British Ceylon

British Ceylon was a British Crown colony that encompassed present-day Sri Lanka. Established on March 10, 1815, it followed the fall of the Kandyan Kingdom and ended over 2300 years of Sinhalese monarchy rule on the island. Initially, it did not include the Kingdom of Kandy, but from 1817, British possessions included the entire island. The British rule lasted until February 4, 1948, when the country regained independence following the Sri Lankan independence movement.