Bijan and Laharn has its origins in the separate Bijani and Laharna kingdoms present in the area which, from the 18th century, became subject to the British Empire. Prior to this, the area had been contacted by the Dutch and Portuguese. The kingdoms existed in a loose confederation under British protection until 1912, when they were organized into a single colony called Bijan. The colony was granted independence in 1948 as the Republic of Bijan, which cemented the status of the Bijani as the ruling elite and further plunging the Laharna into second-class citizen status. The Laharna eventually organized into resistance groups to protest unequal treatment and no representation, and civil unrest intensified in the 1970s. A Soviet-supported Laharna uprising in 1983 was quickly quelled by Bijan