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History of Maldives:
Maldives is a nation consisting of 26 natural atolls comprising of
1192 islands. In olden times, the islands provided the main source of
cowrie shells, then used as a currency throughout Asia and parts of the
East African coast. Moreover, historically Maldives has had a strategic
importance because of its location on the major marine routes of the
Indian Ocean. Maldives' nearest neighbors are Sri Lanka and India, both
of which have had cultural and economic ties with Maldives for
centuries. Although under nominal Portuguese, Dutch, and British
influences after the 16th century, Maldivians were left to govern
themselves under a long line of sultans and occasionally sultanas.
Maldives gained independence in 1965. The British, who had been
Maldives' last colonial power, continued to maintain an air base on the
island of Gan in the southernmost atoll until 1976. The British
departure in 1976 almost immediately triggered foreign speculation about
the future of the air base; the Soviet Union requested use of the base,
but Maldives refused.
The greatest challenge facing the republic in the early 1990s was the
need for rapid economic development and modernization, given the
country's limited resource base in fishing, agriculture and tourism.
Concern was also evident over a projected long-term rise in sea level,
which would prove disastrous to the low-lying coral islands. Fortunately
in the early 2000s it was found sea level had fallen during preceding
decades.
Maldivians consider the introduction of Islam in A.D. 1153 as the
cornerstone of their country's history. Islam remains the state religion
in the 1990s. Except for a brief period of Portuguese occupation from
1558-73, Maldives also has remained independent. Because the Muslim
religion prohibits images portraying gods, local interest in ancient
statues of the pre-Islamic period is not only slight but at times even
hostile; villagers have been known to destroy such statues recently
unearthed.
[Earliest known history of the Maldives is recorded in these metal tab
shown the the picture.]
Early Age:
Western interest in the archaeological remains of early cultures on
Maldives began with the work of H.C.P. Bell, a British commissioner of
the Ceylon Civil Service. Bell was shipwrecked on the islands in 1879,
and he returned several times to investigate ancient Buddhist ruins.
Historians have established that by the fourth century A.D. Theravada
Buddhism originating from Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka) became the
dominant religion of the people of Maldives. Some scholars believe that
the name "Maldives" derives from the Sanskrit maladvipa, meaning
"garland of islands."
In the mid-1980s, the Maldivian government allowed the noted explorer
and expert on early marine navigation, Thor Heyerdahl, to excavate
ancient sites. Heyerdahl studied the ancient mounds, called hawitta by
the Maldivians, found on many of the atolls. Some of his archaeological
discoveries of stone figures and carvings from pre-Islamic civilizations
are today exhibited in a side room of the small National Museum on Malé.
Heyerdahl's research indicates that as early as 2,000 B.C. Maldives lay
on the maritime trading routes of early Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and
Indus Valley civilizations. Heyerdahl believes that early
sun-worshipping seafarers, called the Redin, first settled on the
islands. Even today, many mosques in Maldives face the sun and not
Mecca, lending credence to this theory. Because building space and
materials were scarce, successive cultures constructed their places of
worship on the foundations of previous buildings. Heyerdahl thus
surmises that these sun-facing mosques were built on the ancient
foundations of the Redin culture temples.
Introduction of Islam:
The interest of Middle Eastern peoples in Maldives resulted from its
strategic location and its abundant supply of cowrie shells, a form of
currency that was widely used throughout Asia and parts of the East
African coast since ancient times. Middle Eastern seafarers had just
begun to take over the Indian Ocean trade routes in the tenth century
A.D. and found Maldives to be an important link in those routes.
The importance of the Arabs as traders in the Indian Ocean by the
twelfth century A.D. may partly explain why the last Buddhist king of
Maldives converted to Islam in the year 1153. The king thereupon adopted
the Muslim title and name (in Arabic) of Sultan (besides the old Divehi
title of Maha radun or Ras Kilege) Muhammad al Adil, initiating a series
of six islamic dynasties consisting of eighty-four sultans and sultanas
that lasted until 1932 when the sultanate became elective.
The person responsible for this conversion was a Sunni Muslim visitor
named Abu al Barakat. His venerated tomb now stands on the grounds of
Hukuru Mosque, or miski, in the capital of Malé. Built in 1656, this is
the oldest mosque in Maldives. Arab interest in Maldives also was
reflected in the residence there in the 1340s of the well-known North
African traveler Ibn Battutah.
Era of colonial powers:
Portuguese:
In 1558 the Portuguese established themselves on Maldives, which they
administered from Goa on India's west coast. Fifteen years later, a
local guerrilla leader named Muhammad Thakurufaanu Al-Azam organized a
popular revolt and drove the Portuguese out of Maldives. This event is
now commemorated as National Day, and a small museum and memorial center
honor the hero on his home island of Utheemu on South Thiladhummathi
Atoll.
Dutch:
In the mid-seventeenth century, the Dutch, who had replaced the
Portuguese as the dominant power in Ceylon, established hegemony over
Maldivian affairs without involving themselves directly in local
matters, which were governed according to centuries-old Islamic customs.
However, the British expelled the Dutch from Ceylon in 1796 and included
Maldives as a British protected area. The status of Maldives as a
British protectorate was officially recorded in an 1887 agreement in
which the sultan accepted British influence over Maldivian external
relations and defense. The British had no presence, however, on the
leading island community of Malé. They left the islanders alone, as had
the Dutch, with regard to internal administration to continue to be
regulated by Muslim traditional institutions.
British:
During the British era from 1887 to 1965, Maldives continued to be ruled
under a succession of sultans. The sultans were hereditary until 1932
when an attempt was made to make the sultanate elective, thereby
limiting the absolute powers of sultans. At that time, a constitution
was introduced for the first time, although the sultanate was retained
for an additional 21 years. Maldives remained a British crown
protectorate until 1953 when the sultanate was suspended and the First
Republic was declared under the short-lived presidency of Muhammad Amin
Didi.
This first elected president of the country introduced several reforms.
While serving as prime minister during the 1940s, Didi nationalized the
fish export industry. As president he is remembered as a reformer of the
education system and a promoter of women's rights. Muslim conservatives
in Malé eventually ousted his government, and during a riot over food
shortages, Didi was beaten by a mob and died on a nearby island.
Beginning in the 1950s, political history in Maldives was largely
influenced by the British military presence in the islands. In 1954 the
restoration of the sultanate perpetuated the rule of the past. Two years
later, the United Kingdom obtained permission to reestablish its wartime
airfield on Gan in the southernmost Addu Atoll. Maldives granted the
British a 100 year lease on Gan that required them to pay £2,000 a year,
as well as some 440,000 square meters on Hitaddu for radio
installations.
In 1957, however, the new prime minister, Ibrahim Nasir, called for a
review of the agreement in the interest of shortening the lease and
increasing the annual payment. But Nasir, who was theoretically
responsible to then sultan Muhammad Farid Didi, was challenged in 1959
by a local secessionist movement in the southern atolls that benefited
economically from the British presence on Gan. This group cut ties with
the Maldives government and formed an independent state with Abdulla
Afif Didi as president.
The short-lived state (1959-62), called the United Suvadivan Republic,
had a combined population of 20,000 inhabitants scattered in the atolls
then named Suvadiva--since renamed North Huvadu and South Huvadu--and
Addu and Fua Mulaku. In 1962 Nasir sent gunboats from Malé with
government police on board to eliminate elements opposed to his rule.
Abdulla Afif Didi fled to the then British colony of Seychelles, where
he was granted political asylum.
Meanwhile, in 1960 Maldives allowed the United Kingdom to continue to
use both the Gan and the Hitaddu facilities for a thirty-year period,
with the payment of £750,000 over the period of 1960 to 1965 for the
purpose of Maldives' economic development.
Independence:
The Maldives gained independence on July 26, 1965.Three years
later a republic was declared with Prime Minister Ibrahim Nasir as the
first president. In 1978 President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom became president
and has been re-elected thrice since then.A coup attempt in 1988 by Sri
Lankan mercenaries was successfully repelled. Small as it is the
Maldives has always maintained independence and a strong unity despite
influences and threats from outside. They are now an internationally
renowned country, a member of the UN, WHO, SAARC, Commonwealth, the
Non-Aligned Movement and others and play an important role in advocating
the security of small nations and the protection of the environment.
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