[Picture: Pakistan’s Flag] The history of Pakistan began with independence on 14 August 1947 but the region has been inhabited continuously for at least two million years.The ancient history of the region includes some of South Asia's oldest settlementsand some of its major civilizations.The modern history of the country began with the Indian Rebellion of 1857, which resulted in 90 years of direct British rule, and laid the foundations for the freedom struggle of the Indian National Congress and the All India Muslim League. The latter was founded in 1906 to protect Muslim interests and rose to popularity in the late 1930s amid fears of neglect and under-representation of Muslims in politics. On 29 December 1930, the poet Muhammad Iqbal called for an autonomous "state in northwestern Ind...more >>ia for Indian Muslims". Muhammad Ali Jinnah espoused the Two Nation Theory and led the Muslim League to adopt the Lahore Resolutionof 1940, demanding the formation of an independent Pakistan. Pakistan became independent as a Muslim-majority state with two wings to the east and northwest of India respectively. Partition resulted in communal riots across India and Pakistan — as millions of Muslims moved to Pakistan and millions of Hindus and Sikhs moved to India. Disputes arose over several princely states including Jammu and Kashmir whose ruler had acceded to India following an invasion by tribesmen from Pakistan. This lead to the First Kashmir War (1948) which ended with India occupying roughly two-thirds of the state and Pakistan occupying the remainder. A republic was declared in 1956 but was stalled by a coup d'etat by Ayub Khan (1958–69), who ruled during a period of internal instability and a second war with India in 1965. Economic and political dissent in East Pakistan led to violent political repression and tensions escalating into civil warfollowed by the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and ultimately the secession of East Pakistan as the independent state of Bangla