Sri Lanka, history
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This article covers the history of Sri Lanka (known as Ceylon before 1972).
Colonizers and settlers
The Anuradhapura Kingdom
The Polonnaruva Kingdom
Fragmentation 1250 to 1600
The crisis of the 16th century
Portuguese rule, 1600-58
Kandyan Kingdom
Struggle for mastery 1680-1766
Trade and agriculture
Dutch rule
English East India Company, 1796-1802
Fall of the Kandyan Kingdom
British rule after 1802
Agriculture: Plantation and peasant, 1800-1910
Education and modernization
Religion and the rise of nationalism, 1870-1900
Political change to 1920
Social and economic modernization to 1929
The Donoughmore Constitution
Transfer of power: 1931-47
Since independence: the dominance of the UNP, 1947-56
Linguistic nationalism 1956-80
Civil war, 1980-present
Bibliography
- Bullion, A.J. India, Sri Lanka and the Tamil Crisis, 1976-94; An International Perspective (1995)
- De Silva, K.M. A History of Sri Lanka (2nd ed. 2005), 800pp; standard history by leading scholar
- Peebles, Patrick. The History of Sri Lanka (2006) standard history by a leading scholar.
- Perera, Nihal. Society and Space: Colonialism, Nationalism, and Postcolonial Identity in Sri Lanka (1998) online edition
- Philips, C. H. Historians of India, Pakistan and Ceylon (1961) online edition
- Spencer, Jonathan, ed. Sri Lanka: History and the Roots of Conflict (1990), essays by scholars; online edition
- Strathern, Alan. "Controversies in Sri Lankan History." History Compass 2004 2(Asia). Issn: 1478-0542 historiography online link
- Strathern, Alan. "Theoretical Approaches to Sri Lankan History and the Early Portuguese Period." Modern Asian Studies 2004 38(1): 191-226. Issn: 0026-749x
- Suckling, Horatio John. Ceylon: A General Description of the Island, Historical, Physical... (1876) full text online
Primary sources
- Ferguson, John. Ceylon in 1893: Describing the Progress of the Island Since 1803 (1893) 491 pages; full text online
Society, ethnicity and culture
- Cartman, James. Hinduism in Ceylon (Colombo: MD. Gunasena 1957)
- Gombrich, Richard F. Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo (1988) online edition
- Jayaweera, Swarna, ed. Women in Post-Independence Sri Lanka. (2002). 371 pp.
- Jayawardena, Kumari. Nobodies to Somebodies: The Rise of the Colonial Bourgeoisie in Sri Lanka. (2002) 412 pp.
- Kearney, R. N. Communalism and language in the Politics of Ceylon (1967)
- Manogaran, Chelvadurai. Ethnic Conflict and Reconciliation in Sri Lanka (1987)
- Manogaran, Chelvadurai, and Bryan Pfaffenberger, eds. The Sri Lankan Tamils: Ethnicity and Identity (1994), 247pp, essays by scholars online edition
- Roberts, Michael. "Tamil Tiger 'Martyrs': Regenerating Divine Potency? Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 2005 28(6): 493-514. Issn: 1057-610x
- Tambiah, S. J. Sri Lanka: Ethnic Fratricide and the
Dismantling of Democracy (1986)
- Wilson, A. Jeyaratnam. The Break-up of Sri Lanka: The Sinhalese-Tamil Conflict (1988)