The history of the Maldives is intertwined with the history of the broader Indian subcontinent and the surrounding regions,comprising the areas of South Asia and Indian Ocean;and the modern nation consisting of 26 natural atolls,comprising 1194 islands. Historically,the Maldives held a strategic importance due to its location on the major marine routes of the Indian Ocean. The Maldives' nearest neighbours are the British Indian Ocean Territory,Sri Lanka and India. The United Kingdom,Sri Lanka and some Indian kingdoms have had cultural and economic ties with the Maldives for centuries. In addition to these countries,Maldivians also traded with Aceh and many other kingdoms in,what is today,Indonesia and Malaysia. The Maldives provided the main source of cowrie shells,then used as a currency throughout Asia and parts of the East African coast. Most probably Maldives were influenced by Kalingas of ancient India who were earliest sea traders to Sri Lanka and the Maldives from India and were responsible for the spread of Buddhism. Stashes of Chinese crockery found buried in various locations in the Maldives also show that there was direct or indirect trade contact between China and the Maldives. In 1411 and 1430,the Chinese admiral Zheng He 鄭和visited the Maldives. The Chinese also became the first country to establish a diplomatic office in the Maldives,when the Chinese nationalist government based in Taipei opened an embassy in Maléin 1966. This office has since been replaced by the embassy of the People's Republic of China.
The politics of the Maldives take place in the framework of a presidential representative democratic republic,whereby the President is the Head of Government. Executive power is exercised by the government. The President heads the executive branch and appoints the Cabinet;like many presidential democracies,each member of the cabinet need to be approved by the Parliament. The President,along with their pick for vice president,is directly elected by the denizens to a five-year term by a secret ballot. Once in office,they could be re-elected to a second 5-year term,which is the limit allowed by the Constitution. The current President of the Maldives is Mohamed Muizzu,when his predecessor,Ibrahim Mohamed Solih lost the 2023 Maldivian presidential election.
Maumoon Abdul Gayoom is a Maldivian politician who served as President of the Maldives from 1978 to 2008. After serving as transport minister,he was nominated president by the People's Majlis and succeeded Ibrahim Nasir in 1978. He was defeated in 2008 during the first Presidential Elections after democratic reforms in the Maldives. He holds the nations highest award,"The Most Honourable Order of Distinguished Rule of Ghaazee",presented to him in 2013. Maumoon was the longest-serving president in Asia.
Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific is one of eighteen schools and colleges around the world in the United World Colleges movement,located on Vancouver Island,Canada. It is named after the late Canadian Prime Minister Lester Bowles Pearson,winner of the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize,and an early champion of the college. The mission of the UWC movement and of the school is to "make education a force to unite people,nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future".
The Maldivian Democratic Party is the first political party formed in the Republic of Maldives with a total membership of 51,516 individuals as of 25 April 2024.
Mohamed Nasheed GCSK,also known as Anni,is a Maldivian politician and activist who served as president of the Maldives from 2008 until his resignation in 2012. A founding member of the Maldivian Democratic Party,he subsequently served as the 19th speaker of the People's Majlis from May 2019 until his resignation in November 2023. He is the first democratically elected president of the Maldives and the only president to resign from office. He is currently a member of The Democrats.
The 2005 Maldivian civil unrest refers to the civil unrest that broke out in Malé,Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll and Addu Atoll of the Maldives on August 12,2005,which led to events that supported the democratic reform of the country. This unrest was provoked by the arrest of Mohamed Nasheed - an open critic of the president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom - and the subsequent demolition of the Dhunfini tent,used by the members of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) for their gatherings. Supporters of MDP were quick to demonstrate. They started calling for the resignation of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom,soon after Nasheed's arrest. Several arrests were made on the first night followed by the demolition of the Dhunfini tent. The demolition complicated the situation further provoking the unrest. The unrest grew violent on the third night,on August 14,2005,due to the methods used in the attempts by the authority to stop the demonstration.
Dr. Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik is a Maldivian politician who served as president of the Maldives from 7 February 2012 to 17 November 2013,having succeeded to the office following the resignation of President Mohamed Nasheed,under whom he served as Vice President. He had previously worked as a news anchor,a teacher,a principle,a United Nations international civil servant with UNICEF,UNDP and UNESCO,and as member of the Maldivian Parliament.
Qasim Ibrahim,also known as Burumaa Qasim,is a Maldivian politician,business magnate and philanthropist. As the chairman and founder of the Villa Group,he is one of the country's wealthiest businessmen,with a net worth of around 9.63 billion MVR
Dato' Mohamed Zaki,also known as Nazaki Zaki or Sandhaanu Zaki,is a businessman and politician in the Maldives.
Muad Mohamed Zaki is one of the founders of the Maldives multi-party democratic system. His from a prominent left-wing political and business family in the Maldives. He migrated to Malaysia with his family in the 1990s after political turmoil in the Maldives that temporarily drove out large private business owners from the country. His father,Dato' Mohamed Zaki,is a highly respected figure in the Maldives by presidents and other political figures. The family owns a well-known multinational firm named Nazaki Group of Companies,which pioneered international trade between Malaysia and the Maldives.
Fathimath Dhiyana Saeed is a Maldivian diplomat,and was the Secretary-General of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). She was the first woman to hold this post since the organization's inception in 1985. She was appointed Secretary-General at the Thirty-third Session of the SAARC Council of Ministers in February 2011,and assumed office in Kathmandu on 1 March 2011. She succeeded India's Sheel Kant Sharma,whose term ended in February.
The 2011–2013 Maldives political crisis began as a series of peaceful protests that broke out in the Maldives on 1 May 2011. They would continue,eventually escalating into the resignation of President Mohamed Nasheed in disputed circumstances in February 2012. Demonstrators were protesting what they considered the government's mismanagement of the economy and were calling for the ouster of President Nasheed. The main political opposition party in the country,the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party led by the former president of the country Maumoon Abdul Gayoom accused President Nasheed of "talking about democracy but not putting it into practice." The protests occurred during the Arab Spring.
Husnu Al Suood born in Meedhoo is a Justice of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Maldives since 8 December 2019. He was the Attorney General of the Maldives from June 2009 to August 2010. He served as the Chief Judge of the Civil Court and as a member of the Judicial Service Commission of Maldives. He also served as a member of the National Human Rights Commission of the Maldives from 2003 to 2005. As a member of the Special Majlis Suood participated in drafting the current constitution of the Republic of Maldives.
MDP Youth Wing,is the youth movement of the Maldivian Democratic Party in Maldives. The organization is made up of all members of the Maldivian Democratic Party who are 18 to 35 years old.
Diplomatic relations between the People's Republic of China and the Maldives were established in 1972. China has an embassy in Maléwhich opened in November 2011,and the Maldives has an embassy in Beijing which opened in 2009. Approximately 70 percent of the Maldives' total debt is attributed to Chinese projects,with an annual payment of US$92 million to China,constituting around 10 percent of the country's entire budget. China has become pervasive in the Maldives,exerting influence over infrastructure,trade,and energy sectors,raising concerns of a new form of Chinese entrapment.
Mariya Didi is a Maldivian barrister and politician who served as the Minister of Defense of the Maldives. After being the campaign manager for president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih during the 2018 elections,she was appointed the nation's first-ever female Minister of Defence.
The Maldivian diaspora refers to the community of Maldivians,speakers of the Maldivian language,who have either emigrated from the Republic of Maldives or grew up outside of the Maldives speaking Dhivehi as a first language. The Republic of Maldives is a South Asian country geographically located in the Indian Ocean,Laccadive Sea and Arabian Sea. Maldivians have historically emigrated from the Maldives for numerous reasons including low economic opportunity,political repression and education. India and Sri Lanka currently host the most Maldivians living outside of the Maldives,but other diaspora communities can be found in Malaysia,Singapore,Pakistan,and Australia.
Climate change is a major issue for the Maldives. As an archipelago of low-lying islands and atolls in the Indian Ocean,the existence of the Maldives is severely threatened by sea level rise. By 2050,80% of the country could become uninhabitable due to global warming. According to the World Bank,with "future sea levels projected to increase in the range of 10 to 100 centimeters by the year 2100,the entire country could be submerged". The Maldives is striving to adapt to climate change,and Maldivian authorities have been prominent in international political advocacy to implement climate change mitigation.
Presidential elections were held in the Maldives on Saturday,9 September 2023,with a second round held on 30 September. Incumbent president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih was seeking re-election,after defeating the-then Speaker of the People's Majlis Mohamed Nasheed in the Maldivian Democratic Party primaries. People's National Congress candidate and Malémayor Mohamed Muizzu won the election with 54% of the votes,defeating Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and becoming President-elect of the Maldives. It was the fourth consecutive election in which a Maldivian president failed to win reelection,the last to do so having been Maumoon Abdul Gayoom,who ran unopposed,in 2003.
