Bengal, with its capital of Calcutta, became a centre of world trade under the influence of the East India Company in the 18th century. Clive claimed Bengal for the British Empire in 1757 when it was a more profitable trading region than North America, trading in spices, silk, jute, cotton and opium. When the British pulled out of the Indian Sub-continent in 1947, West Bengal remained in India; East Bengal, plus the Chittagong Hill Tracts, became East Pakistan, politically one with West Pakistan, 2,000 miles away.

The union failed when West Pakistan imposed Urdu on the Bengalis of East Pakistan. West Pakistan was generally more prosperous, but in 1971 failed to achieve a majority in Parliament as the more populous Bengalis swept the election. The Bengalis, denied power, revolted. Bangladesh obtained its freedom from Pakistan in 1971 after a brutal nine month war which ended with the intervention of India. The new country, only decades old still seeks to move on from the memories of civil war.