THE WHOLE HISTORY OF BANGLADESH
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Welcome to the countries Facts so Today in this Article I will show you the whole history of bangladesh welcome to south asia the part of asia that has a comically high population density and bangladesh will continue in that trend the people's republic of bangladesh is located in the region of south asia known as the bengal region right on the bay of bengal bangladesh has the bay south of it with india surrounding the rest of the country with the exception of a small land border with myanmar in the south east bangladesh climate wise is fairly tropical with large mangrove forests in much of the south and east of the country the ganges river delta dominates much of the country's geography with most of the population living close to the river a lot of the land in the country is very low-lying and is blessed with the monsoon rains which helps create very fertile soil for agriculture it is also cursed with the monsoon rains the rains when they do come result in large flooding affecting well over half of the country and most major urban areas there are some more temperate and hilly areas found in the north and on the border with myanmar population wise bangladesh is huge it has over 161 million people living in the country making it the eighth largest country population wise in the world for some comparison if you took the entire u.s population living west of the mississippi plus hawaii alaska and throw in the states of wisconsin and illinois it would just barely be larger than bangladesh's population most people in bangladesh are bengalis the second largest ethnic group in the world with around 98 of the country being bengali bengalis are found throughout the bengal region with many bengalis also found in the nearby indian states of west bengal and assam bengals are generally considered to be the dominant ethnicity in the country although you can find several different tribal groups in the chittagong hills tract region such as the chakmas the marma and the tripodi language wise most people will speak bengali bengali is an indo-aryan language which is the dominant language family throughout the northern indian subcontinent bengali is closely related to languages such as bojapuri assamese and odai along with being a distant cousin of hindi and punjabi bengali is often used in day-to-day life and in politics but english is also popular in the tourism sector when dealing with foreign businesses or in pop culture religion wise bangladesh is a very muslim country with islam actually being the state religion and over 88 of the country being muslim most are sunni muslims with a small minority being shia and most muslims are from the bengali ethnic group despite islam being the state religion there is freedom of religion in the country with nine to ten percent of the population being hindu these are also mostly bengalis and bangladesh actually has a third largest hindu population in the world buddhism and protestant christianity are also found in the country although combined they make up less than two percent of the country and are mainly found among the tribal people of bangladesh smaller religious groups like sikhs baha'is and atheists are also found in the country we know humans have been living in the region for many thousands of years with the indo-aryan people believed to have entered the region in the 2000s bce these people would eventually coalesce into the bengali people as we know them today during ancient times hinduism and buddhism were dominant switching on and off as the main religion of the country several times several different states would emerge from bengal such as the ivanka kingdom the hindu gouda kingdom the buddhispala empire and the hindu again shen dynasty religious tension would often ebb and flow in pre-islamic bangladesh during this time bengal was a very important trading hub with ports in the area bringing travelers from far away to trade in it this gave bengali ports a more cosmopolitan feel starting in the 8th century ce the bengali language is believed to have emerged with it incorporating indo-aryan elements along with persian and arabic vocabulary these traitors along with bringing goods and vocabulary brought religion with islam coming to the country during the early middle ages although it remained mostly irrelevant among the wider population this would start to change in 1204 muslim empires of primarily turkic and persian origin have been moving into the indian subcontinent since the 1000s and had made inroads in northern india and modern-day pakistan they had begun to push into bengal and dominated many of the hindu and buddhist dynasties in the region bengal found itself under the rule of the islamic delhi sultanate which was run in obviously delhi the muslims would further develop the cosmopolitan nature of the area brought ideas and architecture along with innovations with them although much of the population still remained hindu or buddhist in 1352 bengal broke away from the delhi sultanate with a new sultanate of bengal being formed it was islamic although much of the population still cling to their old religions the bengal sultanate was noted for being incredibly rich with traitors as far away as china and europe coming to mingle in the sultanate support cities art would also flourish during this time by 1576 bengal would be ruled by another muslim empire this time by the mughal empire this empire would bring about a lot of change to bengal such as making dhaka the current capital of bangladesh the capital of the bengal region and giving the bengal governors a wide degree of autonomy economically the region would see agriculture become dominant the mughals encouraged muslim sufi missionaries and farmers from other regions of the empire to go to bangal clear the force that made up most of the region at the time and established plantations this had the dual effect of making bengal a major rice and silk producer while also transforming the part of bengal we know as bangladesh into a definitively muslim place many in the region began to convert to islam and islam's more egalitarian worldview was looked on more favorably from many of the poor peasants in the region who had lived under a stricter hindu caste system bengal during this time was probably one of the best places to live in the world with living standards that rivaled or either outright beat out china europe and the middle east by 1717 bengal had become virtually independent with the governors of the bengal region known as the newabs coming to power these nawabs held almost complete control often being noted for their brutal methods of cracking down on any descent they experienced they saw the world around them change with european powers like the british east india company the french east india company the dutch east india company the danish east india company the swedish east india company the austrian east india company and the portuguese just the portuguese they didn't need denise india company i guess these powers all wanted a sweet piece of the pie that was the bengali economy with different nations fighting over who could trade and do business with the nawobs and many european forces were set up in the region bengal also saw the beginnings of industrialization as the first textile factories were created in 1756 a massive war between the major european powers would break out known as the seven years war that lasted depending on when you started accounting six years or nine years this war would see fighting break out in not only europe but also in their colonies where they hoped to expand to while this wouldn't be the first time european colonial powers would fight in india it would see the incredibly significant battle of plassy take place this battle would see the french allying with the nawops to fight back the british who were upset with increased tariffs the british had managed to get the rivals of the nawop not to commit their troops in the battle greatly reducing the force the british would have to fight during the battle the british used the cover of a mangrove forest along with rain that prevented the enemy's cannons from firing on them and the tactical genius of robert clive to crush the bengali army that was over 10 times their size plasti would see the nawops become the public kings of the british and the start of british colonialism in south asia but bengal nor any of the indian subcontinent was actually ruled by the british crown at first instead bengal and the rest of india would come under the rule of the british east india company that's right a company owned the country they allowed many of the local rulers and landlords to continue to rule as nominal authorities but they can never challenge british rule in the region and economically the british could do whatever they wanted this included exporting huge segments of bengal's natural resources to britain while bengal received almost nothing in return this allowed for the prosperity of england but didn't really help improve economic conditions in bengal you can see the negative effects of company rule in bengal almost immediately as the company forced farmers to farm crops like indigo and died to be exported to britain instead of crops to feed people like grain a series of poor harvest came in due to drought this quickly led to famine and bengal with large segments of the population not having access to any food company authorities proved to be slow to act estimates of how many died are disputed were somewhere between 7 to 33 percent of all people in bengal believed to have died due to famine depopulating much of the region and helping lead to the de-industrialization of the region company rule would continue after the famine until 1857 when a massive revolt broke out in india while this revolt would be put down it would lead to the end of company rule and bryn formally incorporated their south asian territories into their empire the british while they still were interested in the region insofar as it benefited them economically did start to work to improve conditions in bengal towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century britain built and improved roads brought liberal education like non-religious schools and colleges and brought modern technology such as electricity cars railroads and modern medicine thank all entered a period known as the bengali renaissance as bengali artists poets writers and scientists all made great strides now in 1905 something particular happened the bengal province was divided between the majority muslim east bengal and the majority hindu west bengal in 1905 the british decided to split the province in two between the muslim and hindu half the british argued that this would allow for greater administrative efficiency along with giving the muslims a greater say over how they ran their own affairs although of course the british would still make sure they were acting in line hindus and indian nationalists became upset with this believing the british partitioned the province to divide the bengali community from each other those opposed to the partition led a boycott of british goods and forced the british to merge the two provinces back together in 1912. this however was so the seas of doubt between hindus and muslims as british rule continued a growing number of intellectuals and activists began demanding an end of colonial rule in south asia and an independent state run by those south asians however sectarian lines began to form as muslims who fought for independence began to argue that the hindu population on the subcontinent would dominate the muslim population should independence ever occur muslims led by groups such as the all-india muslim league began to argue for a two-state solution an independent hindu state and an independent muslim state muslims at first argued for just a muslim state in modern-day pakistan but also began to argue that since east bengal was majority muslim then it too should join the muslim state despite not being connected at all slowly the british gave increasing autonomy to the bengalis and after world war ii the british realized they couldn't hold on to south asia much longer before we go to the end of british rule there's one more event i should talk about the 1943 bengal famine during this time japan was at war with britain and it occupied the neighboring colony of burma along with several areas of india the british authorities had taken a lot of the food supplies in bengal and moved them either deeper into their indian territories or exported them overseas then a disease that killed the crops and a cyclone in 1943 resulted in a famine with around two to three million people dying the blame for the famine is a hotly debated topic with more conservative and pro-british historians tending to argue that the famine was a result of greater geopolitical circumstances playing up how wartime policies affected the crisis while anti-colonial historians tend to argue that the blame lays squarely at the feet of the british playing a broader colonial policies and ideas on governance regardless the famine would result in many bengalis to continue the demand for self-determination in 1947 the british decided that they could no longer hold india and decided to give it independence with the country being divided along the two-state solution bengal was again partitioned with what we now know as bangladesh being given to the new muslim state modern-day pakistan even though bangladesh was majority muslim and west bengal was majority hindu both had very large religious minorities present in them with bangladesh believed to be around 30 hindu at the end of british rule the month before partition some major sectarian violence and once bengal was separated a massive population exchange took place muslims fled west bengal into bangladesh while hindus and sikhs left to go to india with three to seven million people fleeing their homes at this time so now bangladesh is finally free from its colonial masters and the self-determination of muslim bengalis can be respected right well not just yet bangladesh or east pakistan wasn't given an equal partnership in the new pakistani state language wise pakistan wanted urdu to be the main language of the country despite very few people in bangladesh actually speaking the language economically most development projects were based on building up west pakistan while east pakistan was usually just an afterthought military rule in pakistan also largely prevented east pakistanis from gaining any political clout and led to frustration finally they would be upset with west pakistan's hatred towards india and felt that the wars pakistan would fight over kashmir only served to cause misery to the people of east pakistan all of this dissatisfaction led to the creation of the awami league a party representing bengali nationalists they campaigned on the principles of democracy socialism secularism and nationalism demanding that east pakistan be treated equitably and for full democracy in pakistan they with the help from a very active student wing became the most popular party in east pakistan in the 1970 general election the awami league managed to win 160 seats in a 300-seat parliament which should have meant that on paper they would be allowed to govern pakistan however the pakistani government and the pakistani military especially refused not wanting an east pakistan party to come to power instead the awami league was barred from entering government and the military was deployed to east pakistan for many bengalis this was the last straw in 1971 the awami league declared bangladeshi independence starting the bangladesh liberation war the pakistani government used brutal repression tactics along with forming paramilitaries among the urdu speaking community along with islamist death squads in bangladesh to root out any opposition sexual violence became a common tool utilized by the pakistani forces and dhaka became the scenes of numerous massacres around 10 million were forced to flee the country altogether bangladeshi historians today generally characterize the events of 1971 as a genocide even though the bangladeshi forces were often ill-equipped and isolated from each other they managed to put up a decent fight starting in august bangladeshi guerrilla forces managed to hit important economic and military targets throughout the country and even managed to take and hold some parts of bangladesh they often could reliably retreat into india which had provided some support for the insurgents hoping to weaken pakistan in december pakistan preemptively bombed india which then proceeded to invade bangladesh crushing pakistani forces there and in 1972 bangladesh became fully independent also a small little side note the war in bangladesh would see many different foreign actors and the foreign press take interest for their own reasons many people in the western world found themselves supporting the bangladeshi independence struggle and a lot of famous musicians would perform concerts to try and help relieve the people of bangladesh this all would help sway the public opinion of israel to support the bangladeshi cause israel was actually the first country in the world to fully recognize bangladesh as a sovereign state bangladesh responded however by surprisingly rejecting their recognition due to the israeli-palestinian conflict and the mistreatment of the palestinians in the eyes of many bengalis talk about a brutal rejection independence would see bangladesh under the rule of the awami league with sheikh mujibur rahman coming to power in a parliamentary republic mujibar led the awami league pre-independence and was a hero in the liberation war he got to work promoting bengali interest strong government investment into the economy and tried to repair the divided nation this would prove to be quite difficult as mujibur would have to deal with a famine in 1974 along with massive levels of poverty and growing corruption mujibur began to silence dissent in the country and by 1974 he gave the awami league along with several other pro-government parties total control over all organs of power in the country and moved the country into being a presidential republic with him having the ultimate power mujibur would however get into disputes with several leaders of the armed forces and in august of 1975 they would launch a coup where mujibur would be killed in his own house by rebelling soldiers many other members of the awami league would be gunned down and the party forced underground bangladesh would then be under military rule for two years until zerhuru rahman came to power in 1977. rahman was similar to mujibur a war hero from the liberation war and tried to improve conditions in the country however rahman would see a radically different approach rahman believed in economic liberalism and privatized many state industries along with decentralization and allowed the awami league and other opposition parties to operate in the country rahman would then create the bangladeshi nationalist party or bnp that believed in bangladeshi nationalism now it's important to note that this is different from bengali nationalism you see the awami league's bengali nationalism believed in a bengali country built for and dominated by the bengali ethnicity while the bnp's bangladeshi nationalism believed in a country where both bengali and ethnic minorities were united in the country with a strong islamic influence helping unite everyone ratman while liked by many in the country also had his fair share of critics and in 1981 he was assassinated by several military officers the bnp now under abdul satar would continue to hold on to power but the next year in 1982 they were overthrown in a coup this would all see hussein muhammad arshad coming to power in the country urshad would be considered fairly authoritarian limiting the ability the opposition had in opposing him he would continue several political processes of rahman such as increasing the amount of power islamic forces had in the country along with continuing economic reforms along neo-liberal and free-market lines he along with his political party the jatia party would rule until 1990 when massive protests led by the awami league and the bnp forced ershad to resign after this bangladesh would find itself as a parliamentary republic again with democracy restored kind of so i'll talk about the two titans of bangladeshi politics first is kaladazia zia was actually the wife of rahman and she headed a bnp led government from both 1991 to 1996. and 2001 to 2006 while in power she fought to increase foreign investment into the economy raise the gdp and promote friendly relations with muslim countries and other southeastern asian states the other titan the bangladeshi politics is sheikh hasina asina is also related to a former ruler of bangladesh being the eldest daughter of mujibur and the head of the awami league she was in power from 1996 to 2001 and from 2009 to the present day she has also promoted foreign investment into the economy while also bringing rohingya refugees into the country and promoting friendly relations with india now bangladesh is a democracy they do have elections and there are opposition parties but what tends to happen is whichever party rules the country they tend to crack down on any opposition and this usually leads to arrest along with forced and unexplained disappearances so right now the awami league holds power in the country so they have crackdown on the bnp hasina has been accused of authoritarianism especially after passing a law in 2018 that essentially bans criticizing the government publicly online now when talking about political drama going on in the country i skipped over some important stuff actually around a whole page of stuff so let's go over some important political developments going on so you may remember at the start me mentioning how there's a significant number of ethnic and religious minorities in the chittigong hills while many of these minorities were upset with how bangladesh began promoting the bengali identity more and more they felt excluded and starting in the 70s a small-scale insurgency broke out in the region the armed group shanti bonnie would often participate in the torture and kidnapping of ethnic bengalis who moved into the region or anyone believed to be working with the government likewise the bangladeshi forces would often kidnap suspected shanti bonnie members and moved bengalis into the region to displace minorities living there in 1997 a peace accord would be signed which mostly ended violence but it does pop up from time to time bangladesh generally in foreign affairs doesn't really have any enemies with it actually being fairly good friends with india however the border between the two countries has created some tension illegal immigration and smuggling back and forth between the two countries is a fairly big problem and because of that india has increased border security the indian border security force is accused of shooting anyone they come across and breaking bangladeshi's sovereignty several times by moving across the border unannounced to raid believe smuggling points this got so bad in 2001 bangladesh and india had a mini conflict with around 20 people dying in cross-border raids the border is also further complicated by the fact that it is based off of old royal holdings from pre-colonial india this results in odd shapes throughout the border and several parts of both india and bangladesh are entirely separated from the rest of the country this border was so bad that at one point it had a third order enclave or in other words it had a part of india that was surrounded by a part of bangladesh that was surrounded by another part of india that was surrounded by bangladesh the fact that crossing the border could result in you getting shot also helped further complicate things and several parts of india and bangladesh were left essentially stranded with no way to get resources from the outside world this would be resolved in 2015 when most of the enclaves were exchanged now if there's one thing you knew about bangladesh going into the video it was probably the textile industry in the country and the conditions around it since 1991 a growing number of foreign companies have been setting up shop in the country with those companies using cheap labor to make shirts dresses and other articles of clothing dirt cheap it's become such a major part of the economy that more than 70 percent of bangladesh's exports are related to the textile industry with it being a major driver in urbanization now the industry is controversial but i'll try to highlight some of the positive aspects of the industry the industry has given many people jobs and helped put food on people's plate the industry in particular has been an important player of women helping give many women a livelihood and the ability to work it has also helped grow the bangladeshi economy and integrated the country into the global market now it's time to talk about the bad of the industry and quite frankly there's a lot while the industry provides jobs to millions of people for many people it gives them just enough money to live above the poverty line but not enough money for people to thrive and move up in society workplace conditions are also fairly concerning usually workers will have to work long hours with few breaks unsafe working conditions and hostile management the unsafe working conditions were put on full display in 2013 in the rennie plaza collapse a garment factory in dhaka collapsed killing around 1 100 people with many more also being injured or being permanently disabled management had intentionally ignored building laws in the country and had been warned that collapse could happen by the workers but still chose to do nothing it is to date the deadliest garment factory disaster in history finally the industry has a negative effect on the environment the industry is a major polluter in the country with many ecosystems in the region being permanently damaged frequent flooding in tropical storms also brings trash into the rivers that flow throughout the country hurting the ecosystem even more and finally with all these tough conditions it's not surprising that there's a growing number of people in the country who support more radical ideologies and in particular islamism islamist forces have been present in the country committing terrorist attacks or street violence since the 90s with major terrorist groups like al-qaeda and isil having cells in the country while terrorism in the country certainly isn't as bad as places like somalia or afghanistan it still isn't hard to find terror attacks against religious minorities atheists or more moderate muslims the latest terrorist attack i could find occurred in 2017 when isil committed a series of bombings in northern bangladesh killing 11. so why does bangladesh exist bangladesh is a country dominated by foreign influences and shaped by them it was an important trading port at the start of its history it was strongly influenced by muslim invaders it was colonized by the british and today has foreign businesses making influential decisions in the country these foreign interests will continue to shape the country's history but the people in the country will ultimately play the most decisive role in which way the country turns bangladesh will have to find within itself the power to change up next we go west to barbados prepare for the british no surprise there at this point beautiful beaches slavery and rum thank you i hope you all enjoyed i also hope i pronounced those bengali names correct i um i had to look it up a couple times but hopefully i got it mostly right but anyways my email is why do countries exist at gmail.com for if you want to send your thoughts comments suggestions or hate mail take care i hope you have a wonderful rest of your day the sources i use for this episode are accessnow's article new digital security act in bangladesh deepen threat to free expression al jazeera's news report bangladesh between justice and politics byjus's page on the bengali famine dw's documentary bangladesh dawn of islamism geography's now video on bangladesh history discussions article bengal under the rule of the nawabs a close look j forman's video india bangladesh the world's worst border kings in general's documentary the battle of plassy 1757 knowing better's video how to make bad history worse slash world war ii knowledge pedia's video how did bangladesh become muslim lethal crisis bangladesh the world's most polluted country mesa man's bengal and punjab nations divided mr history's a super quick history of bangladesh oldboy's azadov's the bangladesh story plot 11's documentary the true cost the quince how united bengal almost became a new country the scene in the unseen's podcast episode the geopolitics of the bangladesh war vedic discoveries Article history of bangladesh from 1947 to 1971 I hope you guys this Article will be informative for you we will see you soon in the next one God Bless You.
