Overview

Bangladesh, which means the "Land of the Bengalis" in the Bengali language, is a republic located in Southeast Asia. Almost entirely surrounded by India, of which it was a part until 1947, Bangladesh is bounded to the east, north, and west by that larger country, and to the southeast by Myanmar, formerly Burma. To the south of the country lies the Bay of Bengal. Formally known as the People's Republic of Bangladesh, Bangladesh won its independence in 1971 after a bloody civil war. The war left much of the nation and its economy in ruins. Fully two-thirds of Bangladesh is made up of low-lying delta land, through which the many arms of the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna Rivers flow to the sea. Annual flooding is both a gift and a curse, providing the nutrients and water supply for Bangladesh's three-crop rice production, but also displacing thousands of...