British_Ceylon

British Ceylon (Sinhala: බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය ලංකාව, romanized: Britānya Laṃkāva; Tamil: பிரித்தானிய இலங்கை, romanized: Biritthāṉiya Ilaṅkai), officially British Settlements and Territories in the Island of Ceylon with its Dependencies from 1802 to 1833, then the Island of Ceylon and its Territories and Dependencies from 1833 to 1931 and finally the Island of Ceylon and its Dependencies from 1931 to 1948, was the British Crown colony of present-day Sri Lanka between 1796 and 4 February 1948. Initially, the area it covered did not include the Kingdom of Kandy, which was a protectorate, but from 1817 to 1948 the British possessions included the whole island of Ceylon, now the nation of Sri Lanka.