Kingdom of Kandy was an independent monarchy of the
island of Lanka, located in the central and eastern portion of the island. It was founded in the late 15th century and endured until the early 19th century. Initially a client kingdom of the
Kingdom of Kotte, Kandy gradually established itself as an independent force during the tumultuous 16th and 17th centuries, allying at various times with the
Jaffna Kingdom, the
Madurai Nayak Dynasty of
South India,
Sitawaka, the
Portuguese and the
Dutch to ensure its survival. From the 1590s, it was the sole independent native polity on the island of Sri Lanka, and through a combination of
hit-and-run tactics and diplomacy kept European colonial forces at bay, before finally succumbing to final, British colonial rule in 1818. The kingdom was absorbed into the
British Empire as a
protectorate following the
Kandyan Convention of 1815, and definitively lost its autonomy following the
Uva Rebellion of 1817.