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Early History
Previously known (and often still referred to) as Burma, the
area of Myanmar was populated by three waves of migration:
First the Hmon people from what is now Cambodia, then by
Mongol people from the eastern Himalayas, and finally by
Thais from northern Thailand.
Unifying these disparate groups was a formidable task. This
was first achieved by the Buddhist King Anawratha, who
established the heart of a powerful Kingdom during the ninth
century, known as the Bagan Era. The kingdom lasted 200
years until in 1287, hordes of Mongolian horsemen under
Kublai Khan (Genghis Khan's grandson) bring the Bagan realm
to a graceless and bloody end.
Following the demise of the Mongol empire at the end of the
14th century, Burma was carved up between warring tribes,
with Siam (Thailand) the dominant force in the region, until
the Tanugoo dynasty defeated Siam and reunified the country
in the mid-16th century.
By the mid-18th century, a new dynasty (Konbaug Dynasty) was
established under King Alaungpaya with its capital in
Yangon. But the country once again disintegrated as the Hmon
tribes broke away to create their own kingdoms.
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Colonial Times
In 1824, the British, driven by imperial ambitions and
goaded by repeated border clashes went to war with Myanmar
and by 1886 the entirely country had fallen under British
colonial reign, as part of British India. In the following
decades infrastructure development caused an unprecedented
economical boom in Myanmar. From 1855 to 1930 the area of
the Ayeyarwaddy delta used for cultivation of rice increased
ten times to roughly 4 Million hectare. In 1937 Myanmar was
granted separate dominion status and was allowed a
constitution and a parliament of it's own.
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World War II
During World War II, the Japanese expelled the British from
Myanmar and attempted to win Myanmar political support by
offering nominal independence under Japanese control.
The opposition to the Japanese, who were defeated in 1944,
was the beginning of the post-war independence movement led
by Aung San. In 1947 Aung San's AntiFascist People's Freedom
League won a large majority in parliament elections, but
soon after Aung San and five of his closest advisors were
assassinated by pre-war Prime Minister U Saw.
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Independence
In 1948, Myanmar formally
gained its independence. U Nu became the first Prime
Minister of the new state. But the state quickly began to
disintegrate as hill tribes, communists, Muslims and Mons
all revolted.
A civil war between Karen and the Burmese army kept
smoldering until in 1951, the government under U Nu succeeds
in gaining some appearance of control over the country by
military means.
By 1958 internal conflicts within the government caused PM U
Nu to order the Minister of Defense and Chief of the General
Staff for the army, General Ne Win, to create a temporary
military government.
In 1962, Ne Win and a group of
Generals seize political power in a coup d'état. Numerous
politicians and delegates of the ethnic minorities were
arrested. All parliamentary institutions were dissolved and
replaced by a 'revolutionary council' consisting of 17
members.
The military government then published a communiqué entitled
The Burmese Way To Socialism in which Myanmar is prescribed
a cocktail of Marxism and Buddhism as state philosophy.
In 1972 Ne Win and 20 of his followers from the Burmese army
resign from their military posts and formed a civilian
government.
On January 3, 1974, the country
was re-christened 'Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma'
and a new constitution was validated. The Burma Socialist
Program Party, formerly founded by Ne Win, was admitted as
the sole political party. Party Chief Ne Win took the newly
created post of Head of the state council and became
President.
In 1981 Ne Win resigned as the
President of State, but remained at the head of the Burma
Socialist Program Party ... and he remains the man pulling
the strings from the background.
In 1988 the name 'Myanmar' was
officially recognized as the countries new name in
replacement of Burma.
In July 1997, Myanmar was
admitted to full membership of the Association of South-East
Asian Nations (ASEAN). |
