Sri Lanka history
Early times
The island is settled by colonists from India around 500 BC. The Indian emperor Ashoka (269-232 BC) sends his son Mahinda as a Buddhist missionary. King Tissa is converted.
2nd century AD
King Mahasena refines and expands the vital irrigation system.
12th century
The kingdom experiences its greatest prosperity under Parakramabahu, who makes Polonnaruwa his capital.
16th century
The Portuguese fleet is blown into Colombo harbour in 1505 and courteously received. The Portuguese move in on the island's three kingdoms: Jaffna, Kandy and Kotte (near Colombo). Portugal takes formal control of the island in 1597. Kandy continues to hold out and turns to the Dutch for help.
19th century
The British make the island a Crown Colony in 1802 and call it Ceylon. Despite the British promise to honour Kandy's independence, Kandy falls (1815) and the king is exiled to India. In 1876, entrepreneur Henry Wickham smuggles rubber seeds from the Amazon to London's Kew Gardens to cultivate trees for transplanting in Ceylon. Tamil labourers are brought in from India to help work the coffee and tea plantations.
