of it to the British, although this was against the wishes of the Dutch residing there.
As soon as Great Britain gained the European-controlled parts of Ceylon from the Dutch, they wanted to expand their new sphere of influence by making the native Kingdom of Kandy a protectorate, an offer initially refused by the King of Kandy.
Although the previous Dutch administration had not been powerful enough to threaten the reign of the Kandyan Kings, the British were much more powerful.
The Kandyan refusal to accept a protectorate led eventually to war, which ended with the capitulation of the Kandyans.
Sri Lanka's documented history spans 3,000 years, with evidence of pre-historic human settlements dating back to at least 125,000 years.
In 1972, its formal name was changed to "Free, Sovereign and Independent Republic of Sri Lanka". Later in 1978 it was changed to the "Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka".
Its recent history has been marred by a thirty-year civil war.
#SriLankaFacts via Wikipedia. Globe 23cm in Prussian Blue | www.bellerbyandco.com
