Bangladesh occupies the territory of former East Pakistan was part of Pakistan between 1947 and 1971, and part of British India before the partition of British India in 1947 on the declaration of independence of India and Pakistan.
Independence of Bangladesh
Between 1946 and 1970 there were two important factors that led to the birth of Bangladesh. At this time it was still East Pakistan. The Bengalis were very reluctant to the creation of Pakistan and the secession from India. The Muslim League did not have much influence in Bengal until the 1940's.
In 1946, because of the great slaughter of Calcutta, originated a series of political expression and even violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims, who made that secession was inevitable. The violence had begun as early as 1920. This led to the need to create a Muslim state in the former British India, Pakistan. After the 1946 elections, the Muslim League won a majority of Bengal. At that time, Bengalis joined the league.
During the twenty years following the declaration of independence from British rule, East Pakistan received very little attention from the central government of Pakistan, situated at the other end of the Indian subcontinent. The most frequent use of the minority Bengali Bengali (both Muslim) grew tensions in East Bengal, which reached its limit in 1971, followed by an open and democratic disapproval of the election results that gave the Awami League an overwhelming majority in parliament by a military Yahiya Khan, then president of Pakistan.
Under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, also known as Bongobondu (friend of Bengal) and Father of the Nation, Bangladesh began its struggle for independence, quietly at first supported by the government of India. This was followed by one of the bloodiest genocides of recent times carried out by the Pakistani army on Bengali civilians innocent March 25, 1971.1 Almost immediately, this conflict was the origin of Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, culminating in December of that year with the decisive defeat of Pakistani forces (West) and the independence of East Pakistan under the name of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh finally became independent on December 16, 1971. Shortly after the January 11, 1972, the new country officially change its name and the new constitution would be adopted on December 16, 1972.
Independent Period (1971 - 2000)
After independence, Bangladesh became a parliamentary democracy, with Mujib as the Prime Minister. In the 1973 parliamentary elections, the Awami League won an absolute majority. Between 1973 and 1974 there was a great famine throughout all the country since early 1975, Mujib reformed institutions towards a socialist one-party structure with its newly formed party BAKSAL. On August 15, 1975, Mujib and his family were killed by army officers midrange.
Over three months, a series of bloody coups and counter-state which culminated in the rise to power of General Ziaur Rahman, who reinstated multi-party democracy and founded the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). The government of Ziaur ended when he was killed in 1981 by the military.
General Hossain Mohammad Ershad seized power in a bloodless coup in 1982 and ruled the country until 1990, when it was removed from power by a popular uprising. Since then, Bangladesh has again become a parliamentary democracy. The widow of Ziaur, Khaleda Zia, led the GNP parliamentary victories of 1991 and 2001 and was Prime Minister from 1991 to 1996 and again between 2001 and 2006.
