Sri Lanka–United Kingdom Relations
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Sri Lanka–United Kingdom Relations
Sri Lanka–United Kingdom relations, or British-Sri Lankan relations, are foreign relations between Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom. Historical overview Pre-colonial British rule The relationship between Sri Lanka and Western Europe goes back thousands of years, as Sri Lanka was a stop along East–West trade routes during the times of Ancient Rome and Greece. During the reign of Emperor Claudius, a Mediterranean tax collector named Annius Plocamus facilitated direct trade and first contact between Sri Lanka and the Roman Empire. According to Pliny the Elder in his '' Natural History'', it was when Annius Plocamus came to Sri Lanka that the two civilisations met. During this time, the Roman Empire was invading Britain. Many Romans knew Sri Lanka by the ancient Greek name of '' Taprobane''. After the fall of the Roman Empire, there was little contact or trade between Sri Lanka and Western Europe until the arrival of the Portuguese in 1505. Before Britain ruled the island of ...
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Sri Lankan High Commissioner To The United Kingdom
The Sri Lankan High Commissioner to the United Kingdom is the Sri Lankan envoy to United Kingdom. Countries belonging to the Commonwealth of Nations typically exchange High Commissioners, rather than Ambassadors. Though there are a few technical differences (for instance, whereas Ambassadors present their diplomatic credentials to the host country's head of state, High Commissioners are accredited to the head of government), they are in practice one and the same office. The Sri Lankan High Commissioner to the United Kingdom is concurrently accredited as the Ambassador to the Republic of Ireland. The current post of High Commissioner is occupied by Manisha Gunasekara. List of High Commissioners Representatives of the Government of Ceylon High Commissioners Deputy High Commissioners * Sir Velupillai Coomaraswamy, CMG (1948-1953) * Theodore Duncan Perera, CMG (1953-1956) * B. F. Perera, CMG, OBE (1956-1958) See also * High Commission of Sri Lanka, London * List of he ...
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Dutch Ceylon
Dutch Ceylon ( Sinhala: Tamil: ) was a governorate established in present-day Sri Lanka by the Dutch East India Company. Although the Dutch managed to capture most of the coastal areas in Sri Lanka, they were never able to control the Kandyan Kingdom located in the interior of the island. Dutch Ceylon existed from 1640 until 1796. In the early 17th century, Sri Lanka was partly ruled by the Portuguese and Sri Lankan kingdoms, who were constantly battling each other. Although the Portuguese were not winning the war, their rule was rather burdensome to the people of those areas controlled by them. While the Portuguese were engaged in a long war of independence from Spanish rule, the Sinhalese king (the king of Kandy) invited the Dutch to help defeat the Portuguese. The Dutch interest in Ceylon was to have a united battle front against the Iberians at that time. History Background The Portuguese The Dutch were invited by the Sinhalese to help fight the Portuguese. They signed ...
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Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of French domination over most of continental Europe. The wars stemmed from the unresolved disputes associated with the French Revolution and the French Revolutionary Wars consisting of the War of the First Coalition (1792–1797) and the War of the Second Coalition (1798–1802). The Napoleonic Wars are often described as five conflicts, each termed after the coalition that fought Napoleon: the Third Coalition (1803–1806), the Fourth (1806–1807), the Fifth (1809), the Sixth (1813–1814), and the Seventh (1815) plus the Peninsular War (1807–1814) and the French invasion of Russia (1812). Napoleon, upon ascending to First Consul of France in 1799, had inherited a republic in chaos; he subsequently created a state with stable financ ...
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Treaty Of Paris (1783)
The Treaty of Paris, signed in Paris by representatives of King George III of Great Britain and representatives of the United States of America on September 3, 1783, officially ended the American Revolutionary War and overall state of conflict between the two countries. The treaty set the boundaries between the British North America (later called Canada) and the United States of America, on lines "exceedingly generous" to the latter. Details included fishing rights and restoration of property and prisoners of war. This treaty and the separate peace treaties between Great Britain and the nations that supported the American cause—France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic—are known collectively as the Peace of Paris. Only Article 1 of the treaty, which acknowledges the United States' existence as free, sovereign, and independent states, remains in force. Agreement Peace negotiations began in Paris in April 1782 and continued through the summer. Representing the United States ...
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Battle Of Trincomalee
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force commitment. An engagement with only limited commitment between the forces and without decisive results is sometimes called a skirmish. The word "battle" can also be used infrequently to refer to an entire operational campaign, although this usage greatly diverges from its conventional or customary meaning. Generally, the word "battle" is used for such campaigns if referring to a protracted combat encounter in which either one or both of the combatants had the same methods, resources, and strategic objectives throughout the encounter. Some prominent examples of this would be the Battle of the Atlantic, Battle of Britain, and Battle of Stalingrad, all in World War II. Wars and military campaigns are guided by military strategy, whereas ba ...
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Capture Of Trincomalee
The Capture of Trincomalee on 11 January 1782 was the second major engagement between Great Britain and the Dutch East India Company in the East Indies after the outbreak of the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War. After capturing Negapatam, the major Dutch outpost in India, a British force assaulted the Dutch-controlled port of Trincomalee on the eastern coast of Ceylon, and successfully stormed Fort Fredrick and Fort Ostenburg to gain control of the city and the port. In gaining control of the port, they also captured the vessels there at the time. Background Following French entry into the American War of Independence in 1778, Great Britain moved rapidly to gain control over French colonial outposts in India. In December 1780 Britain also declared war on the Dutch Republic, citing as one of the reasons Dutch trafficking in arms in support of the French and American rebels. Early in 1781 this news reached Iman Willem Falck, the Dutch East India Company's governor of Trincomalee. T ...
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Edward Hughes (Royal Navy Officer)
Admiral Sir Edward Hughes (c. 17201794) was a Royal Navy officer who commanded the East Indies Station. Naval career Hughes joined the Royal Navy in 1735, and four years later, was present at the capture of Portobelo, Panama. In 1740, he was promoted to lieutenant and served in the Cartagena expedition of 1741, and at the indecisive Battle of Toulon in 1744. In HMS ''Warwick'', he participated in the action against the ''Glorioso'', but without proper support from the ''Lark'' (which was sailing with the ''Warwick''), the enemy escaped. The commander of the ''Lark'' was subsequently tried and condemned for his conduct, and Hughes received the vacated command. Captain Hughes was with Edward Boscawen at Louisburg and with Charles Saunders at Quebec. He was in continual employment during the peace, and as commodore, commanded the East Indies Station from 1773 to 1777. Before long, he returned to the East Indies Station as a rear-admiral, with an overwhelming naval force. On hi ...
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Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War ( nl, Vierde Engels-Nederlandse Oorlog; 1780–1784) was a conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic. The war, contemporary with the War of American Independence (1775-1783), broke out over British and Dutch disagreements on the legality and conduct of Dutch trade with Britain's enemies in that war. Although the Dutch Republic did not enter into a formal alliance with the rebelling American colonies and their allies, American ambassador (and future president) John Adams managed to establish diplomatic relations with the Dutch Republic, making it the second European country to diplomatically recognise the Continental Congress in April 1782. In October 1782, a treaty of amity and commerce was concluded as well. Most of the war consisted of a series of British operations against Dutch colonial economic interests, although British and Dutch naval forces also met once off the Dutch coast. The war ended disastrously for the D ...
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Sinhala Language
Sinhala ( ; , ''siṁhala'', ), sometimes called Sinhalese (), is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken by the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka, who make up the largest ethnic group on the island, numbering about 16 million. Sinhala is also spoken as the first language by other ethnic groups in Sri Lanka, totalling about 2 million people as of 2001. It is written using the Sinhala script, which is a Brahmic script closely related to the Grantha script of South India. Sinhala is one of the official and national languages of Sri Lanka. Along with Pali, it played a major role in the development of Theravada Buddhist literature. The early form of the Sinhala language, is attested as early as the 3rd century BCE. The language of these inscriptions with long vowels and aspirated consonants is a Prakrit similar to Magadhi, a regional associate of the Middle Indian Prakrits that has been used during the time of the Buddha. The closest relatives are the Vedda language (an endange ...
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An Historical Relation Of The Island Ceylon
''An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon together With somewhat Concerning Severall Remarkable passages of my life that hath hapned since my Deliverance out of Captivity'' is a book written by the English trader and sailor Robert Knox in 1681. It describes his experiences some years earlier in the Kingdom of Kandy, on the island today known as Sri Lanka. It provides one of the most important contemporary accounts of 17th century Sri Lankan life. History Knox spent 19 years in Sri Lanka after being taken prisoner by the Kingdom of Kandy during the reign of Rajasinha II. He survived by knitting caps, selling goods and lending rice and corn. He finally escaped with one companion in 1679 and reached Arippu, a Dutch settlement on the north-west coast of the island, from where he was able to return to England in 1680. The book was written during the voyage to England. It came to the attention of Knox's employers, the directors of the British East India Company, who recommended ...
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Arippu Fort
Arippu Fort ( ta, அரிப்புக் கோட்டை, translit=Arippuk Kōṭṭai; si, අරිප්පු බලකොටුව, translit=Arippu Balakotuwa; also known as Allirani fort; ta, அல்லிராணிக் கோட்டை, translit=Allirāṇik Kōṭṭai) was built by the Portuguese and was handed over to the Dutch in 1658. The small bastion fort is located in Arippu, which is away from Mannar Island. The fort is nearly square in shape, with two bastions. Robert Knox, English sea captain and famous British prisoner of the Kandyan King Rajasinghe II, and his companion escaped after nineteen years of captivity and reached the Arippu Fort in 1679. The first British Governor of Ceylon, Frederick North, constructed his official summer residence at the beach front, now known as '' The Doric'' and converted the fort into accommodation for the officers, who operated the pearl fisheries in the area. The fort building was subsequently converted to ...
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