A History of Bangladesh

Product Information

Main articles: Electricity sector in Bangladesh, Energy policy of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Power Development Board, Natural gas and petroleum in Bangladesh, and Petrobangla Wind turbines on Kutubdia Island Bangladesh forms the sovereign part of the historic and ethnolinguistic region of Bengal, which was divided during the Partition of India in 1947. [18] The country has a Bengali Muslim majority. Ancient Bengal was known as Gangaridai and was a bastion of pre-Islamic kingdoms. Muslim conquests after 1204 heralded the sultanate and Mughal periods, during which an independent Bengal Sultanate and a wealthy Mughal Bengal transformed the region into an important centre of regional affairs, trade, and diplomacy. After 1757, Bengal's administrative jurisdiction reached its greatest extent under the Bengal Presidency of the British Empire. The creation of Eastern Bengal and Assam in 1905 set a precedent for the emergence of Bangladesh. In 1940, the first Prime Minister of Bengal A. K. Fazlul Huq supported the Lahore Resolution. Before the partition of Bengal, a Bengali sovereign state was first proposed by premier H. S. Suhrawardy. A referendum and the announcement of the Radcliffe Line established the present-day territorial boundary.

Heitzman, James; Worden, Robert, eds. (1989). "The War for Bangladeshi Independence, 1971". Bangladesh: A Country Study. Washington, D.C.: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. pp.30–31.a b c d e "Bangladesh". The World Factbook (2023ed.). Central Intelligence Agency . Retrieved 13 November 2021. (Archived 2021 edition)

Bengal had the highest gross domestic product in British India. [107] Bengal was one of the first regions in Asia to have a railway, which began operating in 1862. [108] The main railway companies in the region were the Eastern Bengal Railway and Assam Bengal Railway. Railways competed with waterborne transport to become one of the main means of transport. [109] Human Development Report 2021/2022" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 8 September 2022. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022 . Retrieved 8 September 2022. In 2008, Bangladeshi female workforce participation stood at 26%. [429] Women dominate blue collar jobs in the Bangladeshi garment industry. Agriculture, social services, healthcare, and education are chosen occupations for Bangladeshi women, while their employment in white collar positions has steadily increased.Diodorus Siculus (1940). The Library of History of Diodorus Siculus. Loeb Classical Library. Vol.II. Translated by Charles Henry Oldfather. Harvard University Press. OCLC 875854910. Geography and Map of Bangladesh". About.com Geography. Archived from the original on 2016-08-11 . Retrieved 2015-09-19. a b c d Karim, Rezaul (10 November 2012). "PM to visit Pakistan to attend D-8 summit". The Daily Star. Mujib presided over a regime that was built around his personality cult. Sycophants and loyalists developed an ideology called Mujibism. Bangladesh" (PDF). U.S. State Department. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022 . Retrieved 7 November 2016.

The Raj was slow to allow self-rule in the colonial subcontinent. It established the Bengal Legislative Council in 1862, and the council's native Bengali representation increased during the early 20th century. The Bengal Provincial Muslim League was formed in 1913 to advocate civil rights for Bengali Muslims. During the 1920s, the league was divided into factions supporting the Khilafat movement and favouring cooperation with the British to achieve self-rule. Segments of the Bengali elite supported Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's secularist forces. [111] In 1929, the All Bengal Tenants Association was formed in the Bengal Legislative Council to counter the influence of the Hindu landed gentry, and the Indian Independence and Pakistan Movements strengthened during the early 20th century. After the Morley-Minto Reforms and the diarchy era in the legislatures of British India, the British government promised limited provincial autonomy in 1935. The Bengal Legislative Assembly, British India's largest legislature, was established in 1937.

Geography

This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. ( June 2020) Bangladesh is divided into eight administrative divisions, [210] [209] [211] each named after their respective divisional headquarters: Barisal (officially Barishal [212]), Chittagong (officially Chattogram [212]), Dhaka, Khulna, Mymensingh, Rajshahi, Rangpur, and Sylhet. The Bengal Sultan after 1534 allowed the Portuguese to create several settlements at Chitagoong, Satgaon, [92] Hughli, Bandel, and Dhaka. In 1535, the Portuguese allied with the Bengal sultan and held the Teliagarhi pass 280 kilometres (170mi) from Patna helping to avoid the invasion by the Mughals. By then several of the products came from Patna and the Portuguese send in traders, establishing a factory there in 1580. [93] The region accounted for 40% of Dutch imports from Asia. [73] In 1666, the Mughal government of Bengal led by viceroy Shaista Khan moved to retake Chittagong from Portuguese and Arakanese control. The Anglo-Mughal War was witnessed in 1686. [94] [95] Company rule Charles Cornwallis was responsible for enacting the Permanent Settlement. The Mughal Empire controlled Bengal by the 17th century. Musa Khan of Bengal, the last independent ruler of Sonargaon after resisting Mughal conquest for several years on 10 July 1610 was defeated and dethroned by Islam Khan Chishti, the army general of Mughal Emperor Jahangir. Islam Khan Chisty became the first Mughal Subahdar of Bengal. After his defeat Musa Khan became loyal to the Mughal Empire. He actively participated in the conquest of Tripura and the suppression of revolt in Kamrup. [71] After achieving a landslide victory in the 2008 Bangladeshi general election the Awami League Government returned to power taking oath on 6 January 2009, with Sheikh Hasina once again becoming the Prime Minister and brought political stability and economic growth to the nation. [194] In 2010, the Supreme Court reduced the scope for military interventions through legal loopholes and reaffirmed secular principles in the constitution. The Awami League set up a war crimes tribunal to prosecute surviving Bengali Islamist collaborators of the 1971 atrocities. Human rights abuses increased under the Hasina administration, particularly enforced disappearances by the Rapid Action Battalion. The 2014 election was boycotted by the BNP-Jamaat alliance. The BNP and Jamaat have often engaged in violent protests to overthrow the government. In 2017, Bangladesh experienced the largest influx of Arakanese refugees in its history. An estimated 700,000 Rohingya refugees took shelter in Cox's Bazar after a campaign of ethnic cleansing in Rakhine State, Myanmar. [195]