What the Europeans did to Sri Lanka
From their first arrival in 1505 to Sri Lanka's independence in 1948, European empires shaped the island, and the rest of Asia.
This video looks at Sri Lanka's colonial experience, how it was transformed and what stayed the same.
Sources:
-A History of Sri Lanka, K. M. de Silva
-Elephant Complex; Travels in Sri Lanka, John Gimlette
-The Cage: The Fight for Sri Lanka and the Last Days of the Tamil Tigers, Gordon Weiss
-The Ocean of Churn: How the Indian Ocean Shaped Human History, Sanjeev Sanyal
-This Divided Island: Stories from the Sri Lankan War, Samanth Subramanian
+ Various news sources, especially The Economist
00:00 Intro
01:00 Portuguese arrival
02:23 Portuguese Ceylon
04:12 Dutch Ceylon
07:00 Colombo to Hikkaduwa
11:00 British arrival
12:14 'Indian' Tamils
13:15 British Ceylon
16:33 Independence
17:27 Hikkaduwa to Galle
18:37 Galle Protest
21:39 The President resigns
23:21 Next video
What a legend you're. This is so inspiring. Imagine doing this much research on a foreign country, capturing the best shots possible and producing a superb video. Man if you're going to form a team, I would totally join!
Wow, thanks man! I've been blown away by the reception to some of these videos and you'll be getting more of them soon
You better know some history of the country you live to avoid unnecessary Wow...
I was waiting for this video for the past month. Amazing story and perfectly filmed, Mr Alex you never disappoint)))
Glad you enjoyed it!
I've been eagerly waiting for your video. Well done
Thanks for watching
Wow these videos are really well done! It's hard to find videos delving into the history of Sri Lanka. Thanks and much appreciated!
This is excellent. It's everything I need and that I have never found in another travel video.
I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed watching your video. It provided a clear and concise perspective on the matter at hand, which I found to be highly informative and enlightening. Grateful for the time and effort you put into creating such a well-crafted piece of content ✨️
Thanks for watching!
I just discovered your channel this morning and I’ve binged about 6 episodes already. Good work!
For anyone who's considering coming to Sri Lanka now it's totally safe. There's fuel. The only minor inconvenience would be daily power shortages that might last an hour or two. You as a visitor can have a great time for a very affordable price( due to currency's worth plummeting, which is bad for the locals. But won't effect you as a tourist who has dollars).
I would add that even during the height of the crisis, Sri Lanka was a great place to visit! The people are incredibly friendly and welcoming and I felt safe the entire time, even when the economy was falling apart
No
yes@@maxenpaxen
The significance of the tooth of Buddha is it mostly functions like the Excalibur. Who ever has the tooth is the ruler
Great analogy!
It is for real!even the british had to posses the Holy Relic to become legitanate.
when did the British possess the tooth ?
tooth is not real it was distroyed
@@duleepchanmugam4421 source ?
Great content. Keep up the good work
Thanks, will do!
Wow, excellent video. You deserve more views
Glad you think so!
surreal talent in making documentaries and i loved the comment on the backyards of the houses when you go on the train and the witty way in which it was told. the intro in this series is lit.
Love these videos! As an overseas Sri Lankan, I find it so hard to connect with my culture, but these videos really help me to learn more about Sri Lanka!
Thanks for the comment! That really is validating to hear. More to come very soon
Read 1805 The History of Ceylon by Captain Robert Parcival you can read PDF its fantastic things about the country itself !!
Ditto! I only connected with a Sri Lankan relative a few days ago due to my being adopted. Visited near the end of the civil war. Fascinated to learn all I can about my father's country of birth.
Dude what a video! You got it all man, I can't watch another clickbait video or "top things to do" - this is my new standard for travel videos🤩🤩
Great video. All the problems including the economic ones still not addressed
This video is giving chills to all Sri Lankans who watch it.! The detail is amazing, I never knew such facts about Sri Lanka!
very informative and entertainment, thank you for the great piece
Man!! These videos are golden!! This research is next level and the extremes you’ve been to documenting this video is just remarkable and priceless! Amongst all the chaos that the country went through and the hardships you had to face through the crisis, you my friend had done a great job to demonstrate the horrible times of Sri Lanka last year! Respect 🫡
Wow nice work keep it up .
Simply illuminating!!! mate.
Dude I’m about to travel and Vlog there on 3rd august your videos are super useful thanks 🙏🏻
# visitsrilanka ❤ from 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka......😮 stay in Sri Lanka ...Live like Sri Lankan...Keep Explore 👍
In Future Sri Lankan history that should be written Alex Rothman's discovery of Sri Lankan History. It's that much more valuable and informative. Love this series man. Appreciate your effort, Good Luck!❤️👑🇱🇰 PS: I Just wanted to search for some footage of ethnic conflicts. Here I got a full bundle of Sri Lankan history.
There were no "ethnic" conflicts. What there was were the power stuggles by the rulers to rein kingdoms. In 1980s there was implanted terrorist activism by a tamil minority blown out to the world ( and the locals) as an ethnic conflict. Corrupt politicians had an agenda to create conflict, not the masses to live in conflict . But after govt ended terrorism there's lots of hatred spread through planned propaganda.
Wonderful and accurate content. Extremely well researched and nicely organized as well... eagerly waiting for the next video
Thanks for watching and commenting, working on the next one as we speak!
This is amazing, interesting and very important , 100% accurate
Excellent video Alex. Just a note at around 6:42 There are actually a massive number of Dutch words all over Sri Lanka, in the form of towns, street names, buildings, etc. and the Burghers WERE the Dutch, not a separate “mixed race” Dutch. There were Dutch Burghers and Portuguese Burghers, and while some probably married Sinhalese or Tamil, I believe most married other Europeans (they kept meticulous records). Even after the British took over, the Dutch Burghers were still a large part of the ‘ruling class’ of Sri Lanka. A lot of them left in the 1950s due to the language law and their concerns over the incoming government.
Incredible and informative video about Sri Lanka, thank you.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
A balanced video. Well done.
Love your videos man♥
Thanks for watching!
Very good quality lecture videos!
great video
You have done a beautiful job, Alex Rothman. The video is full of historical drawings and photos make it impressive. Thank you.
Your content is so well-made; you deserve more subs than this! It's great to work perfectly through the flow of our history; I have learned a lot from your videos, so thank you. For the following video of this series, I literally cannot wait. Please touch these, if possible, or keep them in mind. Feel free to ignore this comment if I am asking too much of you. It's regarding ignorance. Usually done systematically in the education system. If possible, may I give a suggestion for your next video regarding the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka...Please try to address the fact that schools in Sri Lanka do not even touch it; though "winning the war" celebrations have mostly died out with the hatred for those once war heroes like Gotabaya, the fact that it existed at all is disappointing. The education system for Sinhalese students fails to give correct information, if any information regarding all of the conflicts in an unbiased manner, and even in history textbooks of Sinhala medium kind, they will often refer to Sri Lankans as the Sinhalese, which changes the way we observe our history. Lots of history is plainly either colonisers or random kings who built tanks, both are great to learn about, but modern history is scarce. There's a lot of deep-rooted nationalism in our systems that keep most Sinhalese of the country's future citizens in the dark about everything. The conversation about the LTTE is controversial; I don't think the word controversial is strong enough to describe it, but that conversation has to be had. It is one filled with generations of trauma and generations of misguidance. Sinhalese tend to ignore crimes of the government, and Tamils tend to ignore crimes of LTTE, but this is a rough generalisation. It would also be valuable if you could provide insight into how people we now consider Sinhalese and Tamil worked together in the pre-colonial times, certainly not without their own conflicts. Still, it was never about religion or based on their identity; it was regarding the territory. Post-colonisation, with the emergence of universal suffrage, everything changed. The Sinhalese government discriminated against Sinhala-speaking Sinhalese, which led to the JVP? Anyways, I think the starting point of legislative discrimination against minorities begins with the Official language act of 1956 by SWRD, which changes the sole official language of Sri Lanka from English to Sinhala, ignoring the Tamil language. Especially for university entrance, which I think affected education access. The series of policies based on nationalism to gain votes from Sinhalese led to consequent discrimination against Tamils. This was still a war; there were crimes on all sides. Suppose textbooks were more accurate and tried to portray history instead of the glorification of the majority Sinhalese ethnic identity (which is entirely bullshit as ethnicity isn't actual). In that case, I think we could easier go into acceptance about what happened in the war. Everyone is so busy thinking about which side was right and which was not, but this exact mindset will always keep us at arm's length from understanding each other when we co-existed for so long. Acceptance can lead to so many things. Of course, I am still a student preparing for O/Ls, which is why I still do that godforsaken subject called history; I can't stand it. Watching your content along with studying is far more intriguing. I sincerely hope this is legible. You don't have to do anything. I wanted to put it out there as it is a severe issue of purposeful ignorance, and you are bringing so much awareness about our country; it would be great to see you touch this if you can. Thank you so much for your hard work; I hope this is not rude or offensive.
Mate, thank you so much for your thoughtful comment! A lot of the things you touched on will be in the next videos, hopefully I can cover the things you want in enough depth. Travelling through Sri Lanka, I talked to a lot of people about this stuff. I know in these next videos I'm going to be covering some stuff that a LOT of people are going to object to but I think as an outsider I can be a bit more neutral, and I formed my opinions by talking to a lot of people on both sides. It's really reassuring to hear from a Sri Lankan that appreciates the neutrality I'm trying to achieve. But yes, videos on the origins of the war, on the LTTE, on the JVP uprisings and then current Sri Lankan politics are all coming...
Man took almost 30 years to realize this your only 17 wow
You have done a good and accurate research on Srilanka...Kudos mate !
Very thoughtful perspective.
🤔🤔🤔 Never before heard about portuguese captured Tooth Relic Where did you found that
Once again, you nailed nit man. Love the content. You are much better than a Sri Lankan making these content. So much of knowledge Keep up the good work.
So kind of you to say, more videos coming soon!
your awesome man, love these johnny Harris style videos, i wish sri lankans took such an interest in our culture and history
Alex you are a great traveller..not a tourist..your videos have great research and depth..
Thanks so much for watching!
These videos deserve more than 50m views.
Very insightful. Thank you for your amazing research. Just a small thing, the description says 1905 to 1948, shouldn't it read 1505 to 1948?
Yes you are exactly right! Thanks a lot for pointing this out
Stupid Portuguese took a replica of the tooth relics made with elephant tusks. Sinhalese at that time were clever in creating ornaments from elephant tusks. They made this kind of replica once even for a Burmese king who demanded to hand over the tooth relic.
1:47 Love that blur you do to represent that 'purposeful fog to cineamon production'
5:09 in ceylon caste system was not strict as in india. It was similar but not strict the ceylon caste system was designed in a way that it protect the cultural, social etc. aspects without being mutated. PS: keep up the great work ❤ love it
As if u know abt Indian caste system very much... India is not a island men, it's too diverse than srilanka and so does it's caste system..
Apologists for caste in India similar things
First of all, I LOVE your vedios, and THANK YOU for taking about Sri Lanka!!! While the colonial rule of course was not the ideal, I believe the post-independence era was much worse. I am eagerly waiting to see the next video!!!
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment, hopefully the next video won't be too far away
This is excellent video. It is pearl of the Indian ocean. ♥
❤️ Body for Soil and Life for Tamil ❤️ Tamil's thirst for Tamil Eelam motherland ❤️உடல் மண்ணுக்கு உயிர் தமிழுக்கு❤️தமிழனின் தாகம் தமிழ் ஈழ தாயகம்❤️
😂😂😂😂😂😂
This is top notch! ස්තුතියි.. ❤
Thanks for watching!
as a sri lankan, tysm for putting effort into this video
Amazing.
Glad you think so!
Great video as usual. Looking forward for your next video and I know this is nigh impossible but I hope you will be able to portray the civil war and insurrection without enraging either party lol
That's definitely impossible, but I'll be covering it in depth and from as neutral a position as I can. But I'm already anticipating the blow back...
@@AlexRothman Good luck man because you will need it lol.
Pls do a series on Siam! I’m enchanted with Siam and have been for many decades.
I stopped my busy schedule for a while and watched the full video. it's unfolded well researched great content through out the video with background soothing voice. All together we should save Sri Lanka with the support of foreigners like you. We should preserve the Sri Lanka as a world heritage.
Thank you so much for watching and for commenting, more videos are on there way!
03:00 Don't know where you found this story from. As a 🇱🇰🇱🇰 Buddhist I can confirm there is enough archeological evidence that the tooth relic was never captured by Portuguese. Edit: Thanks Dilmith. With your input I guess my last sentence should be revised to: “As a 🇱🇰🇱🇰 Buddhist I can confirm there is enough archeological evidence that the tooth relic in Kandy is the original one.
I believe I got that from venerable Sri Lankan historian Kingsley de Silva
I was waiting for this comment
@@AlexRothman Hope to give an answer after studying more. Thanks for the fact, which I never heard of.
Well... still I couldn't study further. But watched the video again. Presidential under pants Presidential booze... 😂😂
@@freecommentor The story goes like this: The tooth relic was captured by the Portuguese and was sent to Goan governor. The king of Burma paid money to get the tooth relic from Portuguese. Archbishop of Goa knew this soon. He instructed the Portuguese governor of Goa to not to give it to Burma. The archbishop got the custody of the Tooth relic, then he crushed the tooth relic in a mortar infront of a huge crowd saying it's Pagan. However it is said that it was a replica of the real tooth relic and the actual tooth relic is the one that's still in Kandy.
Hi, I’m a Sri Lankan mum living in Melbourne.My kids asked me about foreign invasions.This is the best video I found.you are amazing.and one more thing I was born and raised in Galle.Keep up your amazing work.Good Luck
Caste system was minimal in classical history of SL. But, during Kandyan kindom when Buddhism started to decline and hindu practces and indian customs started to spread, caste system became strong
and how did that "spread of Indian customs" happen?
@@devapala879 cuz the king had south indian origins.
I think it was a great effort, but still missing a lot because it still doesn't explain well enough "What the Europeans did to Sri Lanka". I understand the issue because I am struggling to create something about Vietnam and go into colonialism and tie it back to the present. Therefore, limiting the scope or reworking the title to create more of a realistic expectation of the video would have been a good strategy. Just my 2 cents. Oh, and I really liked the music you chose. e
The good people of Sri Lanka deserve so much more.
Hey, I'm a Buddhist and that (3:02) never happened, the Portuguese didn't get their hands on the Tooth Relic. The relic's duties were entrusted with the Sinhalese king therefore it was almost impossible for the Protugese to steal the relic
Exactly
I'm just going based on the history I've read, much of it written by Sri Lankan historians. But thanks for watching and engaging with the video!
The Portuguese destroyed a duplicate.
The king that rule Kandy at that time was Tamil/Telugu descendent, his name Sri Vikrama Rajashingan and then Singhalized as Rajasinhe
@@nero8837 so? The still supported Buddhism and learnt Sinhale as they were king of Sinhale. They did not impose their culture here on the citizens.
Such great videos, Alex. Appreciate your information, travel and insights. You could definitely be your own Vox channel! Keep creating more content and keep traveling -- Emma
The most underrated creator on KZhead! I'll fight anyone who disagrees
Haha thanks my brother!
great ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
The quality of your videos far exceeds the "history" we are taught, mostly in school books written about kings of the past and by word of mouth, never before have I seen a proper recounting of recent events, only your content has done any justice to the matter.
Thank you very much, I hope you enjoy the rest of the videos in the series!
As a south Asian, it’s important to revisit how the Europeans plundered the riches and treasures of our part of the world.
Its nice to see what happened to Srilanka after the European entry, I would be happy if u also do a video on how these Buddist community came to Srilanka and how our Tamil kings like Chola even after defeating them respected their religion and never tried to destroy that, also how these Sinhalese looted the wealth of Tamils and how they tortured the Tamils, how they control the government without giving opportunities to Tamils and how without any guilt happily they live now.... Finally Sinhalese came to Srilanka only in or after 5th Century.. they say Budha taught them to live a peaceful life, I think they took the peace in opposite way
Sri Lankan cinnamon was not only highly regarded, IT IS the place of origin of the spice itself. Thought that should be mentioned!
Vijayan was not only the first Kallathoni of the island of Sri Lanka, but also the invader who invaded the island of Sri Lanka by doing bad ethnic mingling. When Vijayan arrived in Sri Lanka, Vijayan was neither a Sinhalese nor a Buddhist. The Sinhalese race did not expand in Vijayan's way. Even taking the Mahavamsa data as sources of logic, it must be assumed that Vijayan's descent stops within the Mahiyangana. It is through Gweni.Vijayan Sri Lanka is the chosen island (Chosen Land) by Lord Buddha in 2500 BC to maintain and develop Buddhist dharma and the theory of "Dhammadeepa" is built according to this. This concept is similar to the Jewish doctrine of the Promised Land.The Mahavamsa says that Vijaya and his companions set foot in Sri Lanka on the day of Visakhapurnami, when the Buddha was attaining parinirvana, and the Mahavamsa said that Gautama Buddha, who was attaining nirvana, said that Vijaya and his descendants would protect Buddhism. According to Mahavamsa he established the Buddhist Sinhalese polity. Vijayan kills and crushes the director race in Sri Lanka by using the leader of the director race, Queni. Together with Gweni, two children are born. But when he came to power, he chased away Gweni and her children and along with his comrades brought the women of the Pandya royal clan to Madurai for marriage. But no children were born to Vijayan and the Pandya princess.That is, the Sinhalese race did not prosper because of Vijaya. The banished Gweni-born returned to live in the forests and remained as nomads!!!!විජයන් යනු ශ්රී ලංකා දිවයිනේ පළමු කල්ලතෝනි පමණක් නොව, නරක වාර්ගික මිශ්රවීම් කරමින් ශ්රී ලංකා දූපත ආක්රමණය කළ ආක්රමණිකයා ද විය. විජයන් ලංකාවට එන විට විජයන් සිංහලයකු හෝ බෞද්ධයකු නොවීය. සිංහල ජාතිය ප්රසාරණය වූයේ විජයන්ගේ මාර්ගයෙන් නොවේ. මහාවංස දත්ත තාර්කික මූලාශ්ර ලෙස ගත්තද විජයන්ගේ පහළ වීම නතර වන්නේ මහියංගනය තුළ බව උපකල්පනය කළ යුතුය. ඒ Gweni.Vijayan හරහා ක්රිස්තු පූර්ව 2500 දී බුදු රජාණන් වහන්සේ විසින් බෞද්ධ ධර්මය පවත්වාගෙන යාමට සහ දියුණු කිරීමට තෝරාගත් දිවයින (තෝරාගත් දේශය) ශ්රී ලංකාව වන අතර "ධම්මදීප" න්යාය ගොඩනැගෙන්නේ ඒ අනුවය. මෙම සංකල්පය යුදෙව්වන්ගේ පොරොන්දු දේශයේ මූලධර්මයට සමානය. බුදුන් වහන්සේ පරිනිර්වාණයට පත් වූ විශාඛාපූර්නමි දිනයේදී විජය සහ ඔහුගේ සගයන් ලංකාවට පා තැබූ බව මහාවංශයේ සඳහන් වන අතර ගෞතම බුදුන් වහන්සේ ලබන බව මහාවංශයේ සඳහන් වේ. නිර්වාණ, විජය සහ ඔහුගේ පරම්පරාව බුදුදහම ආරක්ෂා කරන බව පැවසීය. මහාවංශයට අනුව ඔහු බෞද්ධ සිංහල රාජ්යය පිහිටුවීය. විජයන් ලංකාවේ අධ්යක්ෂක ජාතිය මරා දමා කුඩු කරන්නේ අධ්යක්ෂක ජාතියේ නායකයා වන ක්වේනි යොදාගෙනය. ග්වේනි සමඟ දරුවන් දෙදෙනෙකු උපත ලබයි. නමුත් ඔහු බලයට පත් වූ පසු ග්වේනි සහ ඇගේ දරුවන් එළවා දැමූ අතර ඔහුගේ සගයන් සමඟ පාණ්ඩ්ය රාජකීය වංශයේ කාන්තාවන් විවාහ කර ගැනීම සඳහා මදුරෙයි වෙත ගෙන්වා ගත්තේය. නමුත් විජයන්ට සහ පාණ්ඩ්ය කුමරියට දරුවන් ඉපදුනේ නැත.එනම් විජය නිසා සිංහල ජාතිය දියුණු නොවීය. පිටුවහල් කරන ලද Gweni-උපත නැවත වනාන්තරවල වාසය කිරීමට පැමිණ නාමිකයින් ලෙස රැඳී සිටියේය!!!!!
Wanting to switch from chemical fertilizers to organic is quite laudable, but trying to do it overnight is economic suicide! :( Most countries whose infrastructure, courts and political systems were established by the British have thrived, but Sri Lanka shows that constant care and forethought is needed to maintain the precarious balance that is a functioning democracy.
Talking more about Gotabhaya and Rajapaksas than Europeans 😂😂😂😂
Proud to say I am a royalist (One of those posh english schools, 3rd generation legacy btw smiley )
11:48 i don't thats a good comparison because those sri lankans aren't living in the uk as apart of colonial administrative system 11:32 i know you say "who you ask" but Kingdom of Kotte was able to control of the whole country with the support of Ming China. Even jaffna kingdom was just paying tributes i think u should've mentioned it
Very nice video. By te way it is not a supermarket receipt. It is protest slogens the man with th mike recites one part and tge rest recite another part
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Europeans did lot of atrocities also. Should ve included that part also. Anyhow great effort creating this video
I thought I had included a fair bit of negative things but I'm interested, which were the atrocities you are thinking of?
9:53 just realised the orange boat has my name written in Sinhalese, which is translated as “Mahiru Son”! What a coincidence dude 😂
Wow that's awesome, and the whole time I had no idea whatsoever
Kandian kindom had not given tribute to portugese. Infact even before the kandian era portugese were defeated several times by the seethawaka king(one of which was the worset defeat portugese received at that time en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mulleriyawa) and during kandian era was the same. The problem kings at that time had was not having a navy, (therefore king could not drive away the portugese from lower lands)
There is no way that the European conquerors who plundered countries outside Europe for nearly 500 years until they were kicked out by native Freedom fighters, can escape Justice. Reparations have to be paid.
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As your mentions during Portuguese and Dutch Colonial times they distroyed lot of Temples. But they are highly influence with singhales and many of them got married and cultural changes who the today singhalese it is Happined those part of island. That's why modern singhalese many of those names such as you said like silva and perrara. Also singhala language influenced with these two languages already Tamil as well. During there Colonial time tamils people didn't intergrated with either Portuguese or Dutch. Only they able to spread small percentage of Christianity along the costal area.. Unlike singhalese area. Until today in Srilanka history Tamils pure races. British brought up Indian Tamils for Tea plantation and settled them those upcountry area where tea plantation. But after British left these people have been discrimination by the Government even they sent out without issued citizenship during 1970. Not only these people original Srilankan Tamils who are the oldest living people in the Island. This is systematic discrimination. When you said they brought buddah tooth which wasn't true story there weren't any buddah tooth in Srilanka they may have some elephant tooth 😄.
I'd be interested to hear what you think, why do you think that the low country Sinhalese mixed more with the Europeans than the Tamils?
@@AlexRothman @Alex Rothman I'm afraid you are dealing with a Tamil nationalist of sort. He's spewing nonsense like "Tamils didn't integrate with Colonisers" and "Tamils pure races". There's a significant amount of Tamil Christians in the island and he's trying to downplay that fact. I also love he talks about discrimination faced by Indian Tamils from the government but fails to mention the discrimination they received from Sri Lankan Tamils lol. That alone tells you a lot about this troll you are dealing with.
@@AlexRothman Portuguese and Dutch only able to control costal area They never rule all-over the Island . Also Tamils were stands against it, until British colonial time Jaffna Kingdom by kibg Sangili and Vanni kindom was ruled by king Bandaravannyan they had several battles against Portuguese and Dutch. The Vanni Kingdom had been big battle ground until British captured. King bandaravanniyan defeated in the battle 1848. He was the last ruler they left a status for him in north east of the Vanni district. These types of cultural changes happening even modern times, people who were poor for better opportunity and knowledgeable. From then and now Tamils always keep up theire own rich culture and values. Didn't need to barrows .
@@malithawuntil Singhala buddisht nationalist mindset lives in the Island , there will be Tamil nationalism grow. By the way Indian Tamils never settled north east part of Srilanka until reasonly still those people having very poor treatment in those tea plantation area. Their lifestyle always same, government and local Singalase treat them different. The fact these people didn't treated GDP Makers only tried get GDP.. I had opportunity to meet some people they didn't downplay. Now the fact of the matters everyone on the street.
The jaffna kingdom was the first to go lmao,the portugese occupied jaffna in 1560.
The forex crisis hit fuel & other shortages have pretty much vanished now. You should update the situation to new tourist which is right now prevailing 😊❤ Sri Lanka is Totally safe right now
I never said it wasn't!
there are problems in this documentary when portugese arrived it was a single country after a royal mutiny which assasinated the king with aid of portugese, kingdom of kotte was fractured in to pieces
Ceylon cinnamon is still the king of cinnamons It has a nutmeg taste too I use it exclusively n hardly ever need nutmeg
You are so right about the independence of Sri Lanka, This non nationalistic people ruined the entire nation. Macaulayism worked really well in Sri Lanka. Still Sri Lanka is controlled by the grand children of Thomas Macaulay
Galle fort was build by portugese not dutch
If you visit Sri Lanka again you will realize why majority of Sri Lankans who supported the umbrella group who spearheaded resignation of Gota nearly abstained from giving further support in the protests which ensued. and reason is crystal clear. In spite of overwhelming support from the people, all they wanted was creation of Socialist welfare state with lot of innuendos reflecting lack of room for private entrepreneurship or freedom of thought/speech & their actions and destabilization efforts of Government administration through methods used by communist movements in history. Outcome is obvoius ..People lost the trust in them and now at a crossroads whether to appoint same 225 crooks who ruled during last 5-10 years.
Beautiful people and place taken care by bad political figures.
Srilanka last king thamilan
You have been misinformed a lot my friend as a sri lankan i can guarantee you that. Sometimes, the tour guides tell whatever the things comes to their minds because they are focused on impressing you and getting something from you. Make sure to get information from verified sources next time.
Sri Lanka was also under Chola Indian colonial rule but the video doesn't mentioned them.
Nothern srilanka*
@@alu-du5st the Cholas were foreign colonial invaders from India, that conquered and ruled the island. That made them a colonial power in Sri Lanka. That's how.
@@alu-du5st your (false) claim that Sri Lanka "was part of india" is the same as (correctly) claiming that the island was part of the Kingdom of Portugal, the Dutch Republic and of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Sri Lanka was never a part of India but was an invaded and occupied territory of the Chola Mandalam, a kingdom situated on the south of the Indian subcontinent, which was until much later, only a geographical, as opposed to a political entity. India became a single country, thanks to the British. Yes, you owe your existence as a single country only because of the kindness of the British. You still remain part of the Commonwealth, recognising and paying homage to His Majesty King Charles III as your country's Head of the Commonwealth. Therefore, the only foreign countries that are part of India are Goa Damão e Diu and Sikkim, which your country occupied by brute force, respectively in 1961 and 1975. The British ruled Burma as part of India, but created that country as a separate Crown Colony over a decade before India was granted independence. Rajaraja I Chola was able to invade and annex the Kingdom of Anuradhapura in AD 993 which remained under Chola rule until 1076. The Cholas were never able to fully control what became the Kingdoms of Kotte and Sitavaka in the south of the island of Ceylon. Your statement that "today SL is an independent country. Even Today the whole is funded equally by india and china respectively" is a ridiculous statement, borne out of utter ignorance on your part. Please have a look at the following sources in order to educate yourself on these issues: 1- International Monetary Fund. Asia and Pacific Department. "Sri Lanka: Selected Issues". 11 November 2022 2- Wijetunga, W.M.K. (1962), "First Phase: Relations between the Sinhalese and the Cholas up to the time of Rajaraja I", The rise and decline of Chola power in Ceylon, pp. 75-107 3- Spencer, George W. (May 1976). "The Politics of Plunder: The Cholas in Eleventh-Century Ceylon". The Journal of Asian Studies. 35 (3): 405-419
@@alu-du5st the Sinhala language of the majority ethnicity in Sri Lanka is an Aryan language which is a language family that had its origins in the Caucasus region of Western Asia. From there, the Aryan languages spread far and wide. Until the discovery and settlement of the Americas by Europeans, the westernmost Aryan language was Icelandic. All major languages native to Europe, except Hungarian, Basque, Finnish, Sámi and Estonian are Aryan languages. These include classical, ancient languages such as Greek and Latin. In Asia, the Aryan languages spread far and wide through Iran, Tajikistan, Kurdistan, Afghanistan and into India as well. The less civilised, races such as the Tamils of India were pushed to the south across the Dravidian mountains. The Aryan languages gained predominance through Russia and up to the borders of China. In India, the easternmost Aryan language is Assamese. Not to be outdone by the Dravidians (mainly Tamils) and their Dravidian mountains, the Aryan speaking peoples took to the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, sailing south and settling in southern Sri Lanka, Minicoy Island and the Maldives. While the northernmost Aryan language is Russian, the southernmost Aryan languages are Sinhala of southern and central Sri Lanka and Divehi of the Maldives and Minicoy. The present Sinhala script is related to the Dravidian script because of the use of a script related to Dravidian by some Buddhist monks to write Pali, the sacred language of Buddhism. Divehi, the closest language to Sinhala is not written in a Pali-derived script, but in Tana, which is not related any script used in India.
@@alu-du5st so Sinhala and Tamil are grammatically unrelated. They are from two, vastly different language families.
Love Sri Lanka ❤
The independence struggle wasn't totally smooth. There were bloody rebellions in the past 1815 in particular, that was brutally suppressed by the British
That I understand, but 1815 was the very beginning of the colonial period. In the early 1900s there was some unrest, but not on the scale of other independence movements
King Vijaya is sinhayas .the indegenous people were siw hela tribes .yaksha ,Raksha,Naga ,Deva .together theyade sinhelaya -sinhalaya king Vijaya is just a military cult .
Please give our stolen treasures. Our old technology books and all our sacred things
15:07 They're not even close to all the "Posh" kids from private schools
I know right 🤣. St Joseph's is not a good school at all. St Thomas' is probably quite posh though.
actually need to correct something starnderd of living well above asia expect for japan not singapore the famous leader lee quan yu once said we have to be like sri lanka meaning we were much developed nation at that time
It is not something true. Singapore was way ahead of SL and it was a part of Malaysia during that era. Also there were few independent nations in Asia also majority of these nations did not count the service sector's contribution to the GDP when calculating the GDP .
Few corrections bro. 1) Portuguese were invited by the Kotte kingdom first to fight the Seethawaka kingdom. And the army of Kotte Kingdom and it's people were given as a gift to king Philip of Portugal by the hireless king of Kotte. 2) iam skipping few steps here. Portuguese did march on Kandy with Sri Lankan princess who was handed to Portuguese as an infant by her father king fleeing Seethawaka conquest of Kandy. Portuguese brought with them a massive army ftom Kotte kingdom along side their own tropps out numbering Kandyans. There after by clever espionage operations the kandyan managed to cause massive break up of that force broght to kandy. And on a later battle the entire Portuguese arny was killed in the battle of Gononruwa.. 3) You are right in saying that Dutch maintained a truce. They did that by giving lavish gifts to Kandyans. Even the throne it self was a Dutch gift. 4) The British had a work force that descent from the original Kotte collaborators and mixed Europen descendents.
What do you think of the idea of The Venetians (Phoenicians?) secretly controlling the island from the start (pre 1500's). "Kingdom of Kandia" This is what my research has lead me to suspect
As usual the white guy overstates the significance of the caste system and understates the significance of colonialism. Sri Lanka didn’t have a caste system like India. Sri Lanka is Buddhist and the Buddha was a critic of the Indian caste system. What there was was a feudal system where offsprings tend to go into the same line of work as the father and married within the community. Same as everywhere else in the feudal world. There’s no difference between a European feudal system and Sri Lankan caste system. You’re wrong to say the Europeans improved social conditions as they introduced a far more oppressive system: slavery, which didn’t exist in the island before. Slaves from Africa, India and Indonesia were brought in in addition to the locals that were enslaved. While social conditions worsened new revenue streams were introduced. However, only the Europeans benefited the most from them. You should’ve also mentioned how the Portuguese and the British launched several invasions on Kandy but they failed everytime.
17:15 religion politics in south asia has led to so many unnecessary deaths.
The damage done by bringing 1million law caste people to this country when its population was just about 5 million is irreparable. These low casts destroyed good bloodlines of both Sinhalese and Tamils of Sri lanka😢
Good bloodline? Are you some racist who hates other races. Smh
Hats off mate. Amazing video and it’s really professional. It is I believe correct to call the country Ceylon, as it is the anglicised word for the original name Sinhale’. The so-called “SriLankan Tamils” have a history about 3-400 years in the island. They were brought mainly by the previous colonial powers to work in their tobacco plantations. They were originally called Malabar Tamils as they were brought mainly from the Malabar area in south India.
😪351 years of total colonization by three dogs: portugese, dutch & british Then a 4th and 5th dog and Cat came: india then..... China from 2009
interesting. why is everyone else a dog while the Chinese are cats?