1970s in Bangladesh

Decades in
Bangladesh
1970s
Indo-Pakistani War of 19711970 Bhola cyclonePakistani Instrument of SurrenderBangladesh Liberation WarZiaur RahmanSheikh Mujibur Rahman
A montage of notable people of and events of Bangladesh in the 1970s including (clockwise from top left): Image of the Bhola cyclone taken on 11 November 1970; Pakistan's PNS Ghazi sank in 1971 during Indo-Pakistani War of 1971; Lt Gen Niazi signing the Instrument of Surrender under the gaze of Lt Gen Aurora at Dhaka on 16 December 1971; President Ziaur Rahman; Bangladesh PM Sheikh Mujib and US President Gerald Ford meeting in the Oval Office in 1974; and a poster portraying a Freedom Fighter in Bangladesh Liberation War.

The 1970s (pronounced "nineteen-seventies", commonly abbreviated as the "Seventies") was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on 1 January 1970, and ended on 31 December 1979. It was a very significant decade in the history of Bangladesh, because this is the decade in which Bangladesh emerged as a sovereign state. The decade began with a devastating cyclone that ravaged the southern part of the country. The next year the country went into Liberation war and achieved independence from Pakistan. The government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman administered the newly formed country between 1972–1975, but their rule soon came to an end through a series of coups and counter coups in the later part of the decade. Economically the country struggled because of the war (1971) and famine (1974) throughout the decade and was highly dependent on foreign aids. Culturally, in this decade Bangladesh started to establish its own identity as an independent nation.