Bangladesh packs nearly 178 million into delta flatlands
The People's Republic of Bangladesh holds almost 177.8 million people on about 148,461 km²—the world's eighth-most populous country. Hindu and Buddhist dynasties, the 1204 Muslim conquest, and Mughal Bengal's commercial peak preceded British rule, Pakistan, and 1971 independence after language and autonomy struggles.
The word Bangla names both the region and its language, and its roots may reach back to a Bronze Age tribe or the Iron Age kingdom of Vanga. Its first known written use is the Nesari plate of 805. Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah proclaimed himself the first Shah of Bangala in 1342, and the Mughal chronicler Abu'l-Fazl explained the ending "al" as the earthen mounds ancient rulers raised in the lowlands. Adding desh, Sanskrit for land, gives "Land of Bengal"; Tagore sang the compound in 1905 and Kazi Nazrul Islam in 1932.
The Maurya Empire was the first great power to rule the territory, followed by the Gupta-era kingdom of Samatata and the Buddhist Pala dynasty from 750 to 1150. Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji's conquest in 1204 brought Muslim rule, and the independent Bengal Sultanate, founded in 1341, impressed travellers from Europe and China as the wealthiest trading partner they knew. Under the Mughals from 1576 it became the "breadbasket of India," exporting muslin, silk and ships.
The British East India Company defeated Siraj-ud-Daulah at Plassey on 23 June 1757, and Bengal's wealth drained toward Britain as its textile industry collapsed; the famine of 1770 killed between one and ten million people. Partition in 1947 made the region the eastern wing of Pakistan, more than 1,000 miles from the west. Although jute and tea earned 70% of Pakistan's exports, the east received far less spending, and the 1952 crackdown on the Bengali language movement hardened nationalism.
After the Bhola cyclone of 1970 killed over 500,000 people, the Awami League won 167 of 169 eastern seats but was blocked from power. Operation Searchlight began on 25 March 1971, and nine months of war and genocide ended with Pakistan's surrender that December. Both Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Ziaur Rahman were later assassinated, in 1975 and 1981, and Sheikh Hasina fell to a mass uprising in 2024. Dhaka is the capital, Chittagong the busiest port, and the country shelters the largest mangrove forest on Earth.
Source: Bangladesh
