The British had been visiting Ceylon long before they arrived as rulers. In the 17th century, they had used Kottiyar harbour in Trincomalee for trade, ship repairs and shelter from the monsoon.

British rule was brutal, but the plantation economy was accompanied by limited infrastructure development, including the construction of roads, which began to breakdown Ceylon’s regional isolation.

So the British government appointed the Soulbury Commission to visit Ceylon and grant wider powers. The Soulbury Commission comprised of (first Baron later Viscount Soulbury, J F Rees and S J Burrows.

Walter Terence STACE was a British man born in 1886 who entered the British colonial service after a university education and was assigned to Sri Lanka in 1910. He married a Burgher lady, MM Beven in ...

In 1801 Ceylon’s first British Governor, Fredrick North reasserted the governments’ right to both categories of Rajakariya services but he introduced a direct tax on the produce of the land.

The Dutch were a pre-eminent politico-economic and military power in Ceylon and South India in the 17th and 18th centuries, having driven out the Portuguese from the region’s lucrative spice ...

Ceylon is a transliteration of Ceilao made by the British when they took over control of the island in 1815. The government did not announce a date for the name change.

Sri Lanka's government decides to change the names of all state institutions still bearing the nation's former British colonial name, Ceylon.

Ceylon cinnamon is named after the old British name for Sri Lanka, and it is often considered "real" cinnamon. It is made from the dried inner bark of a tree called Cinnamomum verum. Growing these ...