Before 1947, most of the territory now in Bangladesh was part of the province of British-ruled India known as East Bengal which in 1947 joined with the Sylhet district of Assam and became East Pakistan in the new state of Pakistan. Growing economic and political differences with West Pakistan led East Pakistan to declare independence in 1971 as the new nation of Bangladesh. The name Bangladesh means "the Bengal nation." Not all who speak the Bengali language and otherwise identify with the cultural history of Bengal, however, are included within Bangladesh boundaries; many Bengalis live to the west of Bangladesh in the Indian province of West Bengal.

Bangladesh has a tropical monsoon-type climate, with a hot and rainy summer and a pronounced dry season in the cooler months. About 15% of Bangladesh is still forested; the three principal forest regions are the Madhupur jungle, the tidal forest in the coastal Sundarbans, and the tropical rain forest of the Chittagong Hills. Bamboo and rattan are abundant.

About 98% of the people of Bangladesh are Bengalis, the remainder are tribal peoples who live mainly in the hills. About 85% of the population is Muslim and, except for the tribal peoples who are mainly animistic in religious outlook, most of the remaining people are Hindu. Bengali, the national language, is spoken by all but the tribal hill people, who speak a variety of languages.

The Arts in Bangladesh

Bengali literature - rooted in folk legend, ballads, and religious stories - has long flourished. Rabindranath Tagore, the renowned Bengali poet who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913, remains popular today. Art and architectural traditions conform distinctly to 16th- and 17th-century Islamic styles.

The History of Bangladesh

Industrial development was not encouraged by the British, and many factories established following partition from India in 1947 were subsequently destroyed in the struggle for independence from Pakistan.

The transportation and communication system was severely damaged during the war of independence, and in 1988 and 1991, when flooding left three-quarters of the country under water. The economy was dealt a further blow by the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the Persian Gulf War in 1991, which cost the nation an estimated 3 percent of its gross national product in increased oil prices, trade losses, and lost remittances from Bangladeshi workers formerly employed in the Persian Gulf region.

Bangladesh's constitution of 1972 provided for a parliamentary government headed by a prime minister; it was revised in 1975 to a presidential system, with a strong, elected president as chief executive. After the first president, Sheikh Mujibar Raman, was assassinated, periods of military rule alternated with elected governments. A constitutional referendum in September 1991 approved a return to a parliamentary form of government.

Bangladesh, independent only since 1971 and thus one of the world's youngest nations, has a long history of domination by larger political entities. In the late 16th century much of the area that is now Bangladesh was conquered by the Mogul emperor Akbar, and, under Mogul rule, most of the population, which had hitherto been predominantly Buddhist, was converted to Islam. After 1707, Mogul control weakened, and Bangladesh was caught up in the struggle by European trading and financial interests, including the British East India Company, for control of the Indian subcontinent. In 1757, Robert Clive led British forces in the famous victory over the nawab of Plassey, and in 1764 the Mogul emperor acknowledged the dominance of the British, who remained in control until 1947.

In the early 20th century, conflicts between Hindu and Muslim interests became intense. In 1947, when the British withdrew, the two independent nations of Pakistan, which was predominantly Muslim and included modern Bangladesh, and India, which was largely Hindu, were created. In this partition, East Bengal, where most of the jute was produced, became part of East Pakistan, and West Bengal, where the jute-processing factories were located, became part of India.

The two provinces of the new Pakistan nation had almost nothing in common other than the shared Islamic faith; moreover, East Pakistan was separated by more than 1,600 km (1,000 mi) from West Pakistan, and, with more than half the population of the new nation, it felt underrepresented in a government dominated by West Pakistan. In the 1970 national elections, East Pakistan's Awami League, under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, won a majority of seats in the Pakistan National Assembly but was denied power by delays in the opening of the assembly. On Mar. 26, 1971, East Pakistan proclaimed its independence as the new state of Bangladesh.

The national government of Pakistan responded by invading the eastern province, but, with assistance from India, the Pakistani army was driven back before the end of 1971.

Recent Rulers of Bangladesh

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman became the first prime minister and, under the amended constitution of 1975, the first president. Mujibur was overthrown and assassinated on Aug. 15, 1975, in a military coup led by Khondaker Moshtaque Ahmed, who was in turn overthrown in a military counter coup in November 1975. Gen. Ziaur Rahman then assumed power and was president from 1977 until his assassination in an unsuccessful military coup in May 1981. Former vice-president Abdus Sattar, elected president in November 1981, was deposed in March 1982 in a bloodless military coup led by Lt. Gen. Hossain Mohammad Ershad.

In December 1990, Ershad suddenly resigned under pressure. A caretaker government was formed, and Ershad was later placed under house arrest and charged with corruption and misuse of power. New elections were held in February 1991. Begum Khaleda Ziaur Rahman, head of the center-right Bangladesh Nationalist party and widow of former president Ziaur Rahman, became the nations' first woman prime minister on Mar. 20, 1991. On Apr. 30, 1991, the fragile new democracy was severely tested when a devastating cyclone left more than 125,000 people dead and thousands more threatened by famine and disease.