Bangladesh history
A land of rivers, language and independence
Bangladesh sits on the world's largest river delta, where the Ganges (Padma), Brahmaputra (Jamuna) and Meghna meet the Bay of Bengal. Here is a short history of how it became a nation.
Timeline
From ancient cities to 1971 and beyond
The dates below follow widely used references, listed at the end of the page.
- Independence declared
- 26 March 1971
- Victory Day
- 16 December 1971
- Capital
- Dhaka
- National language
- Bangla
- c. 400 BCE onward
Early cities of the delta
Archaeologists have found some of the region's earliest urban settlements in what is now Bangladesh. Wari-Bateshwar in Narsingdi was a fortified trading centre whose finds of beads, coins and pottery point to long-distance trade, and Mahasthangarh in Bogura, ancient Pundranagara, is one of the oldest city sites in Bangladesh, mentioned in an inscription from around the 3rd century BCE.
- 8th–12th c.
The Pala and Sena dynasties
The Buddhist Pala kings ruled Bengal for about four centuries and built great monasteries. The ruins of Somapura Mahavihara at Paharpur, one of the largest Buddhist monasteries south of the Himalayas, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Hindu Sena dynasty followed in the 11th and 12th centuries.
- 1204–1576
The Bengal Sultanate
Turkic forces under Bakhtiyar Khalji took the region around 1204. In 1352 Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah united Bengal as an independent sultanate. This period gave the region the Mosque City of Bagerhat, built by Khan Jahan Ali in the 15th century and home to the Sixty Dome Mosque, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- 1576–1757
Mughal Bengal
Bengal became a province of the Mughal Empire. In 1610 Dhaka, then called Jahangirnagar, was made the provincial capital. Bengal grew rich on rice, textiles and trade, and Dhaka's fine muslin cloth was famous across the world.
- 1757–1947
British rule
After the Battle of Plassey in 1757, the East India Company took control of Bengal, and the British Crown ruled directly from 1858. The British split Bengal in 1905 and reunited it in 1911 after mass protest. The Bengal famine of 1943 killed an estimated 2 to 3 million people.
- 1947
Partition and East Pakistan
When British India was partitioned, the Muslim-majority eastern part of Bengal became East Bengal, a province of the new state of Pakistan, separated from West Pakistan by about 1,600 km of Indian territory. It was renamed East Pakistan in 1955.
- 21 Feb 1952
The Language Movement
When Urdu was promoted as the only state language of Pakistan, students and citizens in Dhaka protested for Bangla. Police opened fire on 21 February 1952 and several protesters were killed. Bangla became a state language in 1956, and in 1999 UNESCO declared 21 February International Mother Language Day.
- 1966–1970
The push for self-rule
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Six-Point Movement of 1966 demanded autonomy for East Pakistan. In the December 1970 general election his Awami League won almost every East Pakistan seat and an overall majority in Pakistan's National Assembly, but power was not handed over.
- 1971
The Liberation War
On the night of 25 March 1971 the Pakistan army launched a crackdown in Dhaka, and Bangladesh's independence was declared on 26 March, now Independence Day. Over nine months of war, around 10 million people fled to India, and estimates of those killed range from hundreds of thousands to 3 million. With Indian forces joining in December, Pakistani forces surrendered in Dhaka on 16 December, now Victory Day.
- 1972–1990
A new nation
Bangladesh adopted its constitution in 1972, with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as its first leader. He was assassinated in August 1975, and the country went through years of military and military-backed rule. A mass uprising in 1990 ended the government of President H. M. Ershad.
- 1991–2024
Parliamentary democracy and growth
Parliamentary government returned in 1991. Over the following decades Bangladesh became one of the world's largest garment exporters and made large gains in life expectancy and literacy. In 2024 student-led protests grew into a mass movement, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and left the country on 5 August, and an interim government led by Muhammad Yunus took office.
Why 21 February matters to us
Bangladesh is one of very few countries whose road to independence began with a movement to protect a language. The flag's green field stands for the land and its red disc for the sun rising over Bengal and the blood of those who died for independence.